THE FORBIDDEN GAME MOVIE MOVIE

What keeps Forbidden Games on an even dramatic keel are the near-perfect performances from the two kids. The hidden satire in Jean Aurenche and Pierre Bost's script goes even further all we really remember about Paulette's parents is that they argued with each other. Although Forbidden Games never takes on the tone of a farce, the spat between Papa Dolle (Lucien Hubert) and Papa Gouard (André Wasley) goes so far as to have them fight even after falling together into a freshly-dug grave. The competition is clearly a war in miniature, with all adult behavior reduced to spite and violence. The Dolle family is constantly at odds with their neighbors the Gouards, jealous over trivialities and quick to accuse them of low deeds. The adults are simple peasants possessing few of the graces traditionally attributed to farming people. It instead compares and contrasts the foolish concerns of the parents with the bizarre behavior of the alienated children. Unlike Buñuel, Forbidden Games isn't interested in criticizing the institution of the Church. Surrounded by killing and death, Paulette invents a burial ritual for her pet and is soon conniving to get Michel to help her construct a little morbid graveyard, with crosses and other paraphernalia stolen from the churchyard. She doesn't fully appreciate the death of her parents and strugles to understand the passing of her little dog. Petite fille Paulette knows life in simple terms. The context is war, and Paulette's family is driven from Paris and killed from the air by German planes. Ignored and misunderstood, the tykes create their own little world based on what they know and observe. Little Paulette and Michel are more adorable versions of the amoral children in Buñuel's Los Olvidados. In different hands Forbidden Games could easily be rendered as a perverse satire or subversive tract along the lines of the better works of Luis Buñuel, whose vitriolic Viridiana is expected soon from Criterion. Attracted by the decorations at the local chapel, Paulette soon has Michel stealing crosses for her - even from the altar of the confused priest (Louis Saintève). Coddled and ignored by the Dolle parents, Paulette and Michel react to the pervasive death around them by making their own cemetery for deceased pets and barnyard animals. Her parents killed, little Paulette (Brigitte Fossey) finds her way to the Dolle farm and is befriended by young Michel (George Poujouly). Synopsis: The evacuation from Paris, 1940.

THE FORBIDDEN GAME MOVIE MOVIE

Thanks to a pair of near-perfect juvenile performances, the movie hits us from two sides simultaneously - it's a gripping drama and a peerless allegory for what art films used to call 'the human condition.' A basic synopsis tends to sound trite and simplistic, but the film is anything but. In fact, the Cahiers du Cinema critics made it their business to take control of French film criticism by condemning previous 'prestige' trends in French filmmaking.įorbidden Games is a true classic, one of those films one doesn't forget. René Clément is a lauded director from the immediate pre- New Wave era and as such missed out on the critical accolades given the trendier Godards and Truffauts.

The forbidden game movie