I just want to give him a hug and tell him everything will be okay. I’ve worked with kids who remind me of him - but yeah, it’s a kid being locked up in a troubled teen facility. He has that urge to escape, but doesn’t have a place to escape to - just that libidinal urge toward the ocean and then… nothing. They’ll eventually pick him up, he’ll be punished even more and ground up in this machine that has been crushing him the entire film.

I’ve read that some of Truffaut’s other films have him show up, but haven’t seen them yet.