This autobiographical film is unquestionably Malle’s most personal project and its story is taken from actual events of his childhood. He wrote, produced, and directed this stirring film that grounds its storytelling in authenticity and in earned emotion.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Aug 19, 2022

Because his subject -- an eleven-year-old boy’s recognition of the horrors of the adult world -- is such a resonant one, the final effect of his bracing, unencumbered directness is overwhelming. Rarely have audiences’ tears been more honestly wrung.

| Aug 9, 2022

A valiant, challenging, and extremely personal film… a masterful work. [Full review in Spanish]

| Jun 29, 2022

The powerfully moving WWII story of two friends whose innocence is taken away because of the actions of evil men.

| Aug 10, 2020

In Goodbye, Children, we find the best of French cinema... that realist, almost documentary streak, of people like Renoir. [Full Review in Spanish]

| Apr 16, 2020

Without portentousness or pretension, it achieves genuine tragic depth.

| Apr 11, 2019

There is not a false note in [this] film.

| Aug 13, 2018

Without being sentimental, the drama is incredibly moving as the muted light plays over young faces that are about to face the unknowable evils of the adult world.

| Dec 31, 2017

[VIDEO ESSAY] "Au Revoir Les Enfants" is a heartbreakingly confessional wartime film made all the more effective by the care with which the subjective story is told. Its sense of loss is profound.

| Original Score: A+ | Apr 14, 2015

Not the director's best work, but far, far from being his worst either.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 29, 2015

Breathtakingly good.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jan 28, 2015

Malle builds Au Revoir Les Enfants out of small but vivid details centred on the life of the boarder, and the daily rituals and routines experienced by Julien Quentin (Gaspard Manesse) and Jean Bonnet (Raphael Fejt).

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jan 28, 2015

An ever-shifting balance of power is the film's greatest strength.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 26, 2015

It was a story that, 'kept haunting me all these years,' Malle said, and it's likely to haunt the viewer a little also.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 26, 2015

One of Louis Malle's most personal and significant films.

| Original Score: A- | Jun 28, 2011

Louis Malle, possibly at his best here. The drama is subtle but affecting.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 24, 2010

In this frightening and beautiful film, a schoolboy must learn hard lessons early.

| Aug 24, 2010

Malle's approach is perfectly suited to the subject -- not in the least because his deliberate pacing conveys a child's sense of time.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Sep 13, 2006

Avoids sentimentality, clichés and bombast, as it instead touches the heart in a moving and unforgettable way.

| Original Score: A+ | Apr 6, 2006

unquestionably Malle's most personal film and arguably his most powerful

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 2, 2006