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Home , Alamo Bay, Alexandra Stewart, Au revoir les enfants, A Very Private Affair, Elevator to the Gallows, Louis Malle

November 5, 2019 (XXXIX:11) : AU REVOIR, LES ENFANTS/GOODBYE, CHILDREN (1987, 104m) The version of this Goldenrod Handout sent out in our Monday mailing, and the one online, has hot links. Spelling and Style—use of italics, quotation marks or nothing at all for titles, e.g.—follows the form of the sources.

DIRECTOR Louis Malle WRITING Louis Malle PRODUCER Louis Malle CINEMATOGRAPHY Renato Berta EDITING Emmanuelle Castro

The film was nominated for Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen (Louis Malle) and Best Foreign Language Film at the 1988 .

CAST Gaspard Manesse...Julien Quentin Raphaël Fejtö...Jean Kippelstein, alias "Jean Bonnet" Academy Awards. Malle worked in both French cinema Francine Racette...Mme Quentin (Julien's mother) and Hollywood, and he produced both French and Stanislas Carré de Malberg...François Quentin (Julien's English language films. His most famous films include older brother) the crime film Ascenseur pour l'échafaud* (1958), the Philippe Morier-Genoud...Father Jean/Père Jean World War II drama Lacombe, Lucien** (1974), the François Berléand...Father Michel/Père Michel Oscar-nominated romantic crime film Atlantic City Irène Jacob...Mlle Davenne (1980), the comedy-drama François Négret...Joseph (kitchen helper) (1981), and the Oscar-nominated autobiographical film Peter Fitz...Muller ** (1987). Besides sometimes acting Pascal Rivet...Boulanger in his own productions, he also acted in A Very Curious Benoît Henriet...Ciron (1969), La Vie de Bohème (1992), and Murphy Richard Leboeuf...Sagard Brown (TV Series) (1994). Additionally, he produced Xavier Legrand...Babinot Volker Schlöndorff’s 1966 adaptation of Robert Musil’s Arnaud Henriet...Negus Young Törless, and the 2010 Akira Ogata film Shikeidai Damien Salot...Dupre no erebêtâ was based on Malle’s story concept. These are some of the other films he directed: Station 307* LOUIS MALLE (b. October 30, 1932 in Thumeries, ****(Short) (1954), Crazeologie***** (Short) (1954), The Nord, —d. November 23, 1995 (age 63) in Lovers (1958), Zazie dans le Métro** (1960), A Very Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, ) was a French Private Affair* ***** (1962), * (33 credits), screenwriter (18 credits) and ****(Documentary short) (1962), * **** producer (9 credits). His film Le Monde du silence**** won (1963), Bons baisers de Bangkok (TV Short documentary) the Palme d'Or in 1956 and the Academy Award for (1964), Viva Maria!* (1965), The Thief of * ***** Best Documentary in 1957, although he was not (1967), * (segment "William Wilson") credited at the ceremony; the award was instead (1968), the Palme d'Or-nominated Calcutta* presented to the film's co-director . (Documentary) (1969), Phantom * (TV Mini-Series Later in his career he was nominated multiple times for documentary) (1969), the Palme d'Or and Oscar- Malle—AU REVOIR, LES ENFANTS—2 nominated Murmur of the (1986), Der Tod des Heart (1971), Humain, Empedokles oder: Wenn trop humain dann der Erde Grün (Documentary) (1974), von neuem Euch Place de la République erglänzt (1987), (Documentary) (1974), Jenatsch (1987), Les Black Moon* (directed by) innocents (1987), Ada (1975), Close Up in the Jungle (1988), (Documentary short) Rien que des mensonges (1976), Dominique Sanda (1991), Off Season ou Le rêve éveillé (TV (1992), No Smoking Short documentary) (1993), Adultery: A (1977), the Technical User's Guide (1995), Grand Prize-winning (Cannes) and Palm d’Or- Party (1996), Voyage to the Beginning of the World (1997), nominated Pretty Baby** (1978), Crackers (1984), Alamo Kadosh (1999), Vive nous! (2000), The Uncertainty Bay*** (1985), God's Country**** (TV Movie Principle (2002), Lulu (2002), Not on the Lips (2003), documentary) (1985), ...And the Pursuit of Happiness*** Code 68 (2005), Leopardi (2014), In the Shadow of Women **** (TV Movie documentary) (1986), ** (2015), For This Is My Body (2016), Stalin's Couch (1990), Damage*** (1992), and Vanya on (2016), Strange Birds (2017), Lover for a Day (2017), and (1994). Fairytale (2017). *Also wrote **Wrote and produced GASPARD MANESSE (b. March 25, 1975) is a ***Produced French actor, composer and musician. He is best known ****Cinematography for his starring role as Julien Quentin in the film Au *****Also acted revoir, les enfants (1987). He acted in and composed the music for the film Comme il vient (2002). He has also RENATO BERTA (1945 in Bellinzona, Ticino, acted in Erreur de jeunesse (1989) and Saint Louis Blues Switzerland) is a Swiss cinematographer and film (2009). As a musician, he tours France playing the director, best known for his collaborations with directors trumpet with a group called “Surnatural Orchestra.” and Jean-Marie Straub. Trained at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome, Berta RAPHAËL FEJTÖ (b. September 17, 1974 in Paris, has worked as cinematographer in more than 100 films France) is a French actor, director, screenwriter, and since 1969 (139 credits). He won a César Award for children’s book author and illustrator. His primary Best Cinematography for Au revoir les enfants in 1988 acting credit is in Louis Malle’s 1987 film Au revoir, les and a for Best Cinematography for enfants. Fejtö also wrote, directed, and starred in the Noi credevamo in 2011. In 2013, he was awarded the 1996 short film 56 fois par semaine (56 Times A Week). Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. These are He wrote and directed the French-language film Osmose some of the films he has worked on: Long Live Death (Osmosis) in 2003. His second motion picture, L'Age (1969), Charles, Dead or Alive (1969), The Salamander D'Homme (The Age of Man, which he also wrote), (1971), On the Point of Death (1971), Tonight or Never starred Romain Duris, Aïssa Maïga, and Clément (1972), La Paloma (1974), The Middle of the World Sibony and was released in 2007. (1974), Moses and Aaron (1975), Shadow of Angels (1976), The Big Night (1976), Jonah Who Will Be 25 in the Year STANISLAS CARRÉ DE MALBERG (b. August 18, 2000 (1976), Sartre by Himself (Documentary) (1976), 1969) is a film actor (14 credits), screenwriter (9 credits), The Indians Are Still Far Away (1977), A. Constant and director (2 credits). He began his career in film (1977), Faces of Love (1977), Every Man for Himself acting in Louis Malle’s Au Revoir les Enfants (1987). He (1980), Return to Marseilles (1980), Max Frisch, Journal continued to act throughout the late 1980s and 1990s, in I-III (1981), Seuls (1981), The Wounded Man (1983), films and miniseries, such as: Stormy Summer (1989), V Vive les femmes! (1984), Full Moon in Paris (1984), Year of comme vengeance (TV Series) (1990), Sentiments (TV the Jellyfish (1984), Wuthering Heights (1985), Taxi Boy Series) (1991), Rien que des mensonges (1991), Solo per Malle—AU REVOIR, LES ENFANTS—3 dirti addio (TV Movie) (1992), Un Coeur en Hiver (Short) (1998), Lautrec (1998), Vertiges (TV Series) (1992), Nestor Burma (TV Series) (1992), Le château des (1998), Le juge est une femme (TV Series) (1999), Marcel oliviers (TV Mini-Series) (1993), Le chasseur de la nuit Proust's Time Regained (1999), L'histoire du samedi (TV (TV Movie) (1993), Jefferson in Paris (1995), The English Series) (1996-1999), The Children of the Century (1999), Wife (TV Movie) (1995), and Les alsaciens - ou les deux L'affaire Marcorelle (2000), Sandra et les siens (TV Series) Mathilde (TV Mini-Series) (1996). He once again took (2000), Pour une fois (Short) (2000), Thérèse et Léon (TV up the acting mantle in the 2007 short Quelques instants Movie) (2001), Rastignac ou les ambitieux (TV Mini- avec vous. He directed the 2004 short La vache qui pleure, Series) (2001), Le temps qu'il fait (Short) (2001), Safe and, starting in 2000s, he has written for Breakin' Out Conduct (2002), A Private Affair (2002), Jean Moulin (TV Movie) (2001), La vache qui pleure (Short) (2004), (TV Movie) (2002), La crim' (TV Series) (2003), Vert Coeur océan (TV Series) (2006), Cellule identité (TV paradis (2003), Maigret (TV Series) (1994-2003), Nina's Series) (2008), La cour des grands (TV Series) (2009), House (2005), Congrès (Short) (2005), Alerte à Paris! (TV Paris 16ème (TV Series) (2009), and La Famille Bélier Movie) (2006), L'étrangère (2006), La grande peur dans la (2014). Recently, he has written and directed the montagne (TV Movie) (2006), René Bousquet ou Le grand television series La Bouse (2017). arrangement (TV Movie) (2007), La française doit voter (TV Movie) (2007), Avocats & associés (TV Series) PHILIPPE MORIER-GENOUD (b. March 2, 1944) (2007), A Christmas Tale (2008), Un chat un chat (2009), is a French theatre and film actor who, starting in the Le commissariat (TV Movie) (2009), Kaamelott (TV early 1980s, has appeared in over 90 films and television Series) (2009), Streamfield, les carnets noirs (2010), À la series, such as: Le roi Lear (TV Movie) (1981), The recherche du temps perdu (TV Mini-Series) (2011), Woman Next Door (1981), Confidentially Yours (1983), Requiem for a Killer (2011), Le jour de la grenouille Wuthering Heights (1985), Régime sans pain (1985), (2011), Zarafa (2012), Yves Saint Laurent (2014), Asterix Passage secret (1985), Richard III (1986), Buisson ardent and Obelix: Mansion of the Gods (2014), La théorie du (1987), Au Revoir les Enfants (1987), Monsieur Martin chaos (Short) (2014), Les naufragés (2016), Asterix: The aura quarante ans demain (Short) (1988), Le conte d'hiver Secret of the Magic Potion (2018), Noces d'Or (TV Movie) (TV Movie) (1989), Radio Corbeau (1989), La salle de (2019), and Radio nuit Paris (TBD). bain (1989), Bunker Palace Hôtel (1989), Condorcet (TV Mini-Series) (1989), Constance (Short) (1989), Julie de Carneilhan (TV Movie) (1990), Cyrano de Bergerac (1990), Cinéma 16 (TV Series) (1990), Coup de foudre (TV Series) (1990), Faux et usage de faux (1990), Trois années (1990), The Sheltering Sky (1990), Haute tension (TV Series) (1991), Voyager (1991), Un type bien (1991), J'entends plus la guitare (1991), Commissaire Chabert: Le tueur du zodiaque (TV Movie) (1991), Mother (1991), Salut les coquins (TV Movie) (1991), Princesse Alexandra (TV Movie) (1992), La joie de vivre (1993), Antoine Rives, juge du terrorisme (TV Series) (1993), Three Colors: Blue (1993), Grand bonheur (1993), Mother (TV Mini- Series) (1993), Three Colors: White (1994), Joan the Maid IRÈNE JACOB (b. July 15, 1966 in Suresnes, Seine 2: The Prisons (1994), L'histoire du garçon qui voulait qu'on [now Hauts-de-Seine], France) is a French-Swiss actress l'embrasse (1994), Simon Tanner (TV Movie) (1994), Des (70 credits) known for her work with Polish film enfants dans les arbres (TV Movie) (1994), Das director Krzysztof Kieślowski. She won the 1991 Cannes Versprechen (1994), Les cinq dernières minutes (TV Series) Film Festival Award for Best Actress for the Kieślowski (1995), Fiesta (1995), Le coeur étincelant (TV Movie) film The Double Life of Véronique, and was nominated for (1995), Two Dads and One Mom (1996), Regards