Au Revoir, Les Enfants

Malle splendidly recreates adolescence, immersing you completely in that world as many other coming-of-age films fail to do.  Although the movie contains devastating events (which caught me completely off-guard, though in retrospect I should have seen it coming), there is a lot of warmth and compassion here.  A touch simplistic at times and kind of blah in the earlier sections, but the political commentary is sufficiently nuanced, and the story is emotionally engaging.  Rating: 8

IMDb