Forbidden Games (1952)
………………………………………………………………
Forbidden Games Movie Review
Forbidden Games is a 1952 French war drama film directed by Rene Clement. It is a solid, but ultimately very overrated film.
It is basically about children and how they react to the war by playing cemetery games. It is about children’s innocence and the devastation of war. I respect its themes and it is an endearing film, but I’ve seen this type of film countless times before and here I got nothing new. It is a tired World War II storyline that is pretty ordinary and clichéd.
………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………
The biggest problem here is the film’s pacing which is slow and the film’s structure. The film has a pretty good beginning and a great ending, but everything that came in the middle was dragging and frankly just dull. It is obvious why the movie is problematic in that way. It is because it is clearly designed to be a short film, not a feature. And the filmmakers had originally intended it to be a short and it shows. It is just prolonged for the sake of a feature and thus it becomes repetitive and boring.
Michel and Paulette are the two major characters here and they are fantastic. Watching the two of them interact together was just wonderful and they are really adorable children. The movie succeeds mostly just because of them as they are very strong and likable child characters. The same goes for the acting. Georges Poujouly and especially Brigitte Fossey gave superb performances, really commendable for children.
………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………
Forbidden Games is a technically accomplished film. Everything here is really well done. The direction from Rene Clement is strong, the acting is, as I said, very good and the film looks great. The cinematography is excellent and some of the imagery here is quite memorable. The movie is also emotional and devastating in its ending. But the tone is all over the place and the editing is just problematic. The film’s structure is troublesome in that it focuses on children, but also on adults and thus it ended up being uneven and more often than not tedious. It should have just focused on children and it should have been short-length. In the end, Forbidden Games is solid, but overrated.
Forbidden Games is a solid film with excellent child performances, some very endearing moments and the film looks good, but it is overrated as the editing is problematic as is the film’s structure, the entire second act is pretty boring, the plot is ordinary and the film would have been much better had it been a short instead of a feature.
My Rating – 3.5
………………………………………………………………
