FORBIDDEN GAMES (1952)
Directed by: René Clément.
Produced by: Robert Dorfmann.
Written by: Jean Aurenche, Pierre Bost, François Boyer & René Clément, based on the novel The Secret Game by Boyer.
Director of Photography: Robert Juillard.
Edited by: Roger Dwyre.
Music by: Narciso Yepes.
Released by: Criterion.
Language: French with English subtitles.
Country of Origin: France. 85 min. Not Rated.
With: Brigitte Fossey, Georges Poujouly, Lucien Hubert & Suzanne Courtal.
DVD Features: Interviews with director Clément, 1963; with actress Brigitte Fossey & Clément, 1967; and with Fossey, 2001. Alternate opening & ending. Original trailer. High-definition digital transfer. New essay by film scholar Peter Matthews. English & French audio. English & French subtitles.

As if in a fairy tale, the film begins in the sprawling, idyllic French countryside. Without warning, German planes soon scatter the sky as bombs rain down on the escaping Parisians below. Among the masses is the five-year-old Paulette (Brigitte Fossey), running for cover with her parents. But when the air raid claims the lives of both her parents and her beloved puppy, Paulette is left all alone with the lifeless creature in her arms. While wandering alone in a forest, the lost Paulette meets Michel (Georges Poujouly), a local peasant boy slightly older than she. Michel takes an immediate liking to Paulette, and invites her into his home.

Though Michel's peasant family is taken aback by the arrival of the sparkling blond, clearly bourgeois Paulette, they take her in nonetheless, while Michel acts as her protector, attending to whatever reassures Paulette. He helps Paulette dig a grave for her dog, and in an effort to keep the pet company, they stumble upon the idea of killing other animals and putting them safely underground – an escalating macabre diversion, which still has the power today to shock.

What makes Forbidden Games so timeless is its focus on the silent, invisible effects of war that claim the innocence of childhood as well as on the stupidity and callousness of adults who hinder the bond Michel and Paulette have nurtured in the midst of such a cruel reality.

In the hallmark of his career, director René Clément brought out genuine performances of tears and love from his two young actors that are still heart-rendering. Fossey's performance ranks among the best of juvenile performances (along with Ana Torrent in The Spirit of the Beehive, to name another.) But aside from the acting, this high-definition, digital transfer does justice to the artistic collaboration between cinematographer Robert Juillard and the director. Shot in black and white, the painstaking coordination of light and depth of shadow render the faces of Paulette and Michel, as well as the pastoral surroundings, all the more poetic.

DVD Extras: Among the quality extras, Clément ruminates extensively on his craft as a filmmaker, and despite his stern words – he calls the night before shooting the "eve of battle" – the interview captures the warmest of smiles of the rather handsome director. The years have not taken away Fossey’s angelic presence in her 2001 interview. Lovely and illuminating, she remembers her experiences as a first-time child actor thoroughly, and recalls remarkable stories of the director scaring her to wits in order to bring out the right emotions. Interestingly, the alternate opening and ending were clearly made for those who found the original ending too depressing, providing a whimsical storybook ending for Paulette and Michel. Marie Iida
March 14, 2006