Forbidden Games [VHS]

Forbidden Games [VHS]
by Ren? Cl?ment

Forbidden Games [VHS]
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Product details

Actor: Am?d?e, Brigitte Fossey, Georges Poujouly, Laurence Badie, Madeleine Barbul?e
Director: Ren? Cl?ment
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Subtitled); French (Original Language), Analog
Format: Black & White, NTSC
Running Time: 105 minutes
Release Date: 2000-06-06
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Publisher: Homevision
Studio: Homevision

VHS Movie Reviews of Forbidden Games [VHS]

Movie Review: 3.5 stars out of 4
Summary: 5 Stars

The Bottom Line:

A wonderful, simple story of two children during wartime who become friends and attempt to understand war and death, Forbidden Games is an accessible and involving story that culls good performances from its young leads and ends on an appropriately downbeat note: it's quite a film.

Movie Review: Under the Eyes of the Owl
Summary: 4 Stars

Forbidden Games is a sad tale of war. A little girl (Brigitte Fossey) witnesses her family killed while fleeing the bombs of WWII. Even her dog is killed, but she carries him with her as she wanders away. She stumbles upon a rural family with a young boy named Michel (Georges Poujouly). The Dolle's take her in, and Michel becomes her closest friend. Paulette has an obsession with death, and when she buries her dog, she insists that other animals accompany him near his grave so that he will not be lonely. Michel does his best to oblige her but cannot easily find crosses to decorate the graves. Paulette becomes his eyes and requests every pretty cross that she sees.

A moving film with two wonderful child actors, Forbidden Games is depressing but very well done. It is a strong arguement against war and a plea for war orphans everywhere. Director Ren? Cl?ment utilizes an untraditional way of opening and closing his film. Although the story follows a logical progression, it opens abruptly and ends without the story being concluded. In this way, we are presented with a slice of life and are able to relate better to the story and to the characters.

In spite of the grim subject, there are a few moments of humor, even in spite of the seriousness of the actions. Laughter in times of crisis is often therapeutic, and Cl?ment gives us a few of those moments.

Movie Review: Sad
Summary: 5 Stars

When I was a kid in the sixties this movie appeared on TV; I was not allowed to watch it, I guess because of my parents' then traditional catholicism; I just saw at that time a glimpse of the two children with the crosses. Those images, the soundtrack which my much older sister listened to almost constantly, and the name of the movie have haunted me ever since, forty years ago.
I recently bought the DVD and I was not disappointed. The movie is so lyrical, the children's acting so heartfelt, the inevitability of loss so heartbreaking. All the rituals we invent to alleviate loss, the images seem to suggest, are an illusion at best. The somber cast of WWII in Europe is just a scratch beneath the buccolic setting, reminding me that that senseless evil is still as close to all of us as it ever has been.

Movie Review: A Remarkable, Wonderful Foreign Classic
Summary: 5 Stars

OK, I'm going to take a short break from my mocking open distain for "things French", to comment on this classic film.

"Forbidden Games" is stunning, moving, sensitive, thoughtful -- and an important time capsule from post WWII France. The soundtrack dialogue is French, with difficult to follow, fast moving English subtitles.

(I'll also break from my habit of not directly discussing plot). This film opens with a rural road mass refugee scene, as crowds flee Paris. The throng is strafed by a German aircraft. A family of three is caught in the open and the mother and father and a five year old girl's small dog are killed. The girl picks up the dog and wanders away, ignored by the panicking crowd.

The little girl, Paulette (played by Brigette Fossey) is adopted by a rustic family living in a community of rustics. An 11 year old boy in the family, Michel (played by Georges Poujouly), bonds with the girl, and they discuss what happens to dead parents and dogs. The girl has no religious training, and is quickly, and very innocently, picking up bits and pieces.

Paulette buries her dog, and Michel helps console her by finding other dead animals and they create a clandestine pet cemetary. Michel then begins stealing crosses (from the church, graveyard, etc) to honor the dead in the pet cemetary. Wartime disruption and poverty goes on in the families and community around them. There is an inter-family disapproved romance, and instances of military desertion . . . hey, this is France! (sorry).

Director Rene Clement wrung an absolutely stunning performance out of the child actors. The violated innocence is convincing. So is the poor village environment.

The theft of the crosses brings the attention of the community and the authorities . . . and I'll stop there. No need to give away an ending. A bittersweet classic foreign film that is wonderful viewing. Unusual and very nicely done. This film was intelligently written & directed, and there are layers of symbolism beneath the surface plot. Will make for enjoyable re-viewing. Belongs in your collection.

Movie Review: Forbidden Games
Summary: 5 Stars

The stark simplicity of Rene Clement's masterpiece makes it one of the more eloquent anti-war statements ever put on film. In a world gone mad, Michel and Paulette respond with an act of quiet kindness, which is their way of making sense of what is happening. While clinging to childhood via their secret game, the two unwittingly reflect humanity's noblest traits in its darkest hour. Haunting and profound.
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Summary of Forbidden Games [VHS]

One of France's greatest films, Forbidden Games is the searing masterpiece of Rene Clement (Gervaise). Like its predecessor Grand Illusion, this startling antiwar film is devastating without bloody battle scenes. Through the poignant story of an orphan girl befriended by a peasant boy, we witness war's cruel destruction of innocence.

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