3 Films by Louis Malle (1971)

A four-disc box set showcasing director Louis Malle's loose trilogy of acclaimed films about the loss of innocence and modern France. Murmur of the Heart is about a 15-year-old boy growing up in Dijon in the 1950s and his scandalous behavior. Lacombe Lucien takes place in the summer of 1944 and tells the story of an 18-year-old working for the occupying Nazis. Au revoir les enfants is Malle's award-winning autobiographical story about two boys at a provincial Catholic boarding school during the war and the secret they share. Also includes a fourth disc of supplements exclusive to this box set.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: NR UPC: 037429212929 Manufacturer No: MAL030 Product Description

Au Revoir Les Enfants

Director Malle's masterpiece is a subtly drawn, wrenching tale of childhood innocence lost to the madness of war. Malle expertly evokes this nightmarish period in his country's history, and teases pitch-perfect performances out of both juvenile leads, as their relationship evolves from one of mistrust to friendship. The film's deeply felt, highly personal quality resonates, as we discern that Julien is based on Malle himself as a boy. Among the supporting cast, Rucette excels as Julien's affectionate but distracted mother, while both Francois Berleand and Philippe Morier-Genoud shine as the priests who run the school. A moving and important film for the ages. July 6, 2007

Too low key and bland for my tastes.

I bought this set primarily because I liked Elevator to the Gallows, directed by Louis Malle who also dircted the three films discussed here. Au Revoir Les Enfants and Lacombe, Lucien just didn't appeal to my tastes, however. I found Lacombe, Lucien in particular to be rather slow and ultimately unsatisfying. The story, about a thuggish French boy working for the Gestapo who falls in love with a Jew, could have been interesting, but it's handled in a very low key and uninvolving style. The ending just kind of happens. Au Revoir Les Enfants was slightly more involving, but not enough to leave much of an impression. It too just sort of ends.

Murmur of the Heart is an entirely different kind of film from the other two. While Au Revoir Les Enfants and Lacombe, Lucien are somber tales of young people during World War II, Murmur of the Heart is a very sexual coming of age tale. It benefits from having a hot actress play the boy's mother, and is overall more enjoyable than the movies that it shares the set with. It does deal with a taboo subject that might shock some viewers, but the movie is so light and goodnatured that it's hard to be troubled by it.

Don't buy this set if you don't like low key, slowly paced films. Au Revoir Les Enfants and Lacombe, Lucien are not exactly snappy entertainment. Some viewers might even be put off by the matter of fact violence against animals in Lacombe, Lucien. But Murmur of the Heart might appeal to those who like sexually frank coming of age films.

December 3, 2006

Louis Malle collection -- get it today!

A compelling collection of Malle's work with good transfers to DVD and some excellent reviews of the movies themselves. Definitely worth while if you like his work. August 19, 2006

Very Fine

Louis Malle was perhaps, the quietest, the most meditative, and yet also the most overtly political of the French New Wave filmmakers. Godard eclipsed him in creativity and Truffaut in human empathy, yet there remains a solemn and beautiful unity to Malle's work that often goes unrecognized.

This collection includes three films, `Au Revoir Les Enfants', `Murmer of the Heart', and Lacombe Lucien.' `Au Revoir' is about a Catholic seminary that hides some Jewish children during the Nazi occupation. It is apparently autobiographical, but that should not concern the viewer, for it remains a cinematic (and therefore fictitious) meditation on the possibility of a friendship in times of hardship. The film is unfocused, slow, yet very beautiful and affecting. Although there is something peculiar about the way Malle transforms Jean, the Jewish student of genius into an aesthetic object of exoticism. It reflects the nature of anti-semitism in France, which saw Jews as the enlightened `Other,' in contradistinction to the German conceptualization of the Jewish vermin.

`Murmer of the Heart,' is the outstanding member of the collection. It is a (I hate to say it) coming-of-age comedy, about a precocious young boy thrown into a wild and raucous wealthy family, where is brothers incessantly create commotion, and his brainless and beautiful mother participates in the chaos to the dismay of her husband, who is a gynecologist. Lea Massari is wonderful as the mother. The film is funny, elegant, and highly sensual and provocative.

"Lacombe Lucien,' is about why Fascism exists. It is a study of an adolescent who has no moral center, and blankly works for the Vichy regime and informs on members of the resistance. It is about nihilism, though the film's tone is never severe (perhaps regrettably). There are beautiful moments in this film, particularly of the interiors and that marvelous, yawning great dane. But the film simply goes on for too long. The last half hour of the film is simply devoid of any meaningful or stimulating content. It is a handsome failure.

A very nice collection of films on the whole, the extra features disc is just a way to raise the excessive price. July 5, 2006

3 of Malle's films some bad some good.

This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film.

This 4 disc set contains 3 of Louis Malle's films. Murmur of the Heart, Lacombe Lucien, and Au Revoir, Les Enfants.

Murmur of the Heart, known in France as Le Souffle au coeur, is about a 15 year old boy with 2 older brothers. They do mean things to him on occasion. Later he is taken to a clinic by his mother and they spend their time at a nearby hotel. I found the film to be very poor due to its depiction of the boy's incestous relationship with his mother.

Lacombe, Lucien is about a French man working for the Gestapo during the German occupation in World War II. He later meets some Jews and is unsure what he should do. This film was OK.

Au Revior, Les Enfants is about a Catholic boarding school in France during the German occupation. Some Jews are in hiding as students there under false names and a student befriends one of them. This film was really good.

All the major supplements are included on the fourth disc.

Disc one contains Murmur of the Heart with a theatrical trailer
Disc two contains Lacombe Lucien with a theatrical trailer
Disc three contains Au Revior Les Enfants with a teaser and a trailer.

Disc four contains interviews with Malle biographer Pierre Billard and Malle's widow Candice Bergen, French TV interviews with Malle about Murmur of the Heart and Lacombe Lucien, audio interviews with Malle from the Americal Film Institute in 1988 and the National Film Theatre in 1974 and 1990, Charlie Chaplin's film, The Immigrant, and a profile of the character, Joseph, from Au Revoir Les Enfants. July 3, 2006

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