The Message of Overcoming Predjudice

Au Revoir Les Enfants is known to send a clear message about prejudice. By portraying the film from a child's perspective, adult audiences are invited to do as children do and see people as they truly are, without bias.  The camera angles Malle uses almost force viewers to see Quentin's perspective throughout the film.  The camera in films is usually at eye-level, helping audiences feel closer to the characters throughout the plot.  Malle does this in the film, but puts the eye-level at Quentin's and Bonnet's eye-level.  When Quentin and Bonnet meet for the first time, the camera is at their eye-level, making the priest, introducing Bonnet to the boys, seem largely tall and out of place in the frame (6:20).  This reinforces to adult audiences that they are not to view this story from the perspective of the adults, but rather see things from a child's perspective.  This helps present the message that children have a tendency to view others innocently, without bias, and adults should do the same.

Malle suggests that sometimes seeing through a child's eyes can open adult's eyes to overlook prejudice.  In the film, after discovering some minor details that hint Bonnet is different, Quentin wakes up one night to see Bonnet praying over his bed, in Hebrew, with two candles in front of him (35:28-36:31).  The camera is at a slightly low angle as it captures Bonnet.  This angle suggests that we are viewing Bonnet from Quentin's perspective, as Quentin is watching Bonnet from his spot in bed (36:00).  This angle also adds a level of power to Bonnet, showing Quentin that Bonnet has a certain strength to him.  After this scene, Quentin's hostility towards Bonnet doesn't appear again, unless in friendly teasing, suggesting that in this scene, Quentin begins to respect Bonnet.  During the same scene, the camera shoots from a high angle when shooting Quentin, suggesting that we are viewing him from Bonnet's perspective as he stands above his own bed (36:25).  The subsequent shots during this scene creates a level of intimacy between the two characters as their friendship begins to grow steadily from this point.  This hits home to audiences that viewing enemies from a child's perspective will actually capture them in their true, non-threatening form, and could even result in a friendship.

Malle's film was praised for its cinematography.  This is ironic considering certain elements of cinematography were used to present his message, but his message still went unrecognized.  Vincent Canby, a top critic for Rotten Tomatoes and writer for The New York Times, emphasized, "It's a work that has the kind of simplicity, ease and density of detail that only a film maker in total control of his craft can bring off, and then only rarely" ("Goodbye, Children").  Reviews such as this, that praised the film's beauty, failed to capture the very message these beautiful elements were trying to enhance.  The reviews completely missed the film's focus on overcoming prejudice.

This is a message that still applies today, however it appears that audiences are missing it.  Perhaps audiences need directors to take a different approach when trying to teach about prejudice.  

Au Revoir Les Enfants. Directed by Louis Malle, performances by Gaspard Manesse and Raphael Fejto, The Criterion Collection, 1987.

"Goodbye, Children (Au Revoir Les Enfants)," Rotten Tomatoes, https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/au_revoir_les_enfants. Accessed 17 Apr, 2017.