FORBIDDEN GAMES Movie Review

Les Jeux Interdits

Paulette (Brigitte Fossey), a five-year-old girl whose parents are killed as the family flees Nazi occupied Paris, is taken in by a peasant family that includes 11-year-old Michel (Georges Poujouly). Paulette adapts as best she can thanks to the help of the adoring Michel. She understands the need for survival, though she's confused by her new rural lifestyle, and she's utterly uncomprehending of the meaning of this thing called death that has come to her parents. Together, the two children try to grasp what death is about; ultimately, Paulette's eyes are opened in a final scene that is one of the most emotionally harrowing sequences in all cinema. Forbidden Games, one of the greatest and most heartbreaking films ever made, is the work of France's René Clément, who, though he's unquestionably done other fine work (notable is the 1960 Purple Noon, starring Alain Delon), never again approached the power or majesty of this haunting, obviously heartfelt fable. All of the acting is exemplary, but the performance of little Brigitte Fossey is astounding. (She's so powerful in the role that you'll want to look her up in one of the films she made as an adult—like The Man Who Loved Women—just to assure yourself that she's really OK.) The legendary score is by Narciso Yepes. Academy Award, Best Foreign Language Film.

NEXT STOP … Grand Illusion, Shame (Bergman, 1968), Au Revoir les Enfants

1952 90m/B FR Brigitte Fossey, Georges Poujouly, Amedee, Louis Herbert, Suzanne Courtal, Jacques Marin, Laurence Badie, Andre Wasley, Louis Sainteve; D: Rene Clement; W: Rene Clement, Jean Aurenche, Pierre Bost, Francois Boyer; C: Robert Juillard; M: Narciso Yepes. Academy Awards '52: Best Foreign Film; British Academy Awards '53: Best Film; New York Film Critics Awards '52: Best Foreign Film; Venice Film Festival '52: Best Film; Nominations: Academy Awards '54: Best Story. VHS, LV NOS, NLC