Plot Summary

Au revoir les enfants
Louis Malle, 1987

Au revoir les enfants tells a heartbreaking story of friendship and devastating loss between two boys living in Nazi-occupied France. At a provincial Catholic boarding school, the precocious youths enjoy true camaraderie—until a secret is revealed. Based on events from writer-director Malle’s own childhood, the film is a subtle, precisely observed tale of courage, cowardice, and tragic awakening.

Lacombe Lucien
Louis Malle, 1974

One of the first French films to address the issue of collaboration during the German Occupation, Louis Malle’s brave and controversial Lacombe, Lucien traces a young peasant’s journey from potential Resistance member to Gestapo recruit. At once the story of a nation and one troubled boy, the film is a disquieting portrait of lost innocence and guilt.

Murmur of the Heart
Louis Malle, 1971

Louis Malle’s critically acclaimed Murmur of the Heart (Le souffle au coeur) gracefully combines elements of comedy, drama, and autobiography in a candid portrait of a precocious adolescent boy’s sexual maturation. Both shocking and deeply poignant, this is one of the finest coming-of-age films ever made.

 

Special Features:

• New, restored high-definition digital transfers
• New interviews with actor Candice Bergen and biographer Pierre Billard
• Excerpts from a French TV program featuring the director on the sets of Murmur of the Heart and Lacombe, Lucien
• Audio interviews with Malle from 1974, 1988, and 1990
• The Immigrant, Charlie Chaplin's 1917 short comedy, featured in Au revoir les enfants
• A profile of the provocative character of Joseph from Au revoir les enfants, created by filmmaker Guy Magen, in 2005
• Original theatrical trailers
• New and improved English subtitle translations
• Essays by critics Michael Sragow, Pauline Kael, and Philip Kemp and historian Francis J. Murphy, as well as a filmography