Undescribable Perfection

The Worst Film Ever

Highly Overrated But Still Good

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Luis Bunuel meets Frank Capra. If it wasn't for the ambiguous ending I would have given it ten stars. A dramatic, riveting account of two, very human, French rural families who snap and gripe at each other but exhibit caring and love when a 6-year old orphan girl is brought unexpectedly into their lives. The girl, whose parents were killed during an air raid on column of refugees fleeing Paris in 1940 as the Nazi were about to overrun France, is found on the road and befriended by the young 10-year old son of one family. The two children try to deal with the actuality and meaning of death while confounding the two families with their behavior (they create a secret cemetery for dead animals and steal crosses from the local cemetery to mark each animal grave.) The acting by 6-year old Brigitte Fossey is one greatest performances by a child actor ever, and it is an understatement to call it mesmerizing.

Wonderful story, beautifully shot and acted. The perfect blend of comedy and tragedy, like human nature is.The war scenes throughout are nicely done and realistic--a great weaving in of stock footage.Some scenes of horror and many of laugh-out-loud comedy, but all based in reality (not slapstick).The lead child actors are both totally believable as are their adult counterparts.Although the film resolves around death, it is never depressing--unless you consider the fact that humans repeat their mistakes generation after generation.If you have the release with the Disneyesque alternative open and closing, don't watch them. Although the film was never released with these, they have stuck in my mind and cheapened the film for me. Without them the film is perfect and one of the best I've seen.

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.

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.