one of the most honest and personal work from a director i have seen,,,,,,

Rating: 9/10 (12 August 2010)

Goodbye children is a very different WW2 movie which is based upon the account of childhood memory of director Louise Malle.This movie is different from any other WW2 era movie as it is not as much dark, emotional,dramatic and eventful as other WW2 movies but still very powerful and moving.
The story is set in Nazi occupied France.The main character is a boy Julien Quentin who with his elder brother is sent to a catholic boarding school on the country side.There he became friend with a new student Jean Bonnet who is a Jew and hiding from Nazis under false identity.Julien find out the secret about Jean and the whole movie is based upon their life in the boarding school and how friendship developed between them.The ending of the movie is not very dramatic or emotional but leaves a great impact on us because of the personal touch of director.
As the movie is based upon the childhood memory of Louise Malle,the feeling of how much the movie and the character of Julien is personal to the director is clearly visible in the movie (which is the greatest achievement of the movie) and this feeling involved the audience deeply in the movie.Because of this deep involvement the outcome of the ending of the movie filled the audience with a sense of guilt which the director(or Julien)feel about it's little mistake which is done unintentionally and cannot be corrected but it's burden can be reduce by sharing it with others and the Louise Malle succeeded in this this task completely.
This movie is almost technically flawless and have everything for which i love European art cinema.The excellent cinematography of the movie turn the ordinary scenes with simple dialogues into a memorable scene. The camera work of the movie is outstanding for example,the tracking shot of Julien running in forest,it is short in length but it is one of the best tracking shot i have ever seen in my life.The movie based on brilliant plot with dramatic depth get perfect treatment from it's editing and camera work.
I think this movie is the most suitable WW2 movie to show to children because this movie gives a view of holocaust era from the eye of a small boy without being much dark and violent.
I just watched this movie twice in last 24 hours and i am giving this movie 9.5 of 10,and this movie goes at 59th position in my favorite 100 movies.