Running Time: 85 minutes
Directed By: Rene Clement
Written By: Francois Boyer, Jean Aurenche, Pierre Bost, Rene Clement, from the novel Les Jeux inconnus by Francois Boyer
Main Cast: Georges Poujouly, Brigitte Fossey, Amedee, Laurence Badie, Suzanne Courtal
STEALING CROSSES
Continuing on with my ode to the 1950s, I turned to the streaming portion of Netflix last night and Rene Clement's 1952 film "Forbidden Games".
The film is set in France, during World War II and opens on a bridge that is being bombed, during a German air attack. On the bridge are five-year-old Paulette (Fossey), her parents and her beloved dog Jock. To make a long story short, Paulette's parents and puppy are killed and never make it off the bridge. Paulette scoops up her lifeless Jock and runs for cover, not realizing at first that he is dead. After she discovers that her dog IS, in fact, dead, she soon meets Michel Dolle (Poujouly), a ten-year-old boy who runs into Paulette and after noticing her tears, offers her a new puppy if he'll come with her. Arriving home, Michel's family is, at first, hesitant to welcome Paulette into their house, but soon warm up to her. Paulette stays with the Dolle family for a while and as the days turn into weeks, she and Michel begin to construct a pet cemetery, starting with Jock. The obsession over the cemetery becomes so great that Michel even resorts to killing cockroaches, just so he can add one more plot to his masterpiece. After the idea is born, the plot then turns to Michel's eagerness to steal crosses, any crosses that he can get his hands, even resorting to robbing the graves of already deceased people, including his very recently deceased older brother. Michel becomes fixated on pleasing Paulette, making sure that she stays happy and preoccupied.
SPOILER ALERT!
I don't really have a whole lot to say about "Forbidden Games", so I'll likely be keeping this one short and sweet. And, in fact, I will keep it sweet, because I don't have that many salty words for Clement's 1952 offering. In fact, as I watched it, the best blurb I could come up with was to call it a "very nice little picture". Now, I realize that sounds cheap and as if it took me ten seconds to come up with, but hey, I like nice, little pictures, so I'd call that a good blurb. Honestly, I usually hate movies with children as their stars and since starting THE BOOK, I've become very frustrated with the abundance of WWII pictures. However, I really didn't have any problems with "Forbidden Games". The WWII element is kept very low key and the kids, as far as I'm concerned, do a fine job and thumbs up to Clement for getting what he did out of them. I loved actor who played Michel's father and thought he did a great job. Also, I finally break the streak of unpleasing movie endings, as I thought the ending to "Forbidden Games" was just right. It was just the right amount of heartbreaking, as I watched Michel run away from his father, realizing that a promise was broken and that Paulette would be taken away. Ditching crosses into a nearby stream and shoving Paulette's necklace into his pocket, a memento for a little girl, he'll probably never see again. Great ending.
I wouldn't go so far as to call it a great movie. I won't be giving it a '10', or even an '8' or '9', but it's certainly worth a look and it's not hard to see why THE BOOK included it. Like I said, "a very nice little picture"...but sad.
RATING: 6.5/10 If I was feeling a little more generous today, that could've been a '7', but I'm not so it ain't. Hopefully I can crack the twenty movies watched for the season mark by the end of this coming weekend.
MOVIES WATCHED: 617
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 384
February 19, 2013 12:24pm
I was just browsing, and noticed - slightly to my surprise - I had missed this one.
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid I too am allergic to films with children.. especially simpering cute ones.
(You will perhaps have guessed this from an occasional passing reference to how I feel about 'The sound of music').
But this was fine, in fact more than fine. A very good representation of the effects of a war on people (even young ones) who have nothing to do with the war.
Given you 'allergy' to war films, and a similar stated dislike of films with kids, 6.5 is generous. I'd go higher.. but, hey, glad you liked it. Slightly surprised I did.
Ray
Yep, this one's still fairly fresh in my memory and the '6.5' definitely stands and as you say, that's generous considering my thoughts on war and children films.
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