Au Revoir Les Enfants (Goodbye Children)

Rating: 6/10 (3 June 2012)

I have been able to recall many titles featuring in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, and this French film is one of those that I remember and was certainly looking forward to watching, from BAFTA winning director Louis Malle (Atlantic City). Basically, set during World War II, and term is beginning at a Catholic school run by priests, and upper class boy Julien Quentin (Gaspard Manesse) and his brother François (Stanislas Carré De Malberg) are attending after being on vacation, and Julien reestablishes himself as the leader of the fellow students. The school sees a new student arriving, Jean Bonnet (Raphael Fejtö), who instantly becomes a victim to bullying by the other boys, and of course Julien does not like him for a while. As time goes by though Jean does become much more part of the gang and accepted, and he gains a friend in the leader, Julien even finds out Jean is Jewish and hiding out from the Nazis. There are a few other things happening while the boys attend their lessons and hang out together, such as assistant cook Joseph (François Négret) caught selling food on the black market. The big point come though when Nazis are searching the school, aware that there may be Jewish students hiding out, and in the end Jean and three others are caught and taken away, leaving Julien devastated. Also starring Francine Racette as Mme Quentin, Philippe Morier-Genoud as Father Jean, François Berléand as Father Michel and Peter Fitz as Muller. The cast of young actors all do pretty well, I will admit I did not understand everything going on, but it is an interesting enough story and concept from what I did follow, especially as it is semi-autobiographical based on the past of the director, I suppose it is a Second World War drama to see. It was nominated the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen, it was nominated the BAFTAs for Best Film, Best Film not in the English Language and Best Original Screenplay, and it was nominated the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film. Good!