Goodbye, Children (Au Revoir Les Enfants) Reviews
August 10, 2020
The powerfully moving WWII story of two friends whose innocence is taken away because of the actions of evil men.
April 16, 2020
In Goodbye, Children, we find the best of French cinema... that realist, almost documentary streak, of people like Renoir. [Full Review in Spanish]
April 11, 2019
Without portentousness or pretension, it achieves genuine tragic depth.
August 13, 2018
There is not a false note in [this] film.
December 31, 2017
Without being sentimental, the drama is incredibly moving as the muted light plays over young faces that are about to face the unknowable evils of the adult world.
April 14, 2015
[VIDEO ESSAY] "Au Revoir Les Enfants" is a heartbreakingly confessional wartime film made all the more effective by the care with which the subjective story is told. Its sense of loss is profound.
Full Review
| Original Score: A+
January 29, 2015
Not the director's best work, but far, far from being his worst either.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
January 28, 2015
Breathtakingly good.
Full Review
| Original Score: 5/5
January 28, 2015
Malle builds Au Revoir Les Enfants out of small but vivid details centred on the life of the boarder, and the daily rituals and routines experienced by Julien Quentin (Gaspard Manesse) and Jean Bonnet (Raphael Fejt).
Full Review
| Original Score: 5/5
January 26, 2015
An ever-shifting balance of power is the film's greatest strength.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
January 26, 2015
It was a story that, 'kept haunting me all these years,' Malle said, and it's likely to haunt the viewer a little also.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
June 28, 2011
One of Louis Malle's most personal and significant films.
Full Review
| Original Score: A-
August 24, 2010
Louis Malle, possibly at his best here. The drama is subtle but affecting.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
August 24, 2010
In this frightening and beautiful film, a schoolboy must learn hard lessons early.
September 13, 2006
Malle's approach is perfectly suited to the subject -- not in the least because his deliberate pacing conveys a child's sense of time.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4.5/5
April 6, 2006
Avoids sentimentality, clichs and bombast, as it instead touches the heart in a moving and unforgettable way.
Full Review
| Original Score: A+
April 2, 2006
unquestionably Malle's most personal film and arguably his most powerful
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
March 27, 2006
As ever, Malle's sensitivity is supreme and his delicate style evocative. [Blu-ray]
Original Score: 4/4
February 9, 2006
The film's quiet integrity finally depends on his avoidance of heroic clich and stylistic bombast, and on the unindulgent generosity extended towards his characters.
October 10, 2005
Original Score: 4/5