Forbidden Games

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Forbidden Games

" We must turn to the past for a film as innocent as Forbidden Games (1952), because our own time is too cynical to support it. Here is a film about children using their powers of fantasy and denial to deal with death in wartime. A modern film would back away from the horror and soften and sentimentalize it. It would become a 'children's film.' But in all times children have survived experiences that no child should have to endure."

"Sometimes they're able to shield their innocence by creating games to process the pain. 'Forbidden Games' was attacked and praised by adults for the same reason: because it showed children inventing happiness where none should exist. The Japanese animated film 'Grave of the Fireflies' (1988) is another rare film with the courage to walk this path."

"The film [Forbidden Games] is so powerful because it does not compromise on two things: the horror of war and the innocence of childhood. [5-year-old Paulette is played by Brigitte Fossey. She experiences the death of her parents and her puppy during a Nazi raid in 1940's France] Fossey's face becomes a mirror that refuses to reflect what she must see and feel. She transposes it all into the game of burying the dead and placing crosses over them."

"Movies like [Director, Rene] Clement's 'Forbidden Games' cannot work unless they are allowed to be completely simple, without guile, transparent. Despite the scenes I have described, it is never a tear-jerker. It doesn't try to create emotions, but to observe them. Paulette cannot speak for herself, and the movie doesn't try to speak for her. That's why it is so powerful: Her grief is never addressed, and with the help of a boy who loves her, she surrounds it with a game that no adult could possibly understand, or penetrate."----- Roger Ebert

DVD - The Criterion Collection

New, restored high-definition digital transfer
Collection of new and archival interviews with director Rene Clement and actress Brigitte Fossey
Alternate opening and ending to the film
Original theatrical trailer
Optional English-dubbed soundtrack
New and improved subtitle translation
A new essay by film scholar Peter Matthews

Curator's Comments:
Read Roger Ebert's essay on this DVD Classic.

Director: René Clément
Black & White
102 minutes
Released: 1952
Rated: R

Country: France
Language: French with English subtitles
Genre: Drama, War

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