World War II. Children continue to learn, people adapt to living under occupation. In a small monastery, a private college for boys. Students grow up, pass logarithms, smoke secretly, read erotic fairy tales at night. The abbot of the monastery hides three Jewish boys under false names among the children. January morning, every second of which the participants of the story will remember a lifetime. Plus a thousand points in karma, minus fate. The film won five prizes of the Venice Film Festival (1987), seven awards “Cesar” (1988), three awards “David di Donatello” (1988) and many other awards.
Every time I watch movies like this, I don’t understand what’s in the minds of people who are massively catching others to destroy. These poachers are no different from us, they live a normal life, have families, raise children, watch the same movies. In each of us lives the evil of the world, the killer and the beast. There are no exceptions, there are no saints. Just during the Second World War it became a stream, a mass phenomenon. The inadmissible was allowed. The unnatural grew into a cancerous tumor. The Nazis were able to turn those levers of consciousness that turned off humanity, compassion, thinking. Why this happened is still trying to understand philosophers, psychologists, political scientists. But you can't understand it. You can explain. It is impossible to understand.
The movie is very simple. The usual routines of a bunch of tomboys are shown. And it was in this everyday life, when no one paid attention to it, that the nightmare of fascist ideology was born. Plague comes into the house unnoticed. Suddenly it hits the whole family. There is an old saying that the devil is in the details. From the simplest of things, a doctrine of horror, pain, and death is suddenly formed. Who among us will become a traitor, and who will commit a feat and sacrifice his life for a stranger? It's impossible to predict. Life is completely unexpected. The most decent are saints only in words, and scoundrels can become heroes, the memory of whose feat will not be erased until the last breath of the people they saved. To the madness of the brave we sing a song.
Louis Malle’s Goodbye Children is set in France in the year 44, occupied during World War II. This work is directly the childhood memories of the director himself, transformed by the art of cinema. Each time the war is presented differently, in each picture it turns to us with its next of countless guises, it all depends on what angle and whose eyes we look at, and where the author chose to place accents. But this film is devoted not only to the war itself or military themes, no military actions play a role here, but the rough reality, in such times the most manifesting its aggression, breaking the whole world, including one of the most inviolable phenomena for a person - the world of childhood, the world of a child.
From the first moments of the film, the viewer sees a platform filled with people and a train ready for departure. This picture gives a certain direction of thought that further events in the aggregate should be considered as a turn in the fate of the main character, a certain turning point in his life path, and specifically - growing up. The plot takes place in a Catholic school for boys, this place corresponds to the manner in which the film was shot. A cold color palette prevails, which in the framework of the plot correlates with dispassionate stone structures, then the matter is filled with the frame (whether it is a temple or a forest with huge boulders), and with the fact of the lack of hot water. All this frames the situation in which children living in such a place, forcibly cut off by fate from the parental warmth and home.
And this sustained, ascetic stylistics in general sharply expresses the perception of the hostile world by the sensitive consciousness of the child, since the name clearly indicates the most important thing - children, children's attitude. This exterior picture also comes into confrontation with what it tells us: rigor contrasts with the irrationality that accompanies the child’s vision of the world, and coldness clashes with curiosity and craving for life in all its fullness, accompanying childhood. After all, this is the stage of life when people so often ask questions about themselves and others, about anything, outside the categories, how bad or right it can be, but at the same time a person begins to determine for himself which of these concepts he will put above others, what will become important and what will go by the wayside. And then the child is face to face with the most important phenomena of life, one on one with life he begins to learn on himself what death is, what is betrayal, what is just and what is not, and how thin the line between these concepts can be. And, in the end, what is love, love in all its manifestations: love for family, for homeland, for each person in general, love as friendship? And this very friendship in this film is put at the forefront along with what difficulties it overcomes at the beginning and what it can lead to. This amazing feeling between two very different characters is shown by the most subtle psychological techniques. For example, the way Julien’s thoughts are not voiced at certain moments, but it is quite clear what he thinks about Bonnet, thanks to the melody that appears from Schubert’s composition, and from the expression of the young actor’s face. And the almost elusive, but in fact key point is closer to the very end of the film: a German officer invades in the middle of a student lesson and takes Jean away, the search for the remaining Jews and their holy fathers begins. Jean has time to say goodbye only to exchange with several classmates short handshakes (and they did not reject this gesture, even after learning about who he is) and the last, whose hand in this short allotted time he tries to shake is Julien, but at the same moment the German officer abruptly removes Bonnet. This gesture is symbolic - the last ghostly attempt in the hope of holding back the inevitable course of life and the premonition of irreparable, inevitable loss.