the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role d'enfance (TV Series) (1996), Le cri de la soie (1996), Les for his 1994 film Three Colors: Red. Her other film palmes de M. Schutz (1997), L'avocate (TV Series) appearances include Au Revoir les Enfants (1987), (1997), The Visitors II: The Corridors of Time (1998), Une Brigade de nuit (1987), The Gang of Four (1989), Erreur femme d'honneur (TV Series) (1998), Un peu de temps réel de jeunesse (1989), Les mannequins d'osier (1989), Nick Malle—AU REVOIR, LES ENFANTS—4 chasseur de têtes (TV Series) (1989), Shijou no tabibito renowned directors both at home and internationally. (TV Series) (1989), La compagnie de Sarah (TV Movie) He was known for the variety and breadth of his work as (1989), La veillée (1990), The Secret of Sarah Tombelaine a feature-film-maker and a documentarist, as well as its (1991), Claude (1992), Le moulin de Daudet (1992), The frequently controversial subject matter. Although often Secret Garden (1993), Predskazaniye (1993), Enak (1993), associated with the Nouvelle Vague directors, Malle’s Runaways (1995), Beyond the Clouds (1995), All Men Are debut preceded the arrival of the movement and he is Mortal (1995), Othello (1995), Victory (1996), Incognito often considered to be a traditionalist. (1997), U.S. Marshals (1998), Cuisine américaine (1998), Malle was born in 1932 into a wealthy Jack's potes (Short) (1998), The Big Brass Ring (1999), My industrialist family in Thumeries, near to Lille in Life So Far (1999), History Is Made at Night (1999), northern France. During the war, he attended a Catholic Cuisine chinoise (Short) (1999), L'affaire Marcorelle boarding school in Paris. After leaving school, he began (2000), Fourplay (2001), Lettre d'une inconnue (TV a degree course in political science at the Institute Movie) (2002), The Landlords (2002), La légende de D’Etudes Politiques in Paris, but, against his parents’ Parva (2003), Nés de la mère du monde (TV Movie) wishes, switched to a course on at the (2003), The Pornographer: A Love Story (2004), Autumn Institut des Hautes Etudes Cinematographiques. (2004), Battle of the Brave (2004), The Education of While still a student, he was recruited as a Fairies (2006), The Inner Life of Martin Frost (2007), camera operator by underwater explorer, Jacques Fallen Heroes (2007), Faits divers (Short) (2007), The Cousteau. He worked as co-director on Cousteau’s Dust of Time (2008), The French Kissers (2009), Les yeux celebrated , Le Monde du Silence (The de Simone (Short) (2009), Déchaînées (TV Movie) Silent World) which won an Oscar and the Palme d’Or at (2009), Rio Sex Comedy (2010), La solitude du pouvoir the 1956 Academy Awards and (TV Movie) (2012), The Lanzac Clan (TV Movie) respectively, before working as an assistant for his hero, (2013), Les enfants rouges (2014), Salaud, on t'aime legendary director on Un condamné à (2014), The Easy Way Out (2014), Dying of the Light mort s'est échappé (A Man Escaped, 1956). (2014), Arnaud fait son 2e film (2015), Boulevard du This experience served him well as an Palais (TV Series) (2015), Ella Maillart: Double Journey apprenticeship for his first feature, Ascenseur pour (Short) (2015), Sayonara (2015), Captain Marleau (TV l'échafaud () made in 1957. Not for Series) (2016), Eternity (2016), Deux escargots s'en vont the last time Malle showed himself an excellent judge of (Short) (voice) (2016), Tales of Mexico (2016), The collaborators, working with an array of talent including Collection (TV Series) (2016), The Affair (TV Series) novelist Rogier Nimier, cinematographer Henri Decae, (2016-2017), Home Away from Home (Short) (2017), up-and-coming actors and Maurice Dark (2017), Patrick Melrose (TV Mini-Series) (2018), Ronet, and jazz genius . Together they took For the Ones We Loved (2019), The OA (TV Series) what could have been a routine film policier and turned it (2019), and Villa Caprice (post-production) (2020). into a bitterly ironic, tragic that was a critical and commercial success and established Malle as a young director to be reckoned with. The film also showed, especially in the evocative scenes of her walking down the Champs Élysées at night, the potential of Jeanne Moreau to become a big film star. In his next feature, Les Amants (The Lovers, 1958), Malle confirmed that potential, casting her as the married mother who walks out on her family for a younger man. While more classical in style than its predecessor, its frank for its time sexual content, as well as its moral ambiguity, created a major scandal. In America it was banned in several states leading to a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case regarding the legal “Louis Malle,” (NewWaveFilm) definition of obscenity. The scandal helped the film During his career Louis Malle (30 October 1932 become a worldwide phenomenon, turning Moreau into – 23 November 1995) became one of France’s most Malle—AU REVOIR, LES ENFANTS—5 a major star and Malle, at the age of only 26, into a he felt had a lyrical quality that transcended the material, leading director. Malle was unhappy with the film and frustrated by the Taken by surprise at the film’s success, Malle experience of making it. had a tough time recovering. He was suspicious that the Feeling disoriented after the failure of Vie privée, success had not been deserved and for six months he Malle decided to take a sabbatical year in which he went into hiding, scouting locations for a film that was returned to documentary. He spent four months in never shot. When he finally Algeria filming events settled on his next project it surrounding