Irish Film Institute -AU REVOIR LES ENFANTS

AU REVOIR LES ENFANTS

Director: LOUIS MALLE

104 minutes, France-West Germany, 1987, Colour, D-Cinema, Subtitled


This film closes on Thursday, 12th of February.

IFI CLASSIC

Based on the director’s own experiences at a Catholic boarding school in occupied France, Au revoir les enfants depicts a dark and
complex period in history as seen through the eyes of two young boys who form an unlikely but deeply important friendship. Son of a wealthy industrialist and doting mother, Julien is unhappily settling back in at school after the holidays when Père Jean, the
benevolent headmaster, introduces new student Jean Bonnet to the class. 

Solitary and intelligent, Jean arouses suspicion from the others, but Julien is intrigued by him and the pair gradually begin to spend time together, playing piano, reading passages from Arabian Nights and getting into scraps in the yard. When Julien discovers that Jean is Jewish, he doesn’t fully understand the significance of this but knows it must be kept secret, articularly from the troops of German soldiers living close by. (Notes by Alice Butler.)

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