40 Fun Facts About Au Revoir Les Enfants

Which Quentin Tarantino film got its title when a rental-store customer garbled the name Au revoir les enfants?

Reservoir Dogs was how a customer at the store where Tarantino worked mangled Malle's French title, by Tarantino's own account. He kept the phrase for his 1992 debut feature.

In the closing narration of Au revoir les enfants, at which camp do Jean Bonnet and two other boys die?

Auschwitz is where the three hidden boys died, the adult Julien says in voice-over, adding that he will remember that January morning for the rest of his life.

At which European film festival did Louis Malle's Au revoir les enfants win the top prize in 1987?

Venice gave the film its Golden Lion in 1987, and the two schoolboy leads went up on stage to collect it. It was Malle's second win of the prize.

Louis Malle first called Au revoir les enfants My Little Madeleine, a nod to which French novelist's famous cake?

Marcel Proust's madeleine is literature's best-known trigger of memory, fitting for a script drawn from Malle's own schooldays. The project was then renamed Le Nouveau before its final title.

Francine Racette, who plays Julien's mother in Au revoir les enfants, was married to which Canadian screen star?

Donald Sutherland was Racette's husband until his death in 2024, and Madame Quentin was her last screen role. The Quebec-born actress then retired from acting.

In Au revoir les enfants, how does Julien accidentally give Jean Bonnet away when the Gestapo search the classroom?

A glance in his direction is all it takes: Julien looks round at his friend for an instant and the Gestapo man notices. Malle said the real boy shook hands with each classmate before leaving.

Louis Malle returned to France to make Au revoir les enfants after nearly a decade of working in which country?

United States productions such as Pretty Baby and My Dinner with Andre filled Malle's years abroad; he said that by 1986 he felt the moment had come to film his wartime memory.

Which Hollywood actress was married to Louis Malle when he wrote and directed Au revoir les enfants?

Candice Bergen married Malle in 1980 and stayed with him until his death in 1995. He wrote the script at their remote country house in south-west France, where the family spent its summers.

What does the French title Au revoir les enfants, the headmaster's parting words in the film, mean in English?

Goodbye, Children is what the arrested headmaster calls to his pupils as the Gestapo lead him across the yard. Malle's brother and former teachers all remembered that moment.

In Au revoir les enfants, what does Julien wake one night to find the new boy Jean Bonnet secretly doing?

Praying in Hebrew with a kippah on his head is Julien's first clue that the new boy is hiding something. A search of his locker then turns up his real surname.

Which character in Au revoir les enfants denounces the hidden Jewish pupils and their headmaster to the Gestapo?

Joseph, the kitchen hand, turns informer after the school sacks him. Malle admitted the betrayer is far clearer in his film than in the historical record.

At which French film awards did Au revoir les enfants win seven prizes in 1988, including Best Film and Best Director?

The Césars of March 1988 belonged to Malle: his film took seven trophies, including screenplay, cinematography, sound, editing and production design.

Which Catholic religious order runs the boarding school where Julien and Jean Bonnet meet in Au revoir les enfants?

Carmelites ran the real school too: the headmaster who hid Jewish boys there was a friar of the order who had founded the college in 1934.

For what offence does Père Jean dismiss the school's kitchen helper in Au revoir les enfants?

Black-market dealing in the school's food gets him sacked, yet the pupils who traded with him, Julien included, stay on: the headmaster dares not offend their wealthy parents.

During which outdoor game do Julien and Jean Bonnet get lost together in the woods in Au revoir les enfants?

A treasure hunt strands the two boys in the forest until nightfall, and it is a patrol of the occupying army that picks them up and drives them back to school.

Besides the piano, at which school subject does the new boy Jean Bonnet excel in Au revoir les enfants?

Mathematics comes easily to Bonnet, and it is during a lesson in the subject that the Gestapo walk in to arrest him. He tells Julien his father was an accountant.

In the restaurant scene of Au revoir les enfants, who orders the French collaborators to stop harassing a Jewish diner?

A German officer dining nearby coldly tells them to leave, and they grudgingly obey. Julien's brother suspects he only wanted to impress their attractive mother.

Which composer's Moment musical No. 2, played on the piano, recurs on the soundtrack of Au revoir les enfants?

Franz Schubert supplies most of the film's music, recorded by the pianist Jean-François Heisser, alongside a rondo by Saint-Saëns.

Which posthumous honour did the priest who inspired Père Jean in Au revoir les enfants receive in 1985?

Righteous Among the Nations is Israel's honour for non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews; Yad Vashem awarded it after the sister of one of the boys he hid gave her testimony.

Which embarrassing night-time problem does Julien try to hide from the other boarders in Au revoir les enfants?

Bed-wetting is Julien's secret, and when a classmate catches him hiding the evidence it is Bonnet who stands up for him, one of the first signs of their friendship.

