Goodbye, children
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Goodbye, children |
| Original title | Au revoir, les enfants |
| Country of production | France , Germany , Italy |
| original language | French , German , English |
| Publishing year | 1987 |
| length | 104 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 6 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Louis Malle |
| script | Louis Malle |
| production | Louis Malle |
| music | Camille Saint-Saëns and Franz Schubert |
| camera | Renato Berta |
| cut | Emmanuelle Castro |
| occupation | |
| |
Goodbye, Children is a French feature film from 1987. The drama, which is based on an original screenplay by Louis Malle , who also directed , became a film. a. Produced by the film studios NEF Filmproduktion , Nouvelles Éditions de Films , MK2 Productions and Stella Films .
action
The film is set in the winter of 1944 in Germany-occupied France. 12-year-old Julien Quentin and his older brother François spent the Christmas holidays with their mother in Paris . They take the train back to their private boarding school, far away. Above all, Julien finds it difficult to say goodbye to his mother. The confessional Couvent des Carmes, which the two brothers attend, is under the direction of Father Jean and is led by Catholic priests . In his dormitory, the pubescent Julien secretly reads the adventure novels by Jules Verne and Alexandre Dumas as well as magazines with photos of bare-breasted women under the blanket . The Second World War seems to be a long way off here. Only occasional blackouts and the failure of the heating herald the war and the German soldiers who occupied the country. One day Jean Bonnet, a new student at the Couvent des Carmes, stumbles into this idyll . The boy with the black, frizzy hair and the even features arouses the attention of Julien, who runs an active black market with the kitchen boy Joseph in groceries brought from home. The restrained bonnet is cut by the other boys. He turns out to be extremely gifted in the field of mathematics. He also proves to be very talented in piano lessons with Mademoiselle Davenne - in contrast to Julien, whom the beautiful young piano teacher mockingly advises to try a violin.
Julien's curiosity is heightened when a piece of paper falls out of one of Bonnet's textbooks during an exam. This is passed secretly through the benches against Bonnet's will. When Julien holds the piece of paper in his hands, he recognizes a letter from Bonnet's mother, who says that she goes out as little as possible and that it is very difficult to write to her son. Julien, who returns the letter to Bonnet, can't help but say something about his mother. Father Jean heard from Julien's mother that one day he would like to join the order and hold a priesthood. In his opinion, Julien lacks any talent for the priesthood and he wants to stop him. While Julien is repenting after confession, a phone call from the priest attracts his attention. After the phone call from Julien, he asks about the new student Jean Bonnet and admonishes him to be especially nice to the boy, as does Julien's classmates who listen to him.
Julien and Bonnet approach each other hesitantly. During a trip to a public bath, the two of them share the book The Three Musketeers , which Julien is reading. During the conversation Julien learns that Bonnet's father was an accountant and that he himself is probably planning to make a living doing math one day. While the boys are undressing in the bathroom, Bonnet also reveals that he will not go to the Catholic confirmation . He pretends to be a Protestant, while Julien insists that the name "Bonnet" is not a Protestant name. One night in the dormitory he heard Bonnet praying in front of his bed in a foreign language. When several French militiamen go to school, Bonnet is secretly taken from the farm by the sports teacher and a priest, where the class is doing sports exercises. Julien learns from the kitchen boy Joseph that the militia officers are looking for objectors who are hiding in order to avoid their labor service in Germany. Julien's curiosity is still aroused. He examines Bonnet's bed and his wardrobe and comes across a book of ink prints of a certificate made out in the name of a Jean Kippelstein .
Julien continues to seek proximity to Bonnet, who tells him that his father is in prison and that his mother has not written to him for three months. Julien asks his older brother François about Jews and learns that they are not allowed to eat pork and that they crucified Jesus . Shortly afterwards, the students will play a terrain game in the hilly area in the area. Julien and Bonnet get lost in the thicket of the woods and are only picked up by Bavarian Wehrmacht soldiers late in the evening and brought back to the boarding school. In the infirmary, where the boys cure their cold after wandering around the forest for several hours, Julien tries to investigate the suspicion that Bonnet is a Jew. He offers Bonnet a roll with liver sausage. When Bonnet refuses, Julien confronts him with his real name. Bonnet pounces on Julien, and the nun who works in the infirmary finds it difficult to separate the fighting boys.
