Film: Au Revoir Les Enfants
Release date: 26th March 2007
Certificate: 12
Running time: 104 mins
Director: Louis Malle
Starring: Gaspard Manesse, Raphael Fejtö, Francine Racette, Stanislas Carré de Malberg, Philippe Morier-Genoud
Genre: Drama/War
Studio: Optimum
Format: DVD
Country: France/West Germany/Italy
Louis Malle contributed hugely to the popularisation of French films in the English-speaking market, and to the rise of American independent film. To this day, fifteen years after his death, he remains a celebrated name in French film. Au Revoir Les Enfants is a semi-autobiographical account from Malle’s childhood, living in an upscale boarding school where Jews were hidden from the German forces.
It is the penultimate winter of World War II. Julien Quentin acts tough, but he’s actually a mother’s boy who regularly wets the bed. He is sent off to boarding school, where he’s being educated by Catholic monks. Unbeknown to him, they are also harbouring a number of Jewish refugees who are using the school to hide from the German occupying forces.
When Julien finds out that the boy sleeping in the next bed over is in fact Jewish, his life becomes more complicated as he struggles to make sense of it all. Despite the alienation and the secret they now share, they forge a friendship that will change him forever…
Malle references the bleakness of the situation, of poverty and despair, in a wartime winter in three ways. It is reflected in the stark, greyish palette of the surroundings: the forbidding stone monastery; the cold light of day; the pallor of the children; the uniformity of their clothing; and the regimental aspect of their sleeping quarters. The minimalist dialogue combines with the realistic acting and excellent direction to form a quiet whole wherein neither actors nor characters overshadow the tale being told. Finally, the lack of music. Except for two scenes, in which characters produce the music themselves, there is no musical score associated with the film. This unusual twist brings the hopelessness of the situation to the fore in an almost subliminally subtle manner. All these elements contrast starkly with the exuberantly relaxed attitudes of the German soldiers, their clear and genuine calm as the face of the destructive force ripping Europe apart.
If you’ve ever read Anne Frank’s diary or listened to the accounts of WWII survivors in Continental Europe, you’ll recognise the hopelessness immediately. Louis Malle, through the eyes of his younger self, has portrayed it with an eerie accuracy not often found in any medium. The awkwardness of the child he was and his subsequent mistakes are crystal-clear to any viewer, and serve to remind us all that the elderly people we pay homage to today were once children just like us, and played their foolish games in rather a more dire environment than we or our children did and do.
Very young actors are all too often tempted to ham it up, and add too much drama to their performances, but the ones in this film manage to avoid that altogether. Whether through sheer talent, an innate understanding of the subject matter, or brilliant direction – or, most likely, a combination of the three – they balance tidily between emulating natural children’s behaviour and nurturing the austerity of the piece, never once falling out of step or pulling the viewer out of the experience and back into today’s world.
One of the most impressive things about this film is that the Germans are not intensely vilified. They make a few appearances during the film, and while they have occasion to be stern and to be hated for what they do, they are clearly human beings living human lives in inhuman times. While their jolly attitudes clash with the sparseness of life as a native French person, they are given a chance to show their kindness and redeem themselves as people, even as their nation towers threateningly over the world and holds its peoples to ransom. This is a welcome departure from most films about World War II, as it adds nuance and maturity to the tired old ‘bad guys versus good guys’ many films resort to.
Malle spent a lot of time and energy recreating not only the story, but also the environment and the general feeling of his childhood. The maturity and depth of this endeavour are astounding. It is, in fact, the casual way in which the characters live alongside tragedy that creates the impact this picture has on its audience. It depicts, with minimal fuss, the way in which humans truly can become accustomed to absolutely anything – and the way even wartime can become commonplace if it carries on long enough.
In short, a thoroughly developed work from one of the celebrated masters, Au Revoir Les Enfants cannot fail to impress. A balanced, mature view of true events with impeccable acting, it is a film that will stay with you long after the credits have rolled up and out of view. EH
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