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Created Apr 23, 2010 11:32PM PST • Edited Apr 23, 2010 11:32PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Really Great 4.5

   A fascinating film about children in Nazi occupied France, and an almost surreal view of the effect that their horrific Lebensraum policies had on an otherwise peacefully run boys Catholic school and the surrounding small French community. Dramatic without over use of drama – instead, this film hits you hard as you watch the uncomfortable reality unfold through a child’s-eye view.

4. Acting

   Very Good 3.5

   Gaspard Manesse as Julien Quentin, and Raphael Fejtö as “Jean Bonnet” (really Jean Kippelstein) are the central characters and both shine as thoughtful and smart boys. Julien eventually gets what is going on around him shortly before Jean and the other Jewish boys are rounded up and taken away.

5. Male Stars Very Good 3.5

6. Female Stars Very Good 3.5

7. Female Costars Very Good 3.5

8. Male Costars Very Good 3.5

10. Film

    Really Great 4.5

    Louis Malle makes use of everyday happenings to tell the story. Boys being boys at school and with Family – kidding each other over girls and bed-wetting – the creepy fact that they are being encroached by the Germans is only heavily apparent towards the end of the film – and that has maximum effect to show how this poison is such a shock to common life. The film ends up being just as much about the turmoil within the French people as much as it was about the Germans.

11. Direction Really Great 4.5

12. Play Really Great 4.5

13. Music Really Great 4.5

14. Visuals Really Great 4.5
15. Content

16. Edge

    Tame 1.3

17. Sex Innocent 1.3

18. Violence Gentle 1.3

19. Rudeness Polite 1.3

21. Reality

    Glib 1.2

22. Circumstantial Glib 1.2

23. Biological Glib 1.2

24. Physical Glib 1.2