In movies there are some things the French do that Americans are increasingly incapable of doing. One is honoring the complexities of youth. It's a quiet difficult undertaking requiring subtlety in a filmmaker and perception and patience from us.
Growing up my father was a financial analyst for an oil company. He was just a regular dad. And when I would say 'Hey come see my play ' he'd say 'Sure.' He'd see one 'Oh good play' - you know very typical dad reaction.