When the parents of the students come to visit, Father Jean tries to remind wealthy families during Holy Mass that material riches spoil the soul. He appeals to charity , whereupon a family man angrily leaves the fair. At the subsequent communion, Bonnet does not receive a host, which Julien notices. Bonnet, whose parents have not come, is invited to a restaurant by Julien's family. The silent boy is carried away by the loving Madame Quentin when suddenly two militiamen enter the restaurant and ask a guest for his papers. A militiaman recognizes him as a Jew who is not allowed to be in the restaurant. The incident heats the minds of the guests, and a German officer, who is sitting with his comrades at a table next to us, steps in and tells the collaborators to leave. Madame Quentin is surprised at the exemplary behavior of the German, who, according to François, only wanted to impress his beautiful mother.
After visiting the restaurant, Julien and Bonnet become good friends. When Julien is surprised one morning by a boy while he is trying to remove the traces of his bed-wetting that has been kept secret, Julien incites the malice of his friends while Bonnet defends him. The friendship seems to be endangered when the black market is exposed and the kitchen boy Joseph is fired. Father Jean reprimands Julien and François' behavior, but leaves them at school. Bonnet is giving Julien piano lessons when the other children seek shelter in the basement during an air raid. In the deserted schoolyard, they both listen to the distant rumble of the bombing, and Bonnet confesses to Julien that he is very afraid of being discovered. They begin by reading to each other from the book A Thousand and One Nights , which the priests forbid , but the two friends are suddenly torn apart when one day German soldiers enter the classroom during class. Your leader Dr. Müller asks about a Jean Kippelstein . The teacher assures that there is no boy of that name in the class, but Julien furtively looks behind her at Bonnet, which the German notices. Dr. Müller goes to the Bonnet sitting at the desk and examines him, whereupon the Jewish boy has to realize that his cover has been blown. He gets up, shakes hands with some boys, including Julien, and is led away by a Wehrmacht soldier. The other Jewish classmates whom Father Jean had hidden are also found and arrested together with the director of the Couvent des Carmes , the school is closed. As Julien learns, Father Jean was denounced by the dismissed Joseph. Julien sees Bonnet twice more. As he is packing up his things in the dormitory, his friend enters the room with the German soldier and also packs his things. Bonnet replies to Julien: “Don't worry about it. At some point they would have got me anyway. ”Bonnet hands Julien the books he has read, while Julien slips his friend the book A Thousand and One Nights . When all the students have to line up in the yard and the Germans check their presence, Father Jean and the Jewish boys, including Bonnet, are led away by two German soldiers. The students who remain behind call out the name of the director of the school and say goodbye to him. Father Jean turns around again and calls to the children, “Goodbye, children. See you soon! ”And then disappears into a side exit that leads to the street. The Jewish boys follow him, with Bonnet standing last at the door and looking back one more time. Julien raises his hand and waves him goodbye, then Bonnet is grabbed by a soldier and dragged onto the street.
The voice of the aged Julien announces the fate of the abducted from the off , while the camera focuses on the face of the desperate Julien, who is still looking at the door to the street: Bonnet and the other Jewish boys perished in Auschwitz , Father Jean in the Gusen concentration camp I (Mauthausen) . The school remained closed until October 1944. More than forty years had passed since then, but as long as he lived he would remember every moment of that January morning.
History of origin
After Louis Malle had thought about this film project for several years, his first draft for a screenplay was created within 14 days. The film is based on a true story from his childhood in 1944, when Malle attended the Petit Collège boarding school in Avon near Fontainebleau at the age of eleven . For the filming, which took place in the French Provins ( Seine-et-Marne department , east of Paris ) in the Île-de-France region , Malle returned to his French homeland for the first time after spending ten years in the USA .
background
- In real life, the head of the Petit Collège was not called Father Jean , but Père Jacques . For his act he was sent to the Gusen I concentration camp, which he survived only a few days after the end of the war. After his death he was honored as Righteous Among the Nations .
