318 Forbidden Games

[gubbelsj]

Quite impressed by the booklet essay in this release by Peter Matthews. As Criterion have included more and more "booklets" as opposed to folded-over-paper in their discs, I've found that the text inside hasn't always been too inspiring. But this is a nice, extended piece of writing that both covers historical background and delves a little deeper into the artistry and psychology of the film.

Matthews' suggestion that the Academy's honorary Oscar came about largely through a misunderstanding of the film is especially nice - I've seen far too many reviews and opinions about Forbidden Games caught up in the preciousness of childhood, tender innocence corrupted by cruel, cruel war and the adult world. There's certainly something of that occurring here, but Clement doesn't seem to have any delusions about idyllic childhoods. Morbidity, cruelty and a fascination with the grotesque characterize many children's inner minds. I'm sure more than a few viewers of this film caught themselves shuddering as the two children constantly touched and played with dead, rigor mortis-stiffening corpses, and yet this is exactly how children respond to death - far more likely to kick the dead cat in the gutter than turn their heads and refuse to look. A really powerful film, and with a heartbreaking ending, but for me the strength comes from the totally unsentimental and quite convincing portrayal of a child's world. Watched back to back with The Spirit of the Beehive, I'm astounded by how many of our films about children are nothing but fluff.

[tryavna]

Watched back to back with The Spirit of the Beehive, I'm astounded by how many of our films about children are nothing but fluff.

You should definitely (re-)watch The Fallen Idol before much longer, then. It perfectly complements the other two, particularly in how it exploits the dichotomy between the very different worlds that children and adults seem to inhabit.

I agree in general with your statement about "films with children." Some are quite disturbing. Have you ever seen Jack Clayton's Our Mother's House? It's about a group of children who dispose of their recently deceased mother's corpse in order to continue living together in their family house. Then their putative father shows up in the guise of Dirk Bogarde.... Quite an unsettling movie all 'round.

[toiletduck!]

And then pop on over to the Tideland thread for an unflinching child's eye perspective of the contemporary variety.

-Toilet Dcuk

[gubbelsj]

Yes, Fallen Idol would serve as a nice trilogy, wouldn't it? And you're right, there are plenty of other movies with children as their subject that do delve into these darker realms - from Jean Vigo's Zero de conduite to, I don't know, Rob Reiner's Stand By Me. Or Night of the Hunter. Hell, Fanny and Alexander.......

[geoffcowgill]

A movie I hadn't seen in years and years, and I was truly shocked by how unflinching and brutal and honest it was. As my wife said while we watched it, grimacing, "That has to be a real dead dog." So, it has all of this stark reality to it, but is anyone else a little bothered, or at least mildly confused, by the occasional forays into humor the film makes? Of course real life has its moments of lightness and comic irony, even during situations such as the ones in this film, but there's almost an element of farce when the two neighbors are fighting in the graveyard, even tumbling into an open grave in their scuffle, looking like the gravediggers ignobly parodying Hamlet and Laertes in the days following Ophelia's funeral. There are a couple of these tonal shifts in the movie that threw me a bit.

[dad1153]

Going Out of Print by the End of March.

[dad1153]

Finally, after owning this disc unopened for a good three plus years (don't ask!), I got around to watching Clément's "Forbidden Games." The movie's first five minutes had me wondering if I could handle the obvious emotional manipulations worthy of a Disney-esque animated tale (shot-and-killed parents, puppy not only dying but also tossed off a bridge, etc.) that Clément was engaging in to make me feel sorry for the plight of little Paulette. As the movie unfolded and Brigitte Fossey's natural performance bounced nicely from Georges Poujouly's Michel though (great chemistry between these two as the emotional manipulation/blackmail eventually inverts the roles; Paulette is the one yanking Michel's chain) it completely won me over. Yes, the Gouard versus Dolle family feud comes across like a borderline-slapstick French retelling of the Montagues versus Capulets feud from that Shakespeare play (complete with young lovers from each family) but it also helps occasionaly lighten-up the otherwise dour mood. There's an emotional highwire act Clément engages in with his young leads that could have easily become a profane and macabre little World War II horror flick, an 'artsy' slasher flick with animals substituting for the human victims René couldn't show being graphically killed (which, except for the roach, he doesn't do with the 'murdered' animals either). Instead "Forbidden Games" ends as a triumph of stylistic camera work (it is a gorgeously-shot B&W movie), virtuoso acting (with two little kids as leads!) and a storytelling truth device (children's traumatized selfishness during war time) that conveys the horror of armed conflict by seeing its effect on its most impressionable victims.

After seeing "Forbidden Games" a few days ago I read every review I could find as well as the comments here. It struck me as odd that little is made of the runaway horse from the start of the movie (the one Paulette chases after) being the one that ends up hurting/killing the older Dolle son of the family that takes Paulette in. It's just random dumb luck that this horse ended up kicking the Dolle boy, eventually leading to his bed-ridden sickness and death that established the kids' (primarily Paulette's though) fixation with religious imagery and pageantry. It's an almost-ignored subplot of the movie that, on my repeat viewing, gave the narrative an even stingier pounce. Could also be considered morbid, black irony that the opening attack on the escaping Parisians eventually would have reached the Dolle farm land through that runaway horse (i.e. that boy would have been kicked and died) even if Paulette hadn't wondered into their lives. The extras are OK (neat idea for the alternate intro/ending bookends, but too much sugarcoating that robs the ending of its devastating punch) and, since this is now an OOP Studio Canal victim, all we're going to get for a good long while. A (small) masterpiece, and probably tied with Obayashi’s "House" as the most repetitious use of a single piece of music (Narciso Yepes' guitar song) that doesn't grate or becomes annoying because it fits the movie it's attached to so damn well.

[Michael Kerpan]

While watching this, I got the strong sense that Clement must have been a fan of Ford's Tobacco Road.

[DeprongMori]

I ran across a copy of the 2006 French StudioCanal "Classique" DVD of Jeux Interdits (Forbidden Games), which has the recent restoration with English (and Spanish) subtitles for the film itself, but no English subtitles for the supplements nor for the film's opening screen of text. This is unfortunate, as a number of the supplements seem unique to this release: an interview with Brigitte Fossey, another with Rene Clement, an 8-minute set of "rushes", as well as French-language and German-language trailers. It also includes: the alternate opening and closing sequences (that seem to be the same as those included in other releases, but unsubtitled here), filmographies (text) for the director and two child leads, and a nice gallery of international poster art as well as stills from the film. This release does not contain the half-hour mini-documentary ‘Innocent Love Stories Under Occupation: Interview with Brigitte Fossey, Laurence Badie and Historian Denitza Bancheva', included on the recent UK StudioCanal Blu-ray and DVD.

I'm surprised there is apparently no Region A/Region 1 release of this film. Hoping Criterion manages to license it back and include some of these supplements. (Update: Looking back at the specs of the original Criterion release, it seems both the Clement and Bossey interviews were in fact included on that release. So, that at least seems like a done deal if it gets re-issued.)

[DeprongMori]

STUDIOCANAL has just announced a home video release of their 4K restoration of Forbidden Games for November 6, though not whether HD or UHD.