Forbidden Games - Criterion Collection (1952)

A timeless evocation of the loss of innocence, René Clément’s devastating Forbidden Games tells the story of a young orphan and her friend forced to fend for themselves in World War II France. Featuring brilliant performances from its child stars, the film won the 1952 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film and remains a singular, breathtaking cinematic achievement.

Sad

When I was a kid in the sixties this movie appeared on TV; I was not allowed to watch it, I guess because of my parents' then traditional catholicism; I just saw at that time a glimpse of the two children with the crosses. Those images, the soundtrack which my much older sister listened to almost constantly, and the name of the movie have haunted me ever since, forty years ago.
I recently bought the DVD and I was not disappointed. The movie is so lyrical, the children's acting so heartfelt, the inevitability of loss so heartbreaking. All the rituals we invent to alleviate loss, the images seem to suggest, are an illusion at best. The somber cast of WWII in Europe is just a scratch beneath the buccolic setting, reminding me that that senseless evil is still as close to all of us as it ever has been. April 7, 2008

A Remarkable, Wonderful Foreign Classic

OK, I'm going to take a short break from my mocking open distain for "things French", to comment on this classic film.

"Forbidden Games" is stunning, moving, sensitive, thoughtful -- and an important time capsule from post WWII France. The soundtrack dialogue is French, with difficult to follow, fast moving English subtitles.

(I'll also break from my habit of not directly discussing plot). This film opens with a rural road mass refugee scene, as crowds flee Paris. The throng is strafed by a German aircraft. A family of three is caught in the open and the mother and father and a five year old girl's small dog are killed. The girl picks up the dog and wanders away, ignored by the panicking crowd.

The little girl, Paulette (played by Brigette Fossey) is adopted by a rustic family living in a community of rustics. An 11 year old boy in the family, Michel (played by Georges Poujouly), bonds with the girl, and they discuss what happens to dead parents and dogs. The girl has no religious training, and is quickly, and very innocently, picking up bits and pieces.

Paulette buries her dog, and Michel helps console her by finding other dead animals and they create a clandestine pet cemetary. Michel then begins stealing crosses (from the church, graveyard, etc) to honor the dead in the pet cemetary. Wartime disruption and poverty goes on in the families and community around them. There is an inter-family disapproved romance, and instances of military desertion . . . hey, this is France! (sorry).

Director Rene Clement wrung an absolutely stunning performance out of the child actors. The violated innocence is convincing. So is the poor village environment.

The theft of the crosses brings the attention of the community and the authorities . . . and I'll stop there. No need to give away an ending. A bittersweet classic foreign film that is wonderful viewing. Unusual and very nicely done. This film was intelligently written & directed, and there are layers of symbolism beneath the surface plot. Will make for enjoyable re-viewing. Belongs in your collection.

April 5, 2008

Forbidden Games

The stark simplicity of Rene Clement's masterpiece makes it one of the more eloquent anti-war statements ever put on film. In a world gone mad, Michel and Paulette respond with an act of quiet kindness, which is their way of making sense of what is happening. While clinging to childhood via their secret game, the two unwittingly reflect humanity's noblest traits in its darkest hour. Haunting and profound. June 25, 2007

A Superb Film

"Forbidden Games" was never a film I wanted to see. I didn't know anything about it, but I saw it on video store shelves a couple times. This movie is a perfect example of why a person shouldn't judge a "book" by its cover. The cover is, usually, the first thing someone notices about a film and the cover of "Forbidden Games" doesn't scream "see me!" Too bad, because it is (as you probably already know) a masterpiece. Opening in France, in 1940, during the German blitzkrieg of Paris;
We watch as hundreds of people flee for the countryside. Then we see a young girl named Paulette, whose parents are hurrying her along. She's too preoccupied with getting her dog Jock. As planes fly overhead, Paulette chases after the dog, which leads to the death of both her parents and her dog. After the corpse of the dog is thrown into a river, Paulette retrieves it and wanders into the countryside home of the Dolle family. There she meets a child a few years older than her named Michel, whose family has enough problems that they are hesitant to bring in a child. After all, Michel's brother Georges was just kicked by a horse and lies in bed dying. But the father of the Dolle family allows Paulette to stay. The title "Forbidden Games" refers to what begins to happen midway through the film between Michel and Paulette. After burying her dog, Paulette becomes obsessed with burying other animals around him. She enlists Michel's help in doing so, as well as retrieving crosses for the burial sites no matter how he gets them. Death is the theme of the film and it is a theme that is hammered into the ground. Anyone who watches this film should realize that it's a great film, but that doesn't always mean you'll enjoy it. After all, a lot of great films aren't necessarily entertaining. This film, however, is entertaining. If Jean Renoir's "Grand Illusion" was the most important film about World War I, than "Forbidden Games" is easily the most important about World War II. It's a wonderful, beautifully photographed, and superbly acted film that is largely unseen today. I urge you, if you're reading this and have not seen the film, to go see it.

GRADE: A March 15, 2007

A tale that plays with the viewer

How? By inviting the viewer to interpret the weird things going on, and thus reveal his own heart and mind (the dark side of them). The story, mind you, stands on its own feet if you don't interpret it and only bear witness to the superficial facts, which are innocent enough, tender for sure, and sad as any other story of war time can be. And that's it... at first sight. But evidently the director has made every little detail fit an ambivalent agenda. He hints at more; what more? That's the trick.

On the surface, if you disregard everything said above, the film is still beautiful and haunting. The charming little kids play their "secret" games. Games that would be macabre if they themselves were not so young and innocent to realize it. (Is the boy really that young and innocent?) One thing that makes me think, after watching the interview to the director in the extras, was that he intended to have as the little girl star an older gilr, more 9 or 11 than 5 years old as she was. Well, that would have made a lot of difference. The ambivalence wouldn't have been so; I mean, what is underlying now would actually be the meaning of the story.

In any case, the little kids do their parts wonderfully as I haven't seen in any movie with kids until now. The cinematography is gorgeous, the guitar (splendid 'Gardens of Aranjuez by Rodrigo) music is enchanting and the overall mixture of tragicomedy and macabre allegory is really haunting. I did not like the ending very much, though, but I can't come up with a good way to end the story but abruptly, since it has such an oneiric quality about it.

Another important thing is that if you focus too much on the two little leading stars you are going to miss a lot of other imprtant things going on. Every character (& groups of characters) is worth attention and study. A great film.
March 6, 2007

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