Au Revoir Les Enfants

The Chorus (Les Choristes) By getting nominated for Academy Awards in both the Foreign Language Film and Best Song categories, Les Choristes (The Chorus) made a rare (for a European film) double impression at the 2004 Oscars. This sentimental tale follows the arrival of a new teacher at a remote boys schoo...	Jean De Florette / Manon of the Spring (MGM World Films) Disc 1 Side A: **Widescreen Feature Film - Jean de Florette Disc 2: **Widescreen Feature Film - Manon of the Spring	My Father's Glory Among the bounteous literary and cinematic legacy of Marcel Pagnol, poet laureate of Provence, is a two-volume memoir, My Father's Glory and My Mother's Castle. The enormous success of Jean de Florette and Manon of the Spring (Claude Berri's 1986 remakes of two Pagnol films from ...	My Mother's Castle The second part of Yves Robert's filming of Marcel Pagnol's childhood memoirs completes the narrative so casually begun in My Father's Glory--and fulfills a radiant journey we hadn't even realized we'd embarked on. Marcel is approaching his teens and acquiring a more coherent sen...	Cyrano de Bergerac Director Jean-Paul Rappeneau and cowriter Jean-Claude Carriere had the brilliant idea of casting France's most lovably vulnerable hunk, the massive Gerard Depardieu, in one of French literature's meatiest roles: the sword-wielding poet Cyrano. Equipped with a massive nose and a h...
La Vie en Rose (Extended Version) Studio: Hbo Home Video Release Date: 11/13/2007 Run time: 141 minutes Rating: Pg13	Small Change (L'argent de poche) Critic Pauline Kael neatly summed up the timeless appeal of François Truffaut's 1976 film by calling it "that rarity--a poetic comedy that's really funny." In other words, Truffaut's brilliant, upbeat study of resilient children in a French village is both artistically satisfyin...	Babette's Feast Some movies can only be described as delicious. In Babette's Feast, a woman flees the French civil war and lands in a small seacoast village in Denmark, where she comes to work for two spinsters, devout daughters of a puritan minister. After many years, Babette unexpectedly w...	The 400 Blows - Criterion Collection Francois Truffaut's first feature was this 1959 portrait of Antoine Doinel (Jean-Pierre Léaud), a boy who turns to petty crime in the face of neglect at home and hard times at a reform school. Somewhat autobiographical for its director, the film helped usher in the heady spirit ...	The Red Balloon (Released by Janus Films, in association with the Criterion Collection) Stills from The Red Balloon (Click for larger image)

Hello again, Au Revoir
This tragic coming-of-age tale (filmed in French) is an all-time classic that took forever to make it to DVD because of a longstanding family squabble. Unlike the seemingly ancient VHS version (only 20 years old, but film decomp makes it look like WWII newsreel footage), the digital transfer solves sound and visual problems -- especially the subtitles, which were annoying oversized in the original. As for the plot -- it's long, like the movie, but in a nutshell: Jewish boy goes to German school pretending to be non-Jew during WWII in order to save his life. He forms a friendship with a non-Jewish boy at the school, and...that's all I'll say, as giving anymore away will rob you of a great movie viewing experience. If you can find it solo, buy it. If not, there's a boxed four pack of Louis Malle films that includes this one. Pricey, but the other three items(Murmur of the Heart, Lucien Lacombe, and an filmmaker's interview disk) are bonus fare. This one's worth the $80 price by itself.

Wonderful film
This is a sensitively told story about friendship and war. The story is told through the eyes of 12 year old Julien, and takes place in France during 1944. The cinematography creates a cold, harsh world that reflects the attitudes of many of the adults in the film. Although the film deals with war, it also shows us the simple pleasures in the everyday lives of the boys.

Au Revoir Les Enfants
Goodbye, Children (Au revoir, les enfants) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.4 Import - Australia ] A great movie. Moving film about friendship. I can see why it won a gold award in Europe. The acting is excellent, and the movie is well worth buying. If you speak French, it's even more enjoyable. Super movie, and I highly recommended it.

Lost Innocence
I had heard the "Au Revoir les Enfants" was an exceptional film and I had a pretty good idea what it was about. I watched it the other night and must admit that it IS an exceptional movie. At first I figured that it might be just another over-rated French movie as I watched a well-done production of the standard boy's school hyjinks. However, the characters were more substanitive that usual (even for a group of pre-teens nearing puberty) and the setting of France during WWII added a lot to the dramatic effect. You could guess what was coming but I kept getting more and more impressed by the depth of the story, supporting cast, and the way Malle let us see Occupied France. We see the collaborators, the anti-semites (somewhat redundant), the ones who buried their heads in the sand, and those brave enough to risk their lives for others. The ending is not action-filled nor overly dramatic. The ending evolves from a series of events that seem to happen too fast and then it is over. A narrator from the future puts it all into perspective as we realize we have glimpsed a scene of horror that happened too easily. Malle has given us an excellent movie and he has given his fellow French an uncomfortable (for many) look at their recent past.

a beautiful and moving drama.......
I couldn't review SCHINDLER'S LIST, LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL and THE GREAT DICTATOR (films related to some of the darkest saddest times in humanity, during Nazi rule) and pass up AU REVOIR, LES ENFANTS (GOODBYE, CHILDREN). This is, in my opinion, one of the finest films made by the late, great Louis Malle. It is a semi-autobiographical account of a young boy living a sheltered life in a Catholic school and the chance encounter he has with his classmate, who is first a rival and then becomes a beloved friend. This friend is concealing a secret during a time when the Nazis were cracking down on and removing Jews from schools, among other places. I don't need to say too much for you to know the gist of the plot, the pressures that the young protagonists face and the brutal reality of life that hits them smack between the eyes. This film sensitively and honestly depicts their plight, during a very dark point in history. AU REVOIR, LES ENFANTS is truly poetry for the eyes, and you will never be the same after viewing it.