Synopsis
Au revoir les enfants tells a heartbreaking story of friendship and devastating loss concerning two boys living in Nazi-occupied France. At a provincial Catholic boarding school, the precocious youths enjoy true camaraderie—until a secret is revealed. Based on events from writer-director Malle’s own childhood, the film is a subtle, precisely observed tale of courage, cowardice, and tragic awakening.
Your Movie Library
Cast
- Gaspard ManesseJulien Quentin
- Raphael FejtöJean Bonnet
- Francine RacetteMrs. Quentin
- Stanislas Carré de MalbergFrançois Quentin
- Philippe Morier-GenoudFather Jean
- François BerléandFather Michel
- François NégretJoseph
- Peter FitzMuller
- Pascal RivetBoulanger
- Richard LeboeufSagard
Recommendations
- 100
Chicago Sun-Times
The film was written and directed by Louis Malle, who based it on a childhood memory. Judging by the tears I saw streaming down his face on the night the film was shown at the Telluride Film Festival, the memory has caused him pain for many years. - 100
The Guardian
It remains breathtakingly good. There is a miraculous, unforced ease and naturalness in the acting and direction; it is classic movie storytelling in the service of important themes. - 100
CineVue
William Faulkner once made the sage point that “the past is never dead. It’s not even past.” Louis Malle’s Golden Lion winner Au Revoir Les Enfants (1987) is a Second World War-set film very much guided in spirit by the US novelist’s musing on the febrile relationship between memory, time and individual and collective histories. - 100
TV Guide Magazine
A delicately rendered and exceptionally moving reminiscence of a boyhood friendship cut short by war. - 100
The New York Times
It's a work that has the kind of simplicity, ease and density of detail that only a film maker in total command of his craft can bring off, and then only rarely. - 90
Washington Post
Louis Malle's Au Revoir Les Enfants is more than his wartime memoir; it is an epitaph to innocence. - 80
Time Out
Crisply photographed and directed with understated grace, the film can feel a little standoffish given the emotive subject matter. But with strong performances from the young leads and a vice-like air of mounting tension, it’s well worth revisiting. - 75
Slant Magazine
Part dream, part nightmare, the film vividly remembers a traumatic moment in time that cannot be forgotten.
