‘I reinvented the past in the pursuit of a haunting and timeless truth’: Do Louis Malle’s war films correspond to the notion of the postmodern historical drama?

Type :

Case study

Pages :

11 pages

Format :

.doc

Published date :

07/31/2009

Category :

Arts & media

Sub category :

Film studies

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Summary :

Introduction
The movie Au revoir les enfants
1. The visceral quality of the movie
The movie Lacombe Lucien
1. The character of Lucien
2. His killing animals through hunting
Revisiting the past with a highly personal vision
Rosenstone: Defining some of the distinctive traits of the postmodern historical film
1. Answering the question 'what do these (real) postmodern history films do to the past'?
2. The example of the kitchen boy Joseph in Au revoir les enfants
Contradictions apparent in the content of the films
The narratives of Lacombe Lucien and Au revoir les enfants
1. The aesthetics qualities of the Jewish tailor Albert Horn's apartment
2. The slow pacing of the end sequences
The ideological vacuum sorounding the movie Lacombe Lucien
1. The perceptions of the Black person
2. Contradictions in the arrest of Dr Vaugeois
3. The irony of the situation captured by images
4. The films rejection of the notions of truth and morality
The lack of an overall summing up of the story
Conclusion
Bibliography

Abstract

In a review published by the French periodical Le Nouvel Observateur, critic Jean-louis Bory (1974: 56-57) described Lacombe, Lucien (1974) as 'the first real film-and the first true film-about the Occupation' He added, 'I know. I was there'. The problematic nature of this statement is at the heart of what both Lacombe, Lucien and Au revoir les enfants (Goodbye children, 1987) seem to address, mainly the ideas of recorded history, experiences and memory. Lacombe, Lucien follows a young man, played by Pierre Blaise, caught in the collaboration movement during the German Occupation of France in 1944-1945 while Au revoir les enfants is a semi-autobiographical account of louis malle's time spent as a young boy in a school hiding Jewish children during the same period. Therefore, the phrase 'true film' is a contradiction, the films being 'fiction' and therefore not 'true'. Furthermore, the questioning of the idea of 'truth', and especially historical truth, can be considered the main theme for both films. When Bory says 'I know', we might question whether one can truly 'know', especially when the sole justification is presence and eye-witness accounts, as suggested by the statement, 'I was there'. louis malle was also 'there' but he exposes the fickle and uncertain aspects of his memory in his films and makes clear that his own memory is not a pathway to a 'true' and objective account of the period.