Autobiographical Malle

Rating: 7/10 (9 April 2015)

A French boarding school run by priests seems to be a haven from World War II until a new student arrives. He becomes the roommate of top student in his class. Rivals at first, the roommates form a bond and share a secret.
The film is based on events in the childhood of the director, Louis Malle, who at age 11 was attending a Roman Catholic boarding school near Fontainebleau. One day, he witnessed a Gestapo raid in which three Jewish students and a Jewish teacher were rounded up and deported to Auschwitz. The school's headmaster, Père Jacques, was arrested for harboring them and sent to the concentration camp at Mauthausen. He died shortly after the camp was liberated by the U.S. Army, having refused to leave until the last French prisoner was repatriated.
Generally speaking, I much prefer the earlier work of Malle. "Zazie" and "Elevator to the Gallows" are both great. People tend to like his later work, including this film and "My Dinner With Andre". I will give this film credit for one thing: it is uncompromising, and nice to see Malle opted for the French. By this point, he was married to Candice Bergen and living in Beverly Hills, and could have easily made this a Hollywood picture. He chose not to.