Bob Pr. We saw this in a Great Films group for retired university faculty, &c., and I found it very accurate and convincing of how some children will deal with severe loss. (I'm a retired clinical psychologist with quite a bit of experience working with orphans and foster children and I found it very convincing.) Children differ in their reactions to serious events; in this Paulette (age 5) loses her parents and her very dear pet dog to German planes strafing them as they're fleeing Paris early in WW-II. She soon meets an adopting friend, Michel (10), the son of peasant farmers in their rural area, and he gets his family to accept her. He's Catholic (she's not) and Michel teaches her how to say prayers and honor the dead, and together they bury her dead dog (which she'd been carrying) and they somewhat overcome her losses (and his strong need to have a young companion) by building a cemetery, ritually burying other animals, having funeral services (just the 2 of them), and finding (stealing) and putting up crosses on those graves. Very touching but never overdone, IMO. This won many awards including being understandably listed as one of Roger Ebert's "Great Films," an Oscar, et alia.

Jackson Booth-Millard From director René Clément, this French film was featured in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, and like many of the other films in the book I was looking forward to seeing if I would agree with the high rating by the critics, five out of five stars, and the book recommendation of course. Basically, set in 1940, during the time of the Battle of France in the Second World War, five year old Paulette (Brigitte Fossey) suffers the death of her parents and her pet dog when they are killed on a bridge in a German air attack, along with other fleeing Parisians, and escaping the trauma she meets ten year old Michel Dolle (Georges Poujouly) who is the youngest of a peasant family, and they allow her to be taken in having become an orphan. Surrounded by death, destruction and devastation the two friends attempt to cope with it building a small secret cemetery in the ruins of an abandoned barn, this is where they bury her dead dog and other animals, using crosses that they steal from the graveyard to mark their graves, they even steal the cross from the grave of Michel's brother. The neighbour is suspected by Michel's Father (Lucien Hubert) as the person who stole the cross from his dead son's grave, but he does find out that it was Michel that took it, and meanwhile the French police come to take Paulette from the Dolle family. Michel is upset and angry at the thought of his friend being taken away, and he tells his father that he must not let her go otherwise he will not tell him where the stolen crosses are hidden, and after his father does not keep his promise to help her he throws all the crosses in the flowing river. Paulette is taken to a Red Cross camp, but before the end of the film she is seen escaping and running into a crowd, stopping only in the train station to cry for the loss of her friend Michel and the death of her mother. Also starring Amédée as Francis Gouard, Laurence Badie as Berthe Dolle, Suzanne Courtal as Madame Dolle, Jacques Marin as Georges Dolle and André Wasley as Gouard, the Father. The performances are all good, especially by the young stars, the story about the distractions from war and Nazi occupation with childhood innocence is interesting, there are moving and poignant moments, and it does not need to delve in sentimentality or anything predictable, it is a great drama. Very good!

kenjha During WWII, a little French girl meets a family in the countryside after her parents are killed in a Nazi air raid. This much-praised film won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film, but it ranges unevenly from sentimental drama to broad comedy. As the little girl, six-year-old Fossey gives a remarkable performance. She is matched by Poujouly, who was twelve at the time. While these two young actors have some nice moments, the adults in the film are little more than caricatures. The film is preoccupied with death and religion. Rather than offering anything profound on these heavy topics, however, the film just bogs down from the weight.

aflynn I first saw this small movie in 1976 at the now long gone Inner Circle Theater in Washington DC, as part of a double feature with "The Grand Illusion." Despite the emotional drain of seeing these movies in one sitting, I thought "Forbidden Games" was one of the best I had ever seen. I rediscovered it in the Criterion Collection 34 years later, and still find it a wonderfully engaging movie. Personally, I have no problem with the ending, which I do not find at all confusing. The Criterion Collection DVD includes interviews with director Rene Clement from 1962, with child star Brigitte Fossey in 2000, and with the director and actress together in 1967. This DVD also includes the alternate opening and ending, which fortunately were not used, as they would have neutered the impact of the story.