Au Revoir Les Enfants

Theatrical Release Date: 1988 02 12 (USA)

UPC: 037429207123

Studio: Criterion

MPAA Rating: PG   Contains:[Adult Situations, Adult Language, Suitable for Teens]

Summary: Gaspard Manesse plays Julien, an 11-year-old Catholic boarding-school resident during the Nazi occupation of France. He is witness to the courage of his instructors, who defy the German's anti-Semitic policies and quietly enroll Jewish children into the school under assumed names. Manesse befriends Jean (Raphael Fejto), one of these "instant Catholics." The refugee children are betrayed by a hostile ex-employee of the school, forcing Julien once more to be a bystander to history as Jean and the teachers are arrested. For this return to the French film industry after several years in the US, Louis Malle purged himself of his own bitter memories of life under the thumbs of the Nazis. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Category: Drama

Awards: Best Picture – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Director – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Prix Louis-Delluc – French Film Critics Circle Best Production Design – French Academy of Cinema Best Picture – French Academy of Cinema Best Editing – French Academy of Cinema Best Director – French Academy of Cinema Best Original Screenplay – French Academy of Cinema Best Sound – French Academy of Cinema Best Sound – French Academy of Cinema Best Sound – French Academy of Cinema Best Cinematography – French Academy of Cinema Best Screenplay – European Film Academy Best Foreign Language Film – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Original Screenplay – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Foreign Film – National Board of Review Golden Lion – Venice International Film Festival Best Foreign Film – Independent Spirit Awards Film Presented – Telluride Film Festival

Features: New restored high-definition digital transfer, surprised by director of photography Renato Berta
Original theatrical trailer and teaser
New and improved English subtitle translation
Plus: essays by film critic Philip Kemp and historian Francis J. Murphey

Au Revoir Les Enfants

Format: DVD

Release Date: 03/28/2006

Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1 Vistavision

Audio: DD1 Dolby Digital Mono

Runtime: 101 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Language(s) French

Subtitles: English

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Chapters: Disc #1 -- Au Revoir Les Enfants
1. Last Day of Vacation [4:50]
2. New Faces [8:36]
3. Joseph [5:09]
4. Teacher's Pet [9:00]
5. Confession [3:20]
6. At the Bathhouse [5:33]
7. Close Call [3:29]
8. Kippelstein [8:08]
9. Treasure Hunt [5:58]
10. Parents' Day [7:17]
11. At the Restaurant [4:47]
12. Movie Night [7:39]
13. Punishment [5:21]
14. Boogie-Woogie [3:37]
15. Acts of Betrayal [4:30]
16. Good-bye [10:58]
1. Color Bars [:20]

Matthew Doberman

Au Revoir, Les Enfants accepts the weighty challenge of making a Holocaust movie and acquits itself proudly. This was Louis Malle's first French film in a decade, and one gets the sense that it's a story he long felt compelled to bring to the screen. He based Au Revoir, Les Enfants on his own experiences in a Catholic boarding school in World War II and his remembrances of the frequent cowardice, and occasional defiant bravery, of the occupied French. This is not the world of Eastern Europe's constant horrors or England's interminable blitz, but an equally surreal place, where day-to-day life ostensibly continues as normal when the reality is anything but. The film does not explore the violence of the Holocaust directly; rather, it follows the somewhat uneventful lives of two boys who are, above all, just boys. They are children -- wide-eyed, curious, scared, kind, and spiteful -- like children everywhere, except unwitting parties to history's greatest drama. In this respect, the finale -- and in turn, the lasting impact -- of Malle's subtle, measured story is all the more devastating. ~ Matthew Doberman, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Jean-Paul Dubarry  Actor 
Jacqueline Staup  Actor 
Jean-Sébastien Chauvin  Actor 
Michael Becker  Actor 
Ami Flammer  Actor 
Daniel Edinger  Actor 
Luc Étienne  Actor 
Marcel Bellot  Actor 
René Bouloc  Actor 
Jacqueline Paris  Actor 
Irène Jacob  Actor 
Louis Malle  Director 
Louis Malle  Producer 
Louis Malle  Screenwriter 
Gaspard Manesse  Actor 
Raphaël Fejtö  Actor 
Francine Racette  Actor 
Stanislas Carre de Malberg  Actor 
Philippe Morier-Genoud  Actor 
François Berléand  Actor 
François Négret  Actor 
Peter Fitz  Actor 
Pascal Rivet  Actor 
Benoit Henriet  Actor 
Richard Leboeuf  Actor 
Xavier Legrand  Actor 
Arnaud Henriet  Actor 

Country: France,West Germany