Subtitle Saturday: Au Revoir Les Enfants

Say what you will about "Schindler's List" (and most of it has been said)-- it is a brilliant, harrowing, complicated and stunning film.  But one thing it is not is nuanced.  Spielberg's haunting Holocaust narrative shouts its message from the rooftops.  Its message should be shouted from the rooftops, but messages can be equally powerful if told quietly, or even with a whisper.  Such is the case with this beautiful film.  This is a film that is long on nuance, but short on sermonizing.  If ever there were a subject worthy of a sermon, it is the Holocaust.  But, the Holocaust also can be examined in varying ways.  This movie is a good example of that.

This is the story of two young boys who are thrown together in a French Catholic boarding school during the waning days of World War 2.  Julian and Jean are their names, and they end up being place next to each other in the sleeping quarters.  The reasons for Jean being there are quite vague.  As time goes along, it is clear that he lives his life differently than the other boys.  He is a gifted musician, and it also becomes clear that he has no contact with his parents.  As so many boys have been sent to this school so as to escape the dangers of the German occupation of Paris, it only seems natural for a boy to miss his parents.  But Julian doesn't even seem to have contact with his parents.  As time goes along, the truth becomes clear.  The headmaster of the school has decided to hide Jews at his school in an attempt to protect them from the Nazi occupation, and from the Concentration Camps.  Jean is one of the Jewish people he is hiding.

What makes this film different?  I think that the film's soul lies in the headmaster.  Pere Jean is his name.  He has less screen time than the boys, but he radiates compassion, even though he is flawed.  He walks a fine line in the movie, especially with the parents of the school, some of whom he offends when he gives a sermon criticizing wealth.  The film's setting is in a bleak French winter, and I cannot help but feel that this setting is a statement regarding the overall plight of the French people during World War 2.  Pere Jean seems at once compassionate and world weary, and the winter setting enhances the overall difficult circumstances of the film.

The other thing that the film gets right is its tone.  This may best be reflected in the scene at the bath house.  A group of the boys go into town for a bath.  The bath house has a sign disallowing Jews from the premises.  There is no dramatic bath house scene here.  Instead, the very presence of Jean at this bath house creates tension.  This tension signifies, to me, the kind of tension that would have been ubiquitous in Europe at this time.  Since so many Jews lived in Europe, so many others lived with these everyday horrors right in front of them, but due to the fear that the Nazis invoked, they felt they could do nothing.  This scene shows with great care how awkward it would be to hide from one's own identity simply for self preservation.

The film is terribly sad, but in a quiet, dignified way.  It does not seek to bring the house down, but as more and more of the outside world begins to penetrate this small school, we can feel the tension.  And as the closing moments of the film are revealed, we can sit in pensive silence as we deal yet again with the horrible realities of humanity and of the 20th century.  To be able to do that simply by evoking a tone is quite an accomplishment.