Morality isn’t something we’re innately born with. We learn
it. Partly from family and teachers, but morality is most strongly discovered
through experience. Au Revoir Les Enfants is a film about a friendship between two
young boys at a Catholic monastic school in Nazi-occupied France. One of the boys Jean Bonnet
(Raphael Fejto) is a Jew being hidden away under a fake identity by the priests of the
monastery. The other boy Julien Quentin (Gaspard Manesse) slowly puts one and two together about Jean’s
real identity; Julien first hounds Jean for answers before easing into a friendship
after realizing how petty his actions have been. Julien is at a point in his
life where he is still coming into his own, and he hides his uncertainty behind
false bravado. Behind his demeanor is the personality of a sensitive soul, and
his character has much more in common with Jean than he’d like to admit. But Jean is a bullied figure of ridicule due to his social awkwardness and
intellectual rigor. Julien even participates in this outcasting, before it
begins to dawn on him what he is colluding in. The film subtly suggests how the
cruelty of humans begins at a young age in small practices of indignity and
chauvinism, and it contrasts this with the small acts of kindness and
connection between Julien and Jean. Director Louis Malle based the story on
his own childhood experiences, and he aims for total immersion, both in the
period itself and the school setting. The authenticity of Malle’s careful
observation only serves to heighten the film's chilling outcomes. Julien, Malle's stand-in, will carry these
lessons with him for the rest of his life; how could he not? How could we not?
Grade: A-
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