Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Au Revoir Les Enfants-Bye Children (1987)

Au Revoir Les Enfants is one of the best films I have ever seen. When I saw this I thought it was a work of fiction but upon further research I found that it was an autobiographical work by the its director Louis Malle , he based it on his childhood experience while attending a catholic boarding school during the time of Nazi occupied France.

The film tells the story of Julien Quentin who is sent off to a carmelite boarding school, there the school's headmaster introduces three new students. One of them Jean Bonnet is Julien's age , at first Julien despises Bonnet , he even discovers by accident that Bonnet is a Jew and that his real name is Jean Kippelstein . As it turns out the school's headmaster is a compassionate Priest who has chosen to shelter three Jewish boys and disguised them as students because their life was in danger, being that France was occupied by the Nazis at that time. Despite all of this Julien eventually strikes up a close friendship with Bonnet...

This is a movie you must not miss, it has a lot of depth, and the cast delivered a wonderful performance . Everything was simple , there wasn't any great panoramic shots , or a strong immediate outburst of emotion , not even a resounding score, but a lot of scenes were very powerful . The characters were able to convey so much, by just a simple look, a snippet of conversation, or by simply standing there . It was brilliant watching it , there was no carnage , no brutality , the war seemed far away and non-existent. and yet , you could feel the dark over cast in every scene, no matter how innocent or how fun everything is , there is this feeling of dread, that something horrible was going on outside. The film also gives you different perceptions and view points from the innocent understanding of a child, essentially Louis Malle was able to filter down what he experienced into a perfect little work and gave the viewer a taste of it . It is amazing , and excellent work of French Cinema a true work of art...

You can watch the full Movie Here

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