I guess you have to earn the right to be totally idiosyncratic. If Malle were a first time film maker, there is no way that this film would have been tolerated. So many idiotic annoying things in this film. The intrusive sound track. A beetle scuttles thru the grass and it sounds like a rhino charging thru a corn field. At one point in the film an ENDLESS series of wind-up alarm clocks ring; an ear-splitting annoyance that goes on for almost a full minute as Lily frantically tries to shut it off. As soon as she does another one goes off, then ANOTHER. After 3 or 4 alarms go off, she finally just starts throwing them out the window,thus making a clever point: time flies? At the end of this scene, and about TEN alarm clocks, I wanted to chain Malle to a grandfather's clock and throw HIM out the window! Then the huge,irritating rat which speaks gibberish in a loud, grating high-pitched drone. Also it appears that no one, from the unicorn that looks like it's ready for the glue factory, to the old lady , can eat ANYTHING without a deafening smacking of the lips before and during ingestion. Insects and farm animals appear at random amid throngs of naked children. A painting of a warrior beheading an eagle foreshadows the exact incident being re-enacted by the brother, which sets off a pointless indecisive battle between he and his sister. Lily's underpants fall down to her ankles ....TWICE, which the old lady finds hysterical and she grabs her instamatic for a "Kodak moment"! Lily eats a big piece of swiss cheese after removing dozens of live ants. I kept thinking of that terrific scene in "After the Fox" when Peter Sellers is on trial for smuggling while using the pretext of making a film to disguise the crime. The poorly focused, badly cut film of random activities is shown as evidence in the case. Afterwords a film critic in the crowd leaps up and begins to rave. "Encore! Brilliant!! I Laughed, I cried, it became a part of me!" I don't care what credentials a film maker has, allegory is NOT a random series of vignettes that please the director. I like Cheese so I'll have scenes with cheese. I hate the sound of an alarm clock so I'll show you just how annoying they are. Mr Malle... GO POUND SAND!!!!!!!