Rating: 4.5/5
Criterion Challenge 2024 | 40/52 | Guillermo del Toro’s Twitter Film recommendations
Do you realize that there will never be another January 17, 1944? Never again. In 40 years, half these guys'll be dead and buried… I'm the only one in this school who thinks about death. It's incredible!
We cold open to a train station in winter. Julien Quentin says a tearful and reluctant goodbye to his mother before boarding the train back to his Catholic boarding school. He rides the train with his face to the glass, watching the French countryside pass him. Cut to the uniformed students marching up the street singing a school song. That night, as they prepare to go to bed, a kid steals Julien’s jam, claiming in German to have confiscated it.
Père Jean brings a new student to the bed next to Julien’s, telling the room that the boy’s name is Jean Bonnet. The moment Père Jean leaves, the kids harangue Jean. Julien looks at Jean’s books, seeing that he is reading Sherlock Holmes. Jean tries to introduce himself, but Julien gives him the same aggressive treatment. Even the English teacher refuses to pronounce Jean’s last name correctly, perhaps thinking it’s a joke.
Still, Jean exudes a quiet confidence, making friends through his earnest generosity. Julien finds himself reluctantly drawn to Jean—the two are, after all, huge book nerds. During a math class where Jean displays his math ability, an air raid interrupts the class, sending the kids to the shelter, where the math class continues. As the bombs drop, the kids recite a prayer from memory. Jean looks around, not knowing the prayer. Similarly, Jean looks stoically forward when all the kids recite the Lord’s Prayer at bedtime.
The movie follows Julien as he gets to know Jean. Jean has a secret that will bond their unlikely friendship.
Youth has a way of dismissing moments of transcendence. We miscalculate the rarity of finding a four-leaf clover with the same imprecision as we hear our friend’s stories. We avoid places of untold beauty because we believe wolves hide in them. Like all humans, we cannot leave a thought incomplete and use the scant details we’ve accrued thus far to get a picture of our world. How many friendships arrive from quiet assumptions that the other agrees with us? How many enemies form from misconstruing intent?
Through the schoolyard bullying and interactions, we see the conflicts these children are aware of, however vaguely. A kid steals Julien’s jam, claiming in German to confiscate it. When Julien trades his jam for some stamps, the kid with whom he trades calls him “a real Jew” for haggling.
I love how mean the piano teacher is. I am always happy to see Irène Jacob, however briefly. This movie was her first role!
This script is one I could imagine teaching in a screenplay class. Each scene is rich with small details that give a sense of place, time, and character. The pacing is pretty much perfect. The movie is thoughtful and treats its audience as such.
May every Christian act with the same spirit as Père Jean.