- Jean Bonnet was also the real code name of one of the hidden children. His real name, however, was Hans Helmut Michel . For Louis Malle, however , the name Michel had a French sound, which is why he gave the character the rather Jewish-sounding surname Kippelstein . Hans Helmut Michel was born on June 6, 1930 in Frankfurt am Main, the son of a Jewish doctor. When the persecution of the Jews began, his mother fled to Paris with him and his sister Laure, who was six years older than him. There they were arrested in July 1942 during the Rafle du Vélodrome d'Hiver (raid on the winter cycling track). On the way to the Velodrome, the collection point for the arrested Jews, a policeman took pity on the boy and opened a door so that he could escape. He was able to avoid a second arrest in December 1942 at the last moment. Since Hans Helmut spoke French without an accent, he managed to contact the Parisian pastor Théomir Devaux , who placed him at the Petit Collège .
- The figure of the kitchen boy Joseph did not exist in reality; the father was involuntarily betrayed by a member of the Resistance who had been interrogated by the Gestapo using torture . Père Jacques had been in close contact with the Resistance to help people fleeing the compulsory labor service STO .
- The childhood memories processed in the film must have caused great emotional pain to Malle. The French director burst into tears at the US premiere of the film at the Telluride Film Festival .
- The Couvent des Carmes still exists in Avon (Seine-et-Marne), but the Petit Collège was closed in 1960. As the director revealed, he went to school years later, but it was demolished and forgotten. In place of the school there is now a Center Spirituel next to the monastery . A memorial plaque was put up in the former school yard to commemorate the events.
reception
- Louis Malles' drama premiered in French cinemas on October 7, 1987 and became a success with both critics and audiences. The critics rated the unspectacular production as oppressively authentic and - after a long dry spell - as one of Male's best directorial works. In the Federal Republic of Germany, the film was released on November 5, 1987, and grossed a gross profit of EUR 1.76 million. In the United States celebrated children goodbye, under the title Children Goodbye, in December 1987 premiere and played 4,540,000 US dollars.
- In 2002, Bayerischer Rundfunk created the German-language audio description for television broadcasts with Bernd Benecke as speaker.
- At the same time as the film was released, the Paris publishing house Gallimard also published the book of the same name Au revoir, les enfants by Louis Malle. In 2003 the work was one of the advanced high school diploma topics in Baden-Württemberg and in 2007 and 2008 it was mandatory reading in French for the central high school diploma in North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony. In North Rhine-Westphalia and Baden-Württemberg, the film will also be discussed as part of the topic Relations franco-allemandes (Franco-German relations) .
- When Quentin Tarantino recommended the film to one of his video library customers under the title “Au revoir, les enfants”, the latter replied ignorant of French: “I don't want no Reservoir Dogs ”, whereupon Tarantino gave his first film the same title.
Reviews
- "'Au Revoir Les Enfants', his (Malles) first French film in ten years, marks a rebirth after a series of weak and meaningless films." (Washington Post)
- "A powerful portrait of occupied France, seen through the eyes of a child ... The best film in director Louis Male's outstanding career." (Spirituality & Health)
- “Louis Malle tells this formative memory of his youth as a maturation process in difficult times, in which emotions and authenticity are impressively balanced. A moving description of human behavior in the field of tension between racism, betrayal, guilt and solidarity. " ( Lexicon of international film )
Quote
Père Philippe and Père Jacques, the director, were very active, even leading, members of the Front National . Four Jewish boys who had joined the first trimester lived under false names in this boarding school. In January 1944 we heard a noise in the hallway, the slamming of boots. Before we saw the Germans, we heard them: two soldiers and a civilian. When they got inside, they called out a Jewish name that I don't remember. A classmate we knew as Bonnet stood up. It was very, very quiet in the room now. He put his boxes together. He made a small pile of them in the middle of the table, very carefully. I still remember the way he organized his things. He then went to each one of us in turn, we sat at tables that were in a U-shape. We were about 15 boys. That's how Bonnet made his rounds, shaking hands with each and every one of us to say goodbye. He also shook hands with the teacher, and then followed the Germans. ... And the same thing happened in the other three classes.
