The Great Movies III

Close study of this scene reveals a curious detail. She presses to the ground as she cries out, and we cannot see her face. If we happen to look at Michel's face, we will notice that his lips are moving, although we do not hear his voice. Clearly the scene was constructed in the editing room, matching her voice to visuals that did not match. That's possibly an indication of the difficulties the director, Rene Clement, had in directing children so young in a story so fraught. But for the most part the children are astonishingly natural and convincing, and in an interview much later, Fossey remembered with a smile that Clement asked her to cry "a little more" or "a little less" and she fine tuned her tears.

Their cemetery grows larger. They begin to steal crucifixes to put above the graves. Paulette, who does not know her prayers, or about the stations of the cross, or what a crucifix is, must be Jewish. Michel innocently teaches her, and that knowledge could eventually save her life. There is a comic subplot involving a rural feud between the Dolles and their neighbors, the Gouards, who accuse each other of stealing crucifixes; at one point a fight in the cemetery ends with two brothers fighting and falling into a grave. All the while the secret cemetery in the old mill grows more elaborate.

Forbidden Games was the first feature by Rene Clement; his short film on the same story was seen by the director Jacques Tati, who told him it must become a feature. It came (as Tati did) from outside the French film establishment; its producer, Robert Dorfmann, had powerful enemies.

The film was initially turned down by Cannes, then accepted after a scandal. It was turned down by Venice because it had played at Cannes, but accepted after another uproar, and won the Golden Lion as best film, with a best actress award for Fossey (she grew up to make many more good films). It won an honorary Oscar in 1953. Yet one critic said the film itself should be forbidden. Clement was accused simultaneously of trivializing the war and inflicting its horrors too mercilessly on his actors. Leftist critics accused him of an attack on the working class, although his poor peasant farmers are the most warm and generous of characters.

To be sure, it is remarkable that Fossey was able to weather this experience at five. Poujouly, her co-star, was nine or ten. She remembers doing better than older actresses at the audition because she had no idea what stakes were involved; they were nervous, but she just went ahead and did as she was told. Clement "shot around" her character as much as possible, shooting closeups of her looking at events so she did not really have to witness them, and she remembers attending the premiere at Cannes and seeing the planes attack the bridge for the first time. She was horrified.

The film is so powerful because it does not compromise on two things: the horror of war and the innocence of childhood. 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.

The cinematographer, Robert Juillard, always places a little additional light on her face and blond hair, suggesting an angel without insisting on it. Only gradually do we come to understand the total power that their fantasy has over the children, and what measures they will take in its defense. It is funny, also sad, when Paulette fixates on every crucifix she sees, and Michel confesses the theft of some crucifixes and then pauses on his way out of the confessional to try stealing another one from the altar.

Movies like 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 tearjerker. 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.

The beautifully restored new Criterion DVD of the film includes an alternate beginning and ending, filmed but never used, in which the scenario is framed as a "story" from a book that Michel reads to Paulette.

he musical score plays an even greater role in The Godfather: Part 11than it did in the original film. Nostalgic, mournful, evoking lost eras, it stirs emotions we shouldn't really feel for this story, and wouldn't, if the score were more conventional for a crime movie. Why should we regret the passing of a regime built on murder, extortion, bribery, theft, and the ruthless will of frightened men? Observe how powerfully Nino Rota's music sways our feelings for the brutal events onscreen.