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Goodbye Children

Au revoir les enfants

1987

Louis Malle

Gaspard Manesse, Raphaël Fetjo, Francine Racette, Stanislas Carré de Malberg ...

7.8

15,591

Drama During the winter of 1943, Julien Quentin, a pampered mother's boy who acts tough to the students at the school but is actually a soft kid who wets the bed, leaves his home in Paris at the end of Christmas break. Saddened to be returning to the tediousness of boarding school, Julien's classes seem uneventful until Père Jean, the headmaster, introduces three new pupils. One of them, Jean Bonnet, is the same age as Julien. Julien at first ... [+]

	Author	Review
United States	Vincent Canby The New York Times	"Mr. Malle treats his young actors without condescension and they, in turn, respond with performances of natural gravity and humor (...) Mr. Manesse and Mr. Fejto are fine"	POS
United States	Roger Ebert rogerebert.com	"It feels no need for strong plotting and lots of dramatic incidents leading up to the big finale (...) We get a feeling for the rhythm of the school (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 4)"	POS
United Kingdom	Tom Huddleston Time Out	"It’s this ever-shifting balance of power that is the film’s greatest strength (...) Crisply photographed and directed with understated grace (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United Kingdom	Peter Bradshaw The Guardian	"An unrivalled depiction of childhood, memory and war (...) There is a miraculous, unforced ease and naturalness in the acting and direction (…) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Rita Kempley The Washington Post	"A moving portrait (...) Malle has written and directed with the compassion of an adult and the simplicity of a child (...) Malle never oversimplifies"	POS
United Kingdom	David Parkinson Empire	"Louis Malle, possibly at his best here. The drama is subtle but affecting (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Kevin Thomas Los Angeles Times	"It has the subtlety and devastating impact of Renoir's prophetic classic 'Rules of the Game', and it is suffused with the calm, detached tragic irony and inevitability of the ancient Greek plays."	POS
Ireland	Donald Clarke Irish Times	"Masterful (...) A humane, often funny, coming-of-age story (...) A strong story worth savouring on the big screen (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Glenn Heath Jr. Slant	"The master director recollects the subtle nuances of everyday life in a landscape gripped by terror (…) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 5)"	POS

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