the French was a radical change of gear withdrawal from the former from what had come before. colony but wasn’t pleased with Zazie dans le what he shot and didn’t end up Métro was a bestseller written editing it. Also that year, he by experimental writer filmed the Tour de France about a bicycle race, which resulted in a young girl who causes chaos twenty minute short. when her plan to travel on In the autumn of 1962, the Paris underground is he returned to Paris and started prevented by a strike. Many writing a screenplay about a considered it unfilmable but young man who commits Malle decided to take up the suicide. The story, loosely challenge because he believed based on a book by Drieu La it would give him a chance to Rochelle, who himself explore cinematic language committed suicide in 1945, is in a way he hadn’t been able about a disillusioned, alcoholic to before. The result was a writer who has reached 30 and high-energy comedy full of is looking for a reason to go on wit and invention, which living. Le Feu Follet (The Fire anticipated and greatly influenced the new trend in film Within, 1963), featuring a moving performance by style and technique, which would emerge in the ensuing in the lead role, was highly praised, decade. winning the Special Jury Prize at the 1963 Venice Film One critic, who wrote favourably about Zazie Festival. Malle later described the film as one of his dans Le Metro, despite its failure with the public, most personal and the first of his works that he was was Francois Truffaut, now an established director completely happy with. himself after the success of the Les Quatre cents In a pattern that was becoming characteristic of coups (The Four Hundred Blows, 1959). Although he was him, Malle’s next film was very different. Set during the not a member of the inner circle of what had now come Mexican revolution, Viva Maria (1965) teamed Brigitte to be known as the New Wave, Malle was of the same Bardot and Jeanne Moreau as travelling music hall generation and shared much in common with the other performers who become involved in the revolution. The directors, in particular a love for the great publicity generated by the presence of two such big stars directors and a desire to break with what had become meant the shoot was constantly interrupted by an army routine in French cinema at the time. of press corps taking photographs and looking for a After Zazie, Malle was invited by a producer, story. Malle was ultimately dissatisfied with the result Christine Gouze-Rénal, to make a film for Brigitte even though the film did well internationally. He later Bardot. Although warned against working with her, admitted that the reason he made the film was because Malle agreed to direct the project which came to be he couldn’t resist the challenge, although he wouldn’t do called La Vie Privée (, 1961). it again. Filming was difficult from the start, Bardot and her co- star Marcello Mastoianni didn’t get on and there was a great deal of press intrusion and studio interference. Apart from the last section shot in Spoleto in that Malle—AU REVOIR, LES ENFANTS—6

One positive aspect of the film was the working After the Indian experience, Malle embarked in relationship Malle developed with the screenwriter Jean- the 1970s on three films with adolescent heroes and Claude Carrière, who he would frequently turn to as a heroines, living in provincial France, two set in the collaborator during the course of his subsequent career. recent past, one a fantasy set in the near future. For the Their next project together was Le Voleur (The Thief, first of these, Le Souffle au Coeur (, 1967) based on a semi- 1971), the directordrew on autobiographical book experiences from his own written at the turn of the childhood for a coming of century by Georges age story about a 14 year old Darien, about a gentleman boy growing up in Dijon. thief. Despite lavish Funny, high-spirited and production values and an sympathetic with an engaging performance exhilarating jazz soundtrack, by Jean-Paul Belmondo, the film nevertheless caused the film was not well controversy for its depiction received. Nevertheless of incest. Malle was very proud of His next film was in its the film and it has grown way equally controversial, but in stature over the years. on a political level: the experience of the war and At this time, Malle was going through a crisis in collaboration in France. Lacombe, Lucien (1974) is about his personal life following the break-up of his marriage a teenage boy from a peasant family, who, by a series of to Anne-Marie Deschodt and felt unsure about the accidents, gets to work for the in a small town. direction his career was going in. In order to get away The film was groundbreaking because it was the first to from France for a while, he agreed to direct deal with the issue of collaboration in wartime France, in one of three segments of a film based on stories by challenging the myth that most people resisted Nazi Edgar Allan Poe being filmed in Italy. Working with occupation, and provoking a great deal of debate in Delon proved difficult however and after completing France on its release. Black Moon made in 1975 was a work on Histoires extraordinaires (Spirits of the Dead, dark surreal fantasy set in a dystopian future, filmed by 1968), he felt more disillusioned with the film business the director in and around his own country estate. The than ever, saying at the time that he was “fed up with free-flowing narrative, reminiscent of Alice in actors, studios, fiction and Paris.” Wonderland, centres