This autobiographical recounting of Malle's most tragic memory begins in 1944 at an all-boy Catholic school. A young boy befriends a new student whom the others feel is different. When he discovers the new student is a Jew, he tells no one and remains a true friend. Tragedy strikes when a school employee tells the Gestapo they are hiding Jews and the student is arrested and taken away.
Louis Malle based this semi-autobiographical film on a painful childhood memory.
In occupied France, Jews had to hide to stay alive. But young Julien Quentin isn't aware of this, and when several new students arrive at his Catholic school, Julien knows only that he likes Jean Bonnet, one of the new boys. They two become fast friends; then, one day, Julien figures out the truth about Jean: he's Jewish, and in hiding from the Nazis. And in a moment of irrecoverable thoughtlessness, Julien makes a tragic mistake...
The film won the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival, as well as 7 French Césars, including Best Picture.
Academy Award Nominations: Best (Original) Screenplay.
DVD Features:
Keep Case
Full Frame - 1.33
Widescreen - 1.66
Audio:
Dolby Digital Mono - French
Subtitles - English
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Review 1:
"[A] touching and sad story based on events from director Louis Malle's own childhood."
Source: Widescreen Review
p.72 05/01/2006
Review 2:
"...[AU REVOIR LES ENFANTS is] 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....So moving..."
Source: New York Times
p.C15 02/12/1988
Review 3:
"...Very moving....The film is a testament to the power of the medium and to the art of the writer-director in dealing with an overwhelming personal experience..."
Source: Los Angeles Times
p.C1 02/18/1988
Review 4:
"[The film works] miracles with an unknown cast of young players in a fact-based World War II-era story..."
Source: Sight and Sound
p.87 05/01/2006
Review 5:
"A brilliant Louis Malle comeback from fairly late in the director's spotty but brilliant career..."
Source: USA Today
p.4E 04/14/2006
Review 6:
Included in the New York Times "10 BEST FILMS OF 1988"
Source: New York Times
p.II, 9 12/25/1988
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