Awards
Goodbye, Kinder was nominated in nine categories for a César , the most important French film award , in 1988 and received seven awards. In addition to the trophies for the best film of the year, direction and screenplay, the drama was also awarded in several technical categories. At the Venice Film Festival the year before, Louis Male's work had won the Golden Lion in the Best Film category.
The film was also nominated for best foreign language film production at the Golden Globe Awards in 1988 , but was subject to the Swedish film contribution Mein Leben als Hund by Lasse Hallström . At the Academy Awards in the same year it was again nominated for best foreign language film and for best original screenplay, but it had to admit defeat to the Danish film Babettes Fest and the US production Moonstruck . In 1989 Louis Malle won the British Academy Film Award for best director.
Oscar 1988Nominated in the categories:
British Academy Film Awards 1989
Nominated in the categories:
Golden Globe 1988
César 1988
Nominated in the categories:
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Further awards
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literature
- Louis Malle: "Au revoir, les enfants." Un film de LM learning materials Ed. Wolfgang Ader. Reclam, Ditzingen 1993; 1998 ISBN 3-15-009290-6 (French)
- dsb .: Au revoir, les enfants Gallimard, [Paris] 1998 ISBN 2-07-038873-5 and others.
- dsb. & Reiner Poppe (eds): "Au revoir, les enfants." Key to reading Reclam, Ditzingen, rev. Edition 2008, ISBN 3-15-015382-4 (bilingual / subtitle: for schoolchildren)
- dsb .: Témoignage in: Helga Bories-Sawala, Catherine Szczesny & Rolf Sawala: La France occupée et la Résistance. Series: Simply French. Schöningh, Paderborn 2008, ISBN 978-3-14-046262-4 (predominantly French, partly in German, many illustrations and original documents; vocabulary) Page 38f .: the French report Malles about his experience who later made him make this film (first: 1973)
- Rainer Haberkern: "Au revoir, les enfants." Lesson model Schöningh / Westermann 2007, ISBN 3-14-046266-2 (bilingual)
- Hans-Dieter Schwarzmann & Judith Spaeth-Goes: LM: "Au revoir, les enfants" Dossier pédagogique Klett, Stuttgart 2001 (Series: Film in French lessons), ISBN 3-12-597263-9
- Louis Malle: "Au revoir, les enfants." Script. Klett, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-12-597262-0 (French; identical to the TB edition by Gallimard, series: Folio, ISBN 2-07-071187-0 )
- Renate Corsten & Atlas-Film (ed.): "Goodbye, children". Materials for a film by LM Atlas-Film & AV, Duisburg 1988, ISBN 3-88932-471-1
- Richard Bernstein: Malle Confronts Haunting Memory , The New York Times , February 7, 1988, ISSN 0362-4331
Web links
- Au revoir les enfants in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Au revoir les enfants in Hörfilm database of Hörfilm e. V.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Richard Bernstein, Malle Confronts Haunting Memory , The New York Times , Feb. 7, 1988, Section 2, Page 1, ISSN 0362-4331 , direct link
- ^ Joseph M. Malham: By Fire Into Light: Four Catholic Martyrs of the Nazi Camps , Peeters Publishers, Leuven 2002, ISBN 978-90-429-1162-8 , (English), p. 119
- ^ Peter Debruge: Quentin Tarantino: The Great Recycler. October 7, 2013, accessed May 5, 2017 .
- ^ Louis Malle: Témoignage in: Helga Bories-Sawala, Catherine Szczesny & Rolf Sawala: La France occupée et la Résistance , series: Simply French. Schöningh, Paderborn 2008, ISBN 978-3-14-046262-4 , page 38 f, free translation, slightly shortened
Remarks
- ↑ Malle uses the slang term "bouquin" for school books