Au revoir les enfants

Au revoir, les enfants
Directed by	Louis Malle
Written by	Louis Malle
Produced by	Louis Malle
Starring	Gaspard Manesse, Raphael Fejtö
Cinematography	Renato Berta
Music by	Schubert and Saint-Saëns
Distributed by	Orion Classics (USA)
Release dates	29 August, 1987 (premiere at VFF) October 7, 1987 December, 1987
Running time	104 min
Country	France/West Germany
Language	French

Au revoir les enfants (English: "bye kids!") is a 1987 film written, produced and directed by Louis Malle. The screenplay was published by Gallimard in the same year.

Synopsis

The film is based on an event in the childhood of the author and director, Louis Malle, who at age 12, was attending a Carmelite boarding school near Fontainebleau. The story features a young boy named Julien Quentin, who attends a Catholic boarding school in Vichy France during World War II. In the winter of 1944 in occupied France, Julien, the son of a very upper middle-class family in the north of France, is boarding at the Sainte-Croix College (a junior high school/high school of sorts). Julien returns from Christmas break sad to be returning to the doldrums of school. Resuming class seems uneventful until Father Jean, the head master of this Catholic school presents three new pupils. One of them, Jean Bonnet, is in the same grade and dormitory neighbor of Julien. Julien is intrigued by Bonnet who is a mysterious boy rejected by the whole of the class. After a while, they bond and a friendship is created between them. One night Julien wakes up and discovers that Bonnet is wearing a kippa and is speaking in a language he cannot understand (Hebrew). Julien ends up understanding the secrecy of his new friend who in fact is Jewish and whose name is not Bonnet, but Kippelstein. Father Jean had agreed, as some religious groups had during the war, to give shelter and a new identity to persecuted Jews. With the allies making progress, perhaps Bonnet will in fact survive this war. But on a cold morning in January 1944, the Gestapo arrives at the small school armed with information from the school's kitchen hand, Joseph, that the school has given shelter to Jews. When the Gestapo officer visits his classroom, Julien unintentionally gives away Jean Bonnet. Father Jean and the three Jewish children, including Jean Bonnet, are taken away. The children are all later executed at Auschwitz concentration camp.

Cast

• Gaspard Manesse – Julien Quentin
• Raphaël Fejtö – Jean "Bonnet" Kippelstein
• Francine Racette – Mme Quentin (Julien's mother)
• Stanislas Carré de Malberg – François Quentin (Julien's older brother)
• Philippe Morier-Genoud – Father Jean/Père Jean
• François Berléand – Father Michel/Père Michel
• François Négret – Joseph (kitchen helper)
• Peter Fitz – Muller
• Pascal Rivet : Boulanger
• Benoît Henriet : Ciron
• Richard Leboeuf : Sagard
• Xavier Legrand : Babinot
• Arnaud Henriet : Negus
• Jean-Sébastien Chauvin : Laviron
• Luc Etienne : Moreau
• Daniel Edinger : Tinchaut
• Marcel Bellot : Guibourg
• Ami Flammer : Florent
• Irène Jacob : Mlle Davenne (her debut in acting)
• Jean-Paul Dubarry : Père Hippolyte
• Jacqueline Staup : l'infirmière
• Jacqueline Paris : Mme Perrin

Awards and nominations

The film was nominated for two Academy Awards: Best Foreign Language Film and Best Original Screenplay at the 60th Academy Awards. It won the Golden Lion award at the 1987 Venice Film Festival. At the 1988 César Awards, it won in seven categories, including Best Director, Best Film and Best Writing. It was also nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 1988 Golden Globe Awards.

External links

• Au revoir, les enfants at IMDb
• Criterion Collection essay by Philip Kemp