Review of Au Revoir les Enfants (1987) by Lanning : — 06 May 2009

Beautiful cinematography and masterful direction combine with a tight story to allow Malle to create a microcosm of wartorn Europe by means of a Catholic boys school in Nazi occupied France. While the war is directly discussed at times, most of the film depicts the fighting through a child's half knowledge of world events and human motivations.

Indeed, this childlike perspective makes the adult persepectives on different peoples, races, and cultures seem ludicrous as we watch a friendship blossom between a young French boy and new transfer student, who is actually a Jew in hiding from the Nazi occupation.

Harrowing and heartrending, Louis Malle's Au Revoir Les Enfants is an insightful and devasting portrait of a world torn apart by nations and ethnicities seen through the eyes of its most innocent victims.