on a confused teenage girl who Then, in the autumn of 1967, he was asked by witnesses a war between the sexes and finds herself the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs to present in involved in numerous dream-like situations. Malle later India a series of eight French Films. While there he described the film “as a strange voyage to the limits of became fascinated by the country and early the following the medium.” year he returned with a small crew to shoot a In the late 1970’s, in search of inspiration, Malle documentary. They immersed themselves in the life and moved to the United States. The first film he directed culture of India for six months ending up with 30 hours there was Pretty Baby(1978), in which of material that were eventually edited down, over the played a 12-year-old New Orleans prostitute. Once course of a year, into the feature film Calcutta (1969), again the newspapers of the world seized on the and a seven part TV series called L’Inde sensationalist aspects of the story, but, as it turned out, Fantome (, 1969). The films provoked a the film was more about atmosphere and the nature of storm of controversy in India when they were shown on desire, than eroticism. the BBC for focusing too much on the poverty of the Malle’s next movie, Atlantic City (1980), is often country. Others, however, were spellbound by the scope cited as his best American film. It won numerous and imagery of the documentaries and many were international awards, including the at the inspired to visit the country themselves. Malle himself and a British Academy Award for considered his films on India to be the most personal of Best Direction. Set in the run down seaside resort of the his career and the films he was most proud of. title, the film features a romance between a small time drug courier () and a waitress (Susan Malle—AU REVOIR, LES ENFANTS—7

Sarandon). Despite its downbeat subject matter the film, and a daughter Justine (born 1974) with Canadian-born due in large part to outstanding performances by the two French actress leads and a memorable screenplay by playwright , is surprisingly life-affirming. There was acclaim too for My Dinner with Andre (1982), a 90 minute film that featured nothing more than a conversation between experimental theatre director and actor , but which, through the skill of Malle’s direction, managed to hold the audience’s attention throughout. Less successful, however, were screwball crime caper Crackers (1984), and (1985) about a Vietnam veteran who clashes with Vietnamese immigrants who move into his hometown. During his American years Malle continued to alternate narrative features with documentary projects. ˜Pasquale Iannone: “A revoir, les enfants” (Senses of The PBS-funded God’s Country focused on the close- Cinema). knit farming community of Glencoe, Minnesota. Most In her recent study, Childhood and Cinema, Vicky of the film was shot in 1979, but when it took PBS Lebeau observes that ’s war trilogy several years to finance the editing, Malle returned to – Rome, Open City (1945), Paisàn (1946) and Germany Glencoe in 1985, only to find the farmers struggling in Year Zero (1947) – helped to found a canon of works in the aftermath of economic recession. A companion piece which filmmakers turned to the figure of the child to to this, was …And the Pursuit of Happiness in which explore the legacy of war and genocide in the Malle focused on recent immigrants to America 20th century. “It is, perhaps, because he sets the film in including Cambodian refugees, a Pakistani the winter of 1943-4”, suggests Lebeau of Rome, Open schoolteacher, an Ethiopian cab-driver, a NASA City, astronaut from Costa Rica, and many others. Drawing that Rossellini is able to maintain that image of the on his own experiences as an outsider in America, Malle (Catholic) child witness over and against that of the continued to express his empathy for people in various child as object of Fascist violence […]. By contrast, stages of adjustment or displacement. that theme comes right to the fore in a number of Malle’s greatest triumph came with the film he films from the 1980s and ’90s: Malle’s Au revoir, made after his return to France. Au revoir, les les enfants, Holland’s Europa, Europa, enfants (Goodbye, Children, 1987) was an intensely Spielberg’s Schindler’s List and Klimov’s acclaimed moving account of what happened at the school Malle Come and See. (1) went to as a boy when the Jewish children the Catholic An interesting thesis as to why filmmakers have priest was sheltering were discovered by the Nazis. It utilised the figure of the child in war films has been put won many awards including three French Cesars, for forward by Tyrus Miller. Miller argues that “setting Best Film, Director, and Screenplay. child characters against intense and difficult historical This was followed by the brilliant, satirical circumstances [these films] highlight the peculiar comedy Milou en mai (May Madness, 1990) about a phenomenological capacities and limits of children’s family coming together in a country house to hear the abilities to interpret, comprehend and act in the reading of a will just as the student riots of May 1968 are world” (2). These limits of children, their motor- raging across the country. His last two films helplessness, are touched upon by Gilles Deleuze were Damage (1992), a dark love story filmed in in Cinema 2: The Time-Image. Deleuze argues that “in London, and (1994), a modern the adult world, the child is affected by a certain motor- adaptation of Chekhov’s play