Set in France, near the end of WWII, a school run by Carmelite monks provides the setting for this now 20 year old portrayal of the tension between ethics, nationalism, self preservation and self discovery. When a new boy arrives at school, the others simultaneously welcome him, isolate him, become cruel, share books, steal and learn what it is like to be different than the others. This is good filmmaking. In particular the tone set by the choice of colors (all drab greens, greys, blues, browns) fits exactly the "dreary north France during winter and war" that seems appropriate. It reminds me of how powerful a color pallete can be at generating mood, which was also done particularly well in The Lives of Others, and Far from Heaven more recently. Unfortunately, watching a particularly well made film from 20 years ago means that the same formula has been presented many times since then. The end result for this viewing is that today the material seems tired.
3-stars
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we watched this in freshman english with Dr Bernie. i think we had to write an essay on the use of imagery instead of dialogue to portray the theme/message. and since i had to focus on that, i really appreciated all the things you did too.
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