Zazie in the Underground

The lighthearted comedy Zazie Dans Le Metro, an early directorial effort from Louis Malle, stars Catherine Demongeot as a 12-year-old girl named Zazie. Zazie is forced to travel to Paris when her mother wants to rendezvous with her lover. Zazie is left in the care of Uncle Gabriel (Philippe Noiret), an eccentric transvestite. Both with him, and on her own, Zazie meets a variety of unusual city dwellers, and gets into a series of misadventures that reach their greatest level of wackiness during a café food fight. The film is based on a novel by the distinguished French author Raymond Queneau. (official distributor synopsis)