Au revoir les enfants (1988)
General Information
Completed On: 12 Feb, 1988
Duration: 1 hr 44 min 0 sec
Genres: Fiction
Language: French, German
Country: France
Submitted By: Anna Maurice
Festival Rating
Julien, a student of a Catholic boarding school, dislikes his new room-mate Jean. However, they develop a bond and share secrets when Julien realises that Jean is a Jew and is hiding from the Nazis.
There is miraculous, unforced ease and naturalness in the acting and direction; it is classic movie storytelling in the service of important themes, including the farewell that we must bid to our childhood, and to our innocence – a farewell repeated all our lives in the act of memory. The boys’ friendship may not be enough to protect Jean when a momentous secret is discovered. Malle shows how the French are conflicted about their collaborationist attitude.
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DirectorsLouis Malle
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WritersLouis Malle
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Film TypeFiction
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GenresDrama ,War,Art House,International
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Runtime1 hours 44 minutes 0 seconds
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Completion Date12 Feb, 1988
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Production BudgetUSD
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Country of OriginFrance
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Country of FilmingFrance, Germany, Italy
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Film LanguageFrench, German
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Shooting Format
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Aspect Ratio
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Film ColorColor
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Student ProjectNo
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First-time FilmmakerNo
Director's Biography
Louis Malle, the descendant of a French nobleman who made a fortune in beet sugar during the Napoleonic Wars, created films that explored life and its meaning. Malle's family discouraged his early interest in film but, in 1950, allowed him to enter the Institute of Advanced Cinematographic Studies in Paris. His résumé showed that he had worked as an assistant to filmmaker Robert Bresson when Malle was hired by underwater explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau to be a camera operator on the Calypso. Cousteau soon promoted him to be co-director of The Silent World (1956) ("The Silent World"). Years later, Cousteau called Malle the best underwater cameraman he ever had. Malle's third film, The Lovers (1958) ("The Lovers"), starring Jeanne Moreau broke taboos against on-screen eroticism. In 1968 the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the obscenity conviction of an Ohio theater that had exhibited "Les Amants." A director during the Nouvelle Vague, New Wave" of the 1950s and 1960s (though technically not considered a Nouvelle Vague auteur), he also made films on the other side of the Atlantic, starting with Pretty Baby (1978).
In one of his later French films, Au Revoir Les Enfants (1987), Malle was able to find catharsis for an experience that had haunted him since the German occupation of France in World War II. At age 12, he was sent to a Catholic boarding school near Paris that was a refuge for several Jewish students, one of them was Malle's rival for academic honours and his friend. A kitchen worker at the school with a grudge became an informant. The priest who was the principal was arrested and the Jewish students were sent off to concentration camps.