set in New York. helplessness, but one which makes him all the more Malle died of cancer on November 23rd, 1995, capable of seeing and hearing” (3). Later in the book, survived by his wife, the actress , and Deleuze discusses the work of director Louis Malle: “In their daughter Chloe. He also had a son, Manuel (born Malle, it is always a movement of the world which 1971), with German actress Gila von Weitershausen, brings the character to incest, prostitution, or disgrace, Malle—AU REVOIR, LES ENFANTS—8 and makes him capable of a crime […]” (4). The in fact Jewish (real name Kippelstein) and is in hiding at Mallean film, therefore, might be considered one “in the school with two other Jewish boys with the collusion which the fictional characters are secondary to the forces of the school’s headmaster, Père Jean (Philippe Morier- of the cinematic world in which they live” (5), quite the Genoud). opposite of such earlier films exploring the childhood Au revoir, les enfants sees Malle return to an experience of WWII as René Clément’s Jeux examination of life under Nazi occupation. It interdits/ (1952) in which, after the follows Lacombe, Lucien(1974), a film which, “at its initial traumatic impact of release and for many years war, “life moves to the after […] was the most rhythm of the [child] controversial of all feature characters and organizes films about the German itself around them” (6). occupation of France” (9). Shot between Since the release of that January and March 1987, film, Malle had felt that and released in October of many of the details and that year, Au revoir, les memories of his life at enfants saw Malle return to boarding school had begun France after more than a to haunt him but he was decade working in the hesitant about attempting to United States. recreate them on film: Undoubtedly the director’s I would have hated myself if I most personal film, it had failed […]. There was allowed him to revisit a nothing obvious about that dramatic and painful episode from his childhood: “The story when you think of it. It could be seen as a sort screenplay came to me in a single burst, in two weeks, of variation on the Holocaust and there’d been so almost as if it were writing itself. Of course, to these two many films already about this subject. I was weeks must be added the forty years during which I convinced I should deal with it, but was not sure I nursed my burning secret memory to myself.” (7) It is would go all the way. (10) interesting to compare Malle’s film with other similarly “The childhood described by Malle [in Au revoir, themed works released around the same time such as les enfants] is silence, guilt, fear” (11), writes Luciano ’s Empire of the Sun (1987) or John Cecconi in I bambini nel cinema and indeed, unlike such Boorman’s nostalgic, autobiographical Hope and films as Forbidden Games or Come and See, the children Glory (1987). However, as Philip French has observed, in Malle’s film do not suddenly find themselves faced films made in countries that actually suffered Nazi with the full, violent impact of conflict and Nazi occupation “engage with legacies of pain and guilt which occupation. Malle instead shows how life at a privileged stem from a traumatic experience far removed from all boarding school is slowly contaminated by the war, how but a minute handful of British contemporaries” (8). As it seeps into their lives until finally, in the film’s well as Au revoir, les enfants, films such as Elem Klimov’s shattering concluding scenes, the full horrors of harrowing Come and See (1985) amply highlights this occupation are revealed. point. As Malle himself has admitted, the character of Set in 1944, Au revoir, les enfants tells of the Joseph in Au revoir, les enfants holds many similarities relationship between two boys, Julien Quentin (Gaspard with that of the teenage collaborator in Lacombe, Lucien. Manesse) and Jean Bonnet (Raphaël Fejtö) in a Catholic Working in the school’s kitchen, Joseph – a surly, boarding school run by Carmelites in a small town on disgruntled orphan – gets involved in small-scale black the Île de France. After a period of initial hostility market dealing with the Jewish boys. When these between the two upon Jean’s arrival, the boys’ shared activities are discovered, Joseph is dismissed from the interest in music and literature cements their friendship. kitchen. In the film’s final sequence, Jean discovers that Jean claims to be a Protestant whose father is in a it was a vengeful Joseph who informed the Gestapo of prisoner-of-war camp in Germany and his mother in the whereabouts of the Jewish children. , but Julien soon discovers that his friend is Malle—AU REVOIR, LES ENFANTS—9

Upon the arrival of the Gestapo, Julien’s brief, nervous founder and headmaster, Père Jacques, and by the events glance at Jean in their classroom unwittingly seals his of those days, which, forty years later, he poignantly friend’s fate. In these final scenes, like those of Come and explored on film. See, the film steps out of its diegetic world, its linear Those events took place in Nazi-occupied progression. The voice of Malle is heard over a close-up France. By the fall of 1940, one year after the German of Julien, who of course represents his younger invasion of Poland, the Nazis dominated almost all of incarnation: continental Europe, including France, which had been Bonnet, Négus and Dupré died at Auschwitz, overwhelmingly defeated by Hitler’s forces. Everywhere Father Jean at Mauthausen. The school re-opened in occupied Europe, Jews were subject, sooner or later, its doors in October 1944. More than 40 years have to the anti-Semitic policies of the Nazis and eventually passed, but till the day I die, I will remember each targeted for extermination. As the Nazi vise tightened in second of that morning in January.