Attention, les enfants regardent (1978) watch online HD

Previous reviews of this effective French melodrama oddly say almost nothing about the film's content, perhaps for fear of "spoiling" it for fans or in one case, implying they haven't seen it. Since the film is very difficult to obtain, I will deliver the goods.

The film is credited to a novel by Laird Koenig and a co-writer which googling fails to reveal as ever having been published, but the real source material is one of my favorite films, the largely unsung Jack Clayton opus OUR MOTHER'S HOUSE. This marvelously moody 1967 movie is notable not only for one of Dirk Bogarde's best roles, but also a classic musical score by Georges Delerue.

Director Serge Leroy simplifies the format -basically a tale in the wake of LORD OF THE FLIES of how young children left to their own devices can do the damnedest things, and instead of the heavy religious emphasis of the original we have a straightforward story. These four unsupervised rich brats, led by the precocious Sophie Renoir as the eldest, accidentally kill their Spanish housemaid, and decide to cover it up rather than going to the police. Their absentee parents are off in Ireland on a movie shoot and can't be bothered. A mysterious stranger, played by producer Alain Delon, takes advantage of the situation and lords it over the hapless youngsters until they manage to deliver the coup-de-grace.

Koenig had co-written the script for a once-in-a-lifetime summit meeting of "lone wolf" action stars, Terence Young's disappointing Western RED SUN, which united Delon with Charles Bronson and Toshiro Mifune, all three of them pioneers in a durable genre which has currently been revived in the form of George Clooney as "The American". Delon used him again for this picture, properly translated as CAREFUL, THE CHILDREN ARE WATCHING, and cast himself in a subsidiary role for a change, giving the kids most of the screen time, to good effect. Title is a pun, as it refers not merely to the kids aping adults, but more forcefully the negative effects of them being glued to the TV set, and its non-stop depiction of misleadingly "fun" violence.

Although there are some glaring plot holes requiring massive suspension of disbelief to keep the pot boiling, overall the film is perverse fun as we root for the kids despite their truly terrible antics. The adult world, as particularly personified by Delon's heinous character, is simply the enemy -might as well be orcs or the insects in STARSHIP TROOPERS.

After watching this film and several other of Delon's "forgotten" efforts made after he took charge and starting producing his own pictures I am convinced the time is ripe, within his lifetime, for re-evaluating his entire oeuvre. Delon made many all-time classics in the '50s and '60s, but I refuse to dismiss his very interesting later work, including two superb roles opposite Simone Signoret, and the completely misunderstood (and unfairly ridiculed) self-satire Le Choc.

I just watched this film on tv few hours ago...A typical French thriller, with typical dialogue setting around an interesting story...I watched this just because of Alain Delon's name, but it ended up being a nice thriller after all....Delon was probably at his best looking days...slightly overweighted than his usual thin view, but he had his part very nicely put....I always have a profound respect for French film makers for following their unique code of film making style, which is way out of typical Hollywood cliches....this is one of such films...you won't regret your time...

Serge Leroy made a very interesting movie in 1975 :"La Traque" .It was followed by a more conventional effort :Les Passagers" ."Attention Les Enfants Regardent" is some kind of "Home Alone" for adults ,based on an American best-seller which did not interest anybody on the other side of the pond..Delon made a lot of rubbish in the seventies (with notable exceptions of course: "Traitement De Choc" "Monsieur Klein" and "The Assassination of Trotsky" ) but he made this one a winner .He portrays a shady man ,who knows what the children did (that summer?) .And what they did is simply bring about their nanny's death.

This is not a family movie,it's a cruel work which shows that children are not so naive that people generally think.And the stranglehold TV has on them ,nobody can deny it : the heroes are simply living one of the stories they saw in their favorite program.But the famous four (Le Club des Cinq) it isn't!