Stream it now Au Revoir Les Enfants Reset Status Want to Watch Already Watched Don't Want to Watch

(VHS) (First Viewing, 1st Malle film)

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A touching, biographical look at WWII in France. A tale about an unlikely friendship in a boys' boarding school, Louis Malle brings a sensitivity to his story through his direction and script.

B+:fresh:

ok. this is an absolutly amazing movie, a must see! i first saw it as part of my grade 10 french exam, but no worries, it has english subtitles, tho the jokes are way funnier in french. it takes place in 1944 in France at a catholic boy's school. but they are hiding a secret from the Nazis. one of the boys figure it out and so holds many lives in his hand. wat will he do? i wont give away the ending but it is amazing, way better than i can portray it. from running away from Nazis, betrayal we see the war through the eyes of a child, and i cry every time.

(****)

***.5/****

Pro: Masterful direction, story told from the heart. Great ending. Finding the treasure. Directing children, especially non-actors. The dinner table.

Con: Slow moments, slow start.

There's something to be said for a film with very little score. I'm not one to denounce a score as usually manipulative and unnecessary, but there are times when the absence of music makes the moment feel more intimate. Au Revoir Les Enfants was just that type of experience. It's written and directed by Louis Malle, and based on his childhood memory. The story takes place during World War II in a Catholic boarding school, where two young boys, Julien Quentin (Gaspard Manesse) and Jean Bonnet (Raphael Fejto), are at first childish enemies but progress through time to become good friends. When Julien finds out that Jean is Jewish and hiding from the Nazis at the school, the bond becomes even tighter.

I hate to take cheap shots at Hollywood, but after viewing the film I couldn't help but think of how bad it could have been in the wrong hands. It's a textbook story for melodrama and manipulation. Luckily for us, Malle created a film completely devoid of those two elements. It isn't created around a handful of dramatic moments. Instead we simply experience the daily lives of these boys, experiencing first-hand the increasing bond of their friendship. There are tense moments to be sure, but they don't feel embelished or exaggerated. They come naturally and play out appropriately.

The film works its way to a devastating conclusion in which one quick action will undoubtedly haunt Julien for the rest of his life(again, melodrama and manipulation are left for lesser films). When all is said and done, I realized that this quiet portrait of two young lives in peril had affected me in a way that few films have accomplished. Perhaps it was the personal nature of the story for Malle, perhaps it was the brilliant performances of Manesse and Fejto, perhaps it was the quiet and realistic approach to the material. Whatever the reason, the film was a heartbreaking experience, and one that I would strongly recommend to everyone.

.....

Powerful film. We watched it in my French class and I was amazed. Simply amazed.

Films like Les Enfants are quite hard to find in this day and age of instant gratification, join-the-dot storylines and no-brainer Hollywood. You would even be pushed to find it under New World Cinema, but track it down if you can because its definitely worth while.

Les Enfant is a truly wonderful & yet harrowing account of life in a Catholic boys boarding school during the dying embers of the Nazi occupation of France in WW2. One of the new boys happens to be Jewish but the headmaster chooses to keep such identities covert while still offering him sanctuary and an education in spite of all the risks he takes. To be fair I know little of Louis Malle previous to this film, but I think he must have poured his life's soul into writing & directing Les Enfant.

No detail, harrowing or otherwise, is spared; we see so much beauty amongst the horrors of occupation & collaboration; but also the blossoming relationship between the two lead boys and how initial envy & hatred of the Jew is somewhat diluted by the realities that this is no infantile school game but that life and death for the Jewish boy hangs by a thread if anyone at the school should reveal his true identity.

The final moments are perhaps one of the most sad & dramatic scenes I have ever seen. These days a lot of people would be waiting for some great heroic entrance from a big movie star to sort out all the misery and leave us with a reassurance that "it really wasn't all that bad back then was it".

But there are no heroes at the end of this movie, at least not the kind of heroes Hollywood serves up. The boys in this film are the true heroes right to the very end, primarily for their spirit of humanity in the face of impossible odds.

This film will move you in so many directions and will hopefully bring you back down to earth from the current Hollywood shallow circus of pap & style-over-content.