(12) France, two key trends emerged: many Jews sought to As Malle states, “I thought it was important for escape detection by hiding or fleeing, and, gradually, a people watching the film to understand at the end that small network of Christian rescuers grew and came to this story [was true] and actually came from my memory. the aid of the persecuted Jews. And I knew it would come on the close-up of In France, geography aided those Jews seeking Julien.” (13) to hide, since there were countless small villages and For Malle, like Klimov, the long process scattered farms, especially in the southern half of the of trauerarbeit, or “mourning work”, culminates in a late country. For those in flight, France provided potential, masterpiece, one in which “history, autobiography and but often perilous, routes to Spain and Switzerland, filmmaking come together […] to form a site for painful officially neutral neighboring countries, where the dream but curative ‘working through’” (14). of safety still survived. The Christian rescuers in France worked clandestinely to provide hiding places, forged documents, escape routes, and, above all, hope to the persecuted Jews. Those Christian rescuers contributed to the fact that 75 percent of French Jews survived the war, a far higher proportion than in Belgium or the Netherlands. Still, of the 300,000 Jews in France, 75,000 perished. In Au revoir les enfants, Malle was not aiming to produce a documentary film about the Holocaust in France. Rather, he was striving to evoke his experience during the darkest days of the Nazi occupation, especially the day on which his Jewish schoolmates and Père Jacques were arrested and taken away, never to return. Père Jacques, legally named Lucien Bunel, was the third of seven children in a close, devoutly Catholic, working-class family. He was born in 1900, in Barentin, a Norman mill town in the Seine Valley, near Rouen. From his boyhood years, Bunel developed four enduring characteristics: a deep religious faith, a tireless Francis J. Murphy: “Jacques and the Petit-Collége work ethic, an active love of learning, and a staunch d’Avon” (Criterion) sense of social justice. In 1912, he left home to enter the The site of Louis Malle’s film Au revoir les seminary in Rouen, and for the next thirteen years, until enfants was the Petit-Collège d’Avon, a residential prep his ordination to the priesthood, he devoted himself to school located on the grounds of the Carmelite his studies and contemplative prayer. He excelled in monastery abutting the park of the fabled French palace French literature and foreign languages. Socially, he of Fontainebleau. Malle attended this school during emerged as a youth leader of exceptional merit, World War II and was deeply influenced both by its particularly as director of the summer programs for the Malle—AU REVOIR, LES ENFANTS—10 needy youngsters of his home parish. During these years, betrayal by France of its faithful friend Czechoslovakia. the impact of distant events first directly impinged on He prophetically asked at the time: “How many French him. His brother André was killed in World War I. His citizens no longer appreciate that death is preferable to own two years of compulsory military service brusquely dishonor?” introduced him to the harsher realities of modern life. With the outbreak of World War II, in Because of his outstanding performance in the seminary, September 1939, Père Jacques was called up once again Bunel was eventually selected to serve, first as a proctor for military service. With the fall of France, in June and subsequently as a teacher 1940, he became a of religion and English, at St. German prisoner of war, Joseph’s Institute, a after his entire artillery distinguished Catholic prep battery was captured near school for boys in Le Havre. Lunéville, in eastern Very quickly, the young France. Eventually, he Father Bunel won the was released and returned admiration of his colleagues to Avon, in time to and students for his total prepare for the delayed dedication and innovative reopening of the Petit- teaching methods, taking an Collège, in January 1941. interest in each pupil’s France was now markedly personal progress and unpretentiously practicing the different. The country was not only defeated militarily moral ideals he preached in the chapel and explored in but also demoralized and divided. The Germans the classroom. Still, Father Bunel longed for a stricter, occupied the northern half of the country (including more contemplative life. This quest led him, in 1931, to Paris and Avon). A nominally autonomous, but enter the Carmelite monastery in Lille. The Carmelites increasingly collaborationist, French regime ruled in the had a long, rich tradition of spirituality, but they were southern half, often called the Free Zone, or simply not a teaching order. Not long after Father Bunel Vichy. entered, however, the Carmelite leadership determined Gradually, the essential depravity of the Nazi that the future of their order required the establishment and Vichy authorities was revealed. For conscientious of a premier Catholic preparatory school for boys, some Christians like Père Jacques, the government’s anti- of whom would potentially join the order in the years Semitic policies were particularly repugnant. Père ahead. Jacques