Au Revoir Les Infants

This film is a struggle, one between the two boys who star in it, one struggle is between the writer and the truth, and another being between the French who are resisting and the rather ambiguous Nazis that are stationed in the town.

The story is one Ive seen before, a young man (Jean) joins a school, Catholic Boarding to be exact during WWII (he is Jewish). He doesn't know who to trust, and he has no real reason to trust any of the other children, the priests and monks know, they are hiding him in plain sight. One of the other students, (Julien) is slowly starting to realize whats going on. He is smart, but in some ways woefully ignorant, as in he doesn't even know what a Jew is. The thing about this story that made it different for me from the usual telling of this sort of story is that it's based on the writers actual life story. Other than that I cant say much more about the story for fear of giving something away.

Guilt is what drives this story, guilt and the unfairness of life. Which when talking about the Holocaust unfair is an understatement. The writer is obviously trying to work his way through some of his problems, and to me its something that cant really be dealt with, no matter what you do. When it comes to trying to wrap your mind around something as large as the Holocaust this movie doesn't even try. Which since its from the POV of a child, who only experiences the war through his life at the school, and disliking the Germans because they are told to, it makes sense. They laugh and play around when there are air raid sirens, they don't fully get the gravity of the situation.

Its a strong movie, but its not normal fare for a movie about war, its more about the children caught in the middle who don't get whats happening around them, war sounds fun until its real. They play war games in the yard, they challenge one another, and fight almost constantly, then laugh about it afterwards. When they are actually left alone to the world they turn into what they really are, just children, as we see in one scene involving our two main characters lost in the woods. The Germans of the story are nice for the most part, but I saw them as being more just along for the ride and just doing their time until its over. Towards the end we see the naked aggression of the Nazi mentality. 7/10 stars.

Director: Louis Malle

Starring: Gaspard Manesse, Raphael Fejito