The sound of a gunshot will not thunder at the end and the corpses of those “guilty” against the Nazis will not be shown to the viewer, but the words in the conclusion about their fate inspire no less horror. And the last hand of a friend, as well as the title phrase of the father of the abbot “Goodbye, children” – all these are moments of fading childhood and parting with him.
Miserable on emotions, lifeless academic, but filled with details, Louis Malle’s narrative about the lives of children stylistically echoes Melville’s “Difficult Children”. The idea is clear – to show close-up the life of the Catholic school, and then add the topic of hiding Jews and fascists. But, of course, the form dominates. It does not matter what happens (the plot is essentially described in one sentence above), but how it happens. It is important how the children explain to each other the reasons for the fascists to oppress the Jews. What matters is how people behave under pressure. Important is the perplexed efficiency, endurance and tense calm with which one of the main characters packs a suitcase to leave forever. What is important is the sincere look with which a friend will accompany him. A brief conversation with a traitor is important. Efficient, bright, emotional.
But, at the same time, numerous household nuances and simple development of intrigue do not increase the interest of the film. Everything here is like in an opera - several smooth acts ending in an emotional extravaganza. Probably, the boredom of most of the tape was pre-programmed, but ... I suppose that most of all this long part was needed by Malus himself - passionately immersed in some details of his own childhood. Then it is clear why many details are not too spectacular - they will only become meaningful after explanation, author's explanation. The film is just an illustration. But I must say, the illustration is very powerful.
It is known that the name Reservoir Dogs, or rather its first part, Tarantino made it from the title of this film Malya. Probably impressed. I, with all due respect for the work, if only because of the importance of the topic of childhood and respect for the childhood memories of the director, do not tend to appreciate this picture. But my assessment is subjective, no more than the fruit of the audience's emotions. I would put Schindler a little higher, and even then, only for the game of Liam.
6 out of 10
On Christmas Eve 1943, Julien Kentin is sent from Nazi-occupied Paris to a Catholic college. Soon there are three newcomers, with one of whom, Jean Bonet, Julien converges quite close. One day Julien learns the secret of Jean, actually a Jewish boy, who hides in college under a strange name.
The film depicts in detail the emotional vulnerability of teenagers, the vicissitudes of boyish friendship, which from time to time is poisoned by the poison of anti-Semitism, which permeated the philistine consciousness in those years. Indicative in this sense is the image of Father Jean, the abbot of the institution, who, risking his own life, sheltered Jewish boys.
Contradictory nature of the abbot, who, on the one hand, shelters children from the Gestapo and calls in the preaching to share with others products, but at the same time remains faithful to religious dogmas, carrying the veil past the little infidel Bonnet-Kippelstein, who does not deserve the “body of Christ” during communion.
Mal, in the past an active reformer of the film language, came in the process of author’s evolution to an amazing calmness of form, which is characterized here – style honed, impeccable taste and poetic culture. Over the film hovers the shadow of Francois Truffaut: it seems that only he could make such a movie – sophisticated, piercing, nostalgic and sensual-metaphorical.
So watching Chaplin’s comedies in college is nothing more than an image of the universal unity of children and adults, Catholics and Jews. The same role is played by jazz improvisation in four hands on the piano, which finally brings Julien and Jean closer together. At the same time, the picture develops some topical themes that Malem touched upon in his past works.
One of them, and perhaps the most painful for the director, is collaboration, according to Malus, almost greater evil than the fascism that gave rise to it. It is interesting that in the role of traitors who surrendered their children to the Nazis, a nun and a hunted commoner Joseph, as if he had migrated here from another famous film of the director - Lacombe Lucien.
Louis Malle, one of the most beloved directors and guests of my screenings, would have celebrated his 81st birthday yesterday, but, alas, his life ended in the mid-90s, carried away not only a great man, but also a piece of pure, intellectual, aesthetic cinema, which now ... yes you already know.
Goodbye Children is Mal's famous painting, which tells the story of a group of boys studying at a Catholic college during the occupation. Soon we begin to understand that not only children from prosperous French families are studying in the institution, but also Jews who are sheltered under false names by the father-abbot. Continuing the theme of the paintings “Zero for Behavior” (Jean Vigo), which turned into “400 Blows” (François Truffaut), as if casually demonstrated the relationship of students with each other and with teachers, gradually thickening attention on a young guy, an unofficial class leader, and a beginner who is completely different from others.
