AllMovie

Having covered a great deal of autobiographical ground in The Two of Us (1967) director Claude Berri offers us further glimpses into his formative years in The First Time. Once more, Alaine Cohen plays Berri's young alter ego. This time, Cohen is on the verge of sexual awakening--and he's not sure exactly how to react to this. We are also shown what it is like to grow up Jewish in the France of the early 1950s; it's not always easy, of course, but one can survive when armed with humor and heart. The First Time was released in France as La Premiere Fois in 1976, two years before its American premiere.