Au Revoir Les Enfants [Criterion Collection]

Director: Louis Malle, Renato Berta Louis Malle

Overview

Gaspard Manesse plays Julien, an 11-year-old Catholic boarding-school resident during the Nazi occupation of France. He is witness to the courage of his instructors, who defy the German's anti-Semitic policies and quietly enroll Jewish children into the school under assumed names. Manesse befriends Jean (Raphael Fejto), one of these "instant Catholics." The refugee children are betrayed by a hostile ex-employee of the school, forcing Julien once more to be a bystander to history as Jean and the teachers are arrested. For this return to the French film industry after several years in the US, Louis Malle purged himself of his own bitter memories of life under the thumbs of the Nazis.

Product Details

Release Date:	03/28/2006
UPC:	0037429207123
Original Release:	1987
Rating:	PG
Source:	Criterion Collection
Region Code:	1
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono]
Language:	English
Time:	1:41:00
Sales rank:	16,715

Special Features

New restored high-definition digital transfer, surprised by director of photography Renato Berta; Original theatrical trailer and teaser; New and improved English subtitle translation; Plus: essays by film critic Philip Kemp and historian Francis J. Murphey

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Gaspard Manesse	Julien Quentin
Francine Racette	Mme Quentin
Raphael Fejto	Jean Bonnet / Jean Kippelstein
Stanislas Carre de Malberg	Francois Quentin
Philippe Morier-Genoud	Father Jean
François Berléand	Father Michel
Francois Negret	Joseph
Peter Fitz	Muller
Pascal Rivet	Boulanger
Benoit Henriet	Ciron,Negus
Richard Leboeuf	Sagard
Xavier Legrand	Babinot
Jean-Sebastien Chauvin	Laviron
Luc Etienne	Moreau
Daniel Edinger	Tinchaut
Marcel Bellot	Guibourg
Ami Flammer	Florent
Irene Jacob	Mlle. Davenne
Jean-Paul Dubarry	Father Hippolyte
Jacqueline Staup	Infirmary Nurse
Jacqueline Paris	Mme. Perrin
René Bouloc	The restaurant operator
Alain Clement	Actor
Michael Rottstock	Actor
Detlef Gericke	Actor
Michael Becker	Actor
Thomas Friedl	Actor
Christian Sohn	Actor
Michel Ginot	Actor
Philippe Despaux	Actor

Technical Credits

Louis Malle

Louis Malle	Producer,Director,Screenwriter
Renato Berta	Director
Claude Villand	Sound Mixer,Sound/Sound Designer
Jean-Claude Laureux	Sound/Sound Designer
Bernard Le Roux	Sound Mixer
Jeanne Biras	Casting

Scene Index

Disc #1 -- Au Revoir Les Enfants
1. Last Day of Vacation [4:50]
2. New Faces [8:36]
3. Joseph [5:09]
4. Teacher's Pet [9:00]
5. Confession [3:20]
6. At the Bathhouse [5:33]
7. Close Call [3:29]
8. Kippelstein [8:08]
9. Treasure Hunt [5:58]
10. Parents' Day [7:17]
11. At the Restaurant [4:47]
12. Movie Night [7:39]
13. Punishment [5:21]
14. Boogie-Woogie [3:37]
15. Acts of Betrayal [4:30]
16. Good-bye [10:58]
1. Color Bars [:20]

Menu

Disc #1 -- Au Revoir Les Enfants
   Play The Movie
   Chapters
   Trailers
      Play Teaser
      Play Trailer
   Subtitles
      On
      Off

Editorial Reviews

Au Revoir, Les Enfants accepts the weighty challenge of making a Holocaust movie and acquits itself proudly. This was Louis Malle's first French film in a decade, and one gets the sense that it's a story he long felt compelled to bring to the screen. He based Au Revoir, Les Enfants on his own experiences in a Catholic boarding school in World War II and his remembrances of the frequent cowardice, and occasional defiant bravery, of the occupied French. This is not the world of Eastern Europe's constant horrors or England's interminable blitz, but an equally surreal place, where day-to-day life ostensibly continues as normal when the reality is anything but. The film does not explore the violence of the Holocaust directly; rather, it follows the somewhat uneventful lives of two boys who are, above all, just boys. They are children -- wide-eyed, curious, scared, kind, and spiteful -- like children everywhere, except unwitting parties to history's greatest drama. In this respect, the finale -- and in turn, the lasting impact -- of Malle's subtle, measured story is all the more devastating.

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