With maps like this. Louis Malle, with the already familiar simplicity and ease of the artist, paints a multi-layered pure, emotional picture of the state of things of that time, about the mood in society, about faith, mercy and compassion, about friendship and love, about war and fascism, and, of course, about a fleeting, lost and half-forgotten childhood.
François, what is the “Jew”?
- Jew
- I know, but who exactly is this?
- The one who doesn't eat pork!
- Are you kidding me? What exactly are they accused of?
- That they are smarter than us, and that they crucified Jesus Christ.
- Not true! The Romans did it! Are they forced to wear a yellow star?
- No.
The picture, which became the second spiritual revelation of the author (telling not just a story about children, but the personal memories of the director about his own 1944), can be considered a lyrical departure from Lacombe Lucien with a touch of prudence and emotional frankness from Noise in the Heart \ Heart defect. If the connection with the "noise" is clear and directly proportional to the author's memories and anguish, what about Lucien, he gives a small sketch of the psychological, social and perhaps material reasons for the unreasonable mental incompetence, immorality and cruelty of the hero, explaining, if not all, then much.
I have a rather strange and, at the same time, interesting analogy, albeit with a less aesthetic, but no less sensual film by Mikhail Kalik “Goodbye, boys!”. It is clear that the picture of a different era and country, and that already in the title bright flagpole stands out brave Soviet exclamation mark. But if you look at the structure and very figuratively, both works, in general, raise the same topics, despite the fact that in one case they are Soviet strong-willed young men 17-18 years old at 41, and in the other they are intellectual French children 12 years old already at 44. Another age and country, and hence other conversations, other thoughts, a different atmosphere, situation, and society as a whole, another time, other fears and dreams, but still the same war, melancholic brooding, and it is an identical constant feeling of something unfinished, unsaid, in that lightning and irretrievably lost childhood / youth.
From the personal diary of a student of the College of St. Jean de Lacroix.
“The wheels are pounding. The suburbs of Paris are carried away, and with them the holidays are increasingly fading memories, already scattered by time like a pack of cards thrown at the window. Behind the bag with textbooks, and before my eyes still the image of the mother, covered with the aroma of expensive perfume and the hundred kisses that she sent me in the wake. She often irritates me greatly - she would rather let me stay in the capital than go to a cold and gloomy college. My dad wouldn’t have found out about it anyway – as always, he’s somewhere far away and very busy. I don’t care about him, though.
“In college, everything is as old as the flow of time can’t move this gray mass. Lessons that are easy for me. Daily prayers that you listen to half your ear. Reading spiritual books at lunch, which still makes most students laugh. At recess, you can arrange competitions on stilts or go to the “black market” to exchange rare brands for homemade jam. The saints, headed by the director, Father Jean, monitor the order and set up all sorts of rules, but craftsmen like me are still able to carry an adult magazine with them or study with a flashlight “A Thousand and One Nights” after a break.
“We have a newcomer named Jean Bonnet. This quiet and awkward guy immediately received from the indigenous inhabitants a portion of discomfort. It seems to me that in this team he will receive slaps for a very long time. If not always.
Bonnet’s appearance and life in college was always surrounded by a veil of mystery, which I had long tried to solve when I got close to Jean. The answer was very close. Or rather, on my new friend's bookshelf. I learned from a random book that Jean was Jewish. Who is that? Why, and most importantly, why are German invaders persecuting people like Jean? He's smart and talented. A bit strange, but still an ordinary person. The same guy as many others under the roof of an old college.
“Yesterday was like the first blow of thunder, after which you clearly understand the approach of a thunderstorm. An unexpected and terrible blow, after which you feel the world around you differently. The Germans took with them Jean, the abbot’s father, and other Jews he was hiding from death. To say goodbye, the director had almost nothing to say to us, only a brief one: "Goodbye, children." This was the end of his sermon on love and mercy, attested at the end by this feat. Surrounded by armed guards, seemingly even smaller than he was, Jean also walked past us. Friendship nationality can not prevent, but life, as it turned out, is capable.
“What happened at St. Jean de Lacroix’s College never leaves my mind. Shortly before the fateful day, students were shown a movie. Someday I want to make my own movie. He would tell us what happened to all of us. It will be a very serious movie, heavy and sad. Without humor or pathos, but unrelentingly realistic, it will display such a cruel wheel of life. There will be dark and light tones in it. It will not be a military story, which is many, but a story about friendship, broken by war into many pieces. The fragments that have become an echo of those fates and sufferings that cannot be forgotten. If we forget the past evil, we risk repeating it again.