What is the real surname of Jean Bonnet, which Julien discovers by searching his locker in Au revoir les enfants?

Kippelstein is the name Julien finds inside one of the new boy's books. Malle invented it: the real pupil's surname, Michel, sounded too French to signal that he was Jewish.

Which Charlie Chaplin short do the pupils watch together at a school film show in Au revoir les enfants?

The Immigrant, Chaplin's 1917 comedy about a voyage to a new life, has the two friends watching side by side; one critic singled out the hidden boy's tense face as the Statue of Liberty appears.

Which book, forbidden by the priests, do Julien and Jean Bonnet read together by torchlight in Au revoir les enfants?

The Arabian Nights is the book Julien slips to his friend as the Gestapo take him away, a last exchange in their habit of trading reading.

In which concentration camp was the real headmaster behind Père Jean in Au revoir les enfants held until its liberation?

Mauthausen's Gusen subcamp is where he concealed his priesthood to stay as the only priest for 20,000 prisoners. He died of tuberculosis weeks after the liberation.

By what name was the real priest known who inspired the headmaster in Au revoir les enfants?

Père Jacques was the religious name of a Normandy-born friar who founded the school in 1934 and joined the Resistance. Malle, his pupil at 11, watched his arrest.

Near which château town did the real boarding school stand that Louis Malle recreated in Au revoir les enfants?

Fontainebleau's neighbour Avon was home to the Petit Collège, which the occupiers shut after the arrests. It reopened after the Liberation but later closed for good, so Malle had to film elsewhere.

Which future star of The Double Life of Veronique made her film debut as the music teacher in Au revoir les enfants?

Irène Jacob was a drama student in Paris when Malle cast her as Mademoiselle Davenne. Four years later the Kieślowski film won her Best Actress at Cannes.

Which Scandinavian film beat Au revoir les enfants to the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film?

Babette's Feast became the first Danish film to win that Oscar. Malle's film was also up for original screenplay that night, and came away with neither.

What does Jean Bonnet claim to be when Julien presses him about his religion in Au revoir les enfants?

A Protestant is his cover story, but Julien objects that Bonnet is not a Protestant name, and keeps digging until he learns the truth.

Which Vichy paramilitary force bursts into the restaurant to expel an elderly Jewish diner in Au revoir les enfants?

The Milice was created by Vichy in January 1943 to fight the Resistance and help round up Jews; earlier in the film its men also search the school for labour-service dodgers.

Before Au revoir les enfants, which Louis Malle film had already told the story of a teenage French collaborator?

Lacombe, Lucien follows a farm boy who drifts into working for the Gestapo's French auxiliaries. Malle said its first draft opened in a school, with a boy much like the kitchen hand of his later film.

Which schoolboy, chosen by Louis Malle from Paris auditions, played Julien Quentin in Au revoir les enfants?

Gaspard Manesse had never acted before, like his co-star; Malle refused to use trained child actors. Manesse grew up to be a trumpeter and composer.

On a school outing to which place, off limits to Jews, does Jean Bonnet risk exposure in Au revoir les enfants?

The public baths were used by the occupying troops and therefore barred to Jews, so every visit put Bonnet at risk. It is there that he first tells Julien he is not a Catholic.

Through which French transit camp were the three real boys behind Au revoir les enfants sent before deportation?

Drancy held them for under three weeks: on 3 February 1944 they left on Convoy 67, which carried 1,214 people, 184 of them under 18. None of the three boys came back.

In which medieval town east of Paris did Louis Malle shoot the school scenes of Au revoir les enfants?

Provins offered a Catholic private school in a former convent, a near-double of the vanished original, and Malle shot there in winter term with its own pupils as extras.

Which pupil in Au revoir les enfants is, like Jean Bonnet and Dupré, a Jewish boy hidden under a false identity?

Négus is arrested in the same raid, and the closing voice-over names him as one of the three who never returned. In life, two of the real boys used the cover names Dupré and Sabatier.

Under which of its three headings did the Vatican's 1995 list of important films place Au revoir les enfants?

Values, religion and art were the three headings of the 45-film list, drawn up to mark the centenary of cinema; a film about a priest landed outside the religion section.

Which production designer of Au revoir les enfants had himself been deported as a member of the French Resistance?

Willy Holt was arrested at Grenoble station in December 1943 while carrying money for the Resistance. He survived the camps and a death march, and four decades later designed the sets for Malle's film.

Which cinematographer did Louis Malle ask to film Au revoir les enfants in colours close to monochrome?

Renato Berta kept the palette to greys and dull greens with almost no sunlight, and Malle scheduled most shooting for overcast winter mornings.

Louis Malle's script for Au revoir les enfants lost the Original Screenplay Oscar to which John Patrick Shanley film?

Moonstruck won three Oscars that night, including Best Actress for Cher. Malle's two nominations, for his script and for foreign-language film, both went unrewarded.