considered Jews theologically to be God’s chosen Père Jacques, as Father Bunel was now called, people and humanly to be his brothers and sisters. He was, of course, superbly suited to undertake the was outraged when he saw his friend Lucien Weil, a establishment of such a school. He was enthusiastically distinguished botanist and fellow member of the local selected for the position of founding headmaster. He Resistance network, wearing the yellow star, as all Jews toiled tirelessly to make the school first a reality and were required to do. After Professor Weil was deprived then a model of educational excellence. The Petit- of his teaching post at the Lycée Carnot, in Collège d’Avon first opened its doors for the fall term of Fontainebleau, Père Jacques welcomed him to teach 1934 and quickly became one of the most highly science at the Petit-Collège when school reopened in the regarded Catholic schools in France. Its student body fall of 1942. included sons of several of the most prominent Catholic By this time, there had emerged in France a families in France, boys like Louis Malle and his small but crucially important spiritual resistance brother. movement called Christian Witness (Témoignage From its planning to its staffing, every chrétien). Through its underground publications, that dimension of the organization and operation of the movement awakened the consciences of countless school reflected the guiding spirit of Père Jacques. The Christians to the fundamental immorality of idyllic early days of the school ended, however, in and to the urgency of helping persecuted Jews. In the September 1938. For Père Jacques, the Czech crisis spirit of this movement, Père Jacques was contacted and meant a call-up to military service, and the Munich implored to shelter three Jewish boys who were in grave Accords, far from guaranteeing peace, represented the danger of deportation and death. Malle—AU REVOIR, LES ENFANTS—11

Au revoir les enfants re-creates the experiences of the responsibility of the French state for the deportation those three Jewish students at the Petit-Collège d’Avon. of Jews during the war, in particular the more than The film concludes with the arrest of the boys and Père 13,000 victims the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup of July 1942, Jacques. The three Jewish students were deported during which Laval decided, of his own volition (and directly to Auschwitz, where they were executed upon without being requested by the occupying German arrival, along with their science teacher, Professor authorities), to deport children along with their parents. Weil—who had been deported on the same train—and Only 2,500 of the deported Jews survived the war. The his family. 1944 Battle of Marseille was another event during which Père Jacques was eventually condemned to the the French police assisted the Gestapo in a massive raid, Mauthausen concentration camp, in Austria. Within the which included an urban reshaping plan involving the camp, he quickly won the respect and admiration of his destruction of a whole neighbourhood in the popular fellow prisoners, even the Communists. More than Old Port. Some few collaborators were tried in the anything else, his selfless care for the sick and the dying, 1980s for crimes against humanity (Paul Touvier, etc.), to whom he routinely gave half of his meager ration of while Maurice Papon, who had become after the war food, touched his fellow French-speaking prisoners. prefect of police of Paris (a function in which he They unanimously chose Père Jacques to represent them illustrated himself during the 1961 Paris massacre) was in their interactions with the liberating forces and the convicted in 1998 for crimes against humanity. He had home countries of those who survived when their release been Budget Minister under President Valéry Giscard finally approached, in May 1945. d'Estaing. Other collaborators, such as Emile By then, Père Jacques weighed only seventy-five Dewoitine, managed to have important functions after pounds and showed undeniable signs of terminal the war (Dewoitine was eventually named head pneumonia. Still, he refused special transport back to of Aérospatiale, the firm which created the Concorde France and pledged to remain until the last French plane). Debates concerning state collaboration remain, prisoner was repatriated. Four weeks later, he died in in 2008, very strong in France. Linz, Austria. His remains were returned to France, where he was buried in the monastery garden of the Petit-Collège, on June 26, 1945. At his burial, Rabbi Jacob Kaplan, the future Grand Rabbi of France, eulogized Père Jacques with these words: “Thus we have seen cruelty pushed to its extreme horror and benevolence carried to its highest degree of nobility and beauty.”

French collaboration in WWII (from Wikipedia) The Vichy government, headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain and Pierre Laval, actively collaborated in the extermination of the European Jews. It also participated in Porajmos, the extermination of Roma people, and in the extermination of other "undesirables." Vichy opened up a series Marshall Philippe Pétain and Hitler, 1940 of concentration camps in France where it interned Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, political opponents, etc. Directed by René Bousquet, the French police helped in the deportation of 76,000 Jews to the extermination camps. In 1995, President Jacques Chirac officially recognized

Malle—AU REVOIR, LES ENFANTS—12

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