The significance of the Schmutz (Smith) boy

The little boy in the white shorts gets a lot of screen time. He's not shown as mischievous or hapless or noticeably comical, but he must be significant with so much screen time.

He is Mr. Schmutz's son (Smith in eng. sub-titles), the chubby guy in a white shorts outfit who's always getting phone calls and tending to his briefcase, and was kicked in the derrière by Hulot.
I believe his mother calls him (the boy) "Wally" at 16:32-34.

The boy gets a lot of screen time at Mr. Hulot's arrival, and he somehow knows Mr. Hulot's name, and announces him to his father and to us:
"Look Dad, Mr. Hulot!" at 19:06.

There's a "hero shot" of him at 19:17, and another at 24:48.
(The best definition I could find is: Hero Shot: A shot of a product or brand from its best position to make it look as good as possible.
emailresourcecenter.net/blog/2010/06/06/email-glossary-of-term&hel lip;)

He seems to be entertained by Hulot and to be learning from him, like an unofficial protégé.

He was always well dressed; at the masked ball he was a prince, I think.

I am reminded of the mysterious unnamed boy in Rushmore, who just kept showing up, even spontaneously joining Blume underwater. Also, the boy in Mr. Bean's Holiday, who fatefully and fortuitously appears at the start of Bean's journey. The reason is that they both seemed to me like they could represent the man's "inner child", or are linked to him in some abstract sense.

I just can't put my finger on the significance, but the movie does seem to be putting him on a pedestal.

The Mt. Hulot's Holiday boy would be about 70 years old today.
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