A great film by an underrated director....

Rating: 9/10 (8 November 2007)

ARLE is another masterpiece by French director Louis Malle (his other great movies are Lacombe Lucien and Elevator to the Gallows); it's about the troubled friendship of two boys -Jean and Julien- who live in a boarding school during the Nazi occupation of France (c. 1940-44). Julien (as most of the boys in the school) is a Catholic, and Jean is Jewish, as Julien and the rest of the kids later find out. Julien is Jean's only friend at school, and their friendship is based in an (almost) silent complicity and mutual interests (they read the same books, enjoy playing the piano, etc). In the middle of the film, they get lost in a forest during a trip; this scene is wonderful because almost no words are used, their emotions are shown through their eyes and facial expressions. In the last scene, Louis Malle reminds us that sometimes, when we are very young, we make mistakes that we later regret the rest of our lives. But Julien wasn't a traitor, he simply made a foolish error or acted unconsciously, without willing to harm Jean or risk his life. And Jean was right: "Sooner or later, they would have caught me", he told Julien, who would be haunted by the memories of that day until his death.