View source for Forbidden Games

{{Infobox film
| name           = Forbidden Games
| image          = Jeux_interdits.jpg
| caption        = Theatrical release poster
| director       = [[René Clément]]
| producer       = [[Robert Dorfmann]]
| writer         = [[Jean Aurenche]]<br />[[Pierre Bost]]
| based_on       = {{Based on|''Les Jeux Interdits''|[[François Boyer]]}}
| starring       = [[Georges Poujouly]]<br />[[Brigitte Fossey]]<br />[[Philippe de Chérisey|Amédée]]
| music          = Robert de Visée and anon, music performed by Narciso Yepes
| cinematography = Robert Juillard
| editing        = [[Roger Dwyre]]
| studio         = Silver Films<br/>[[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]]
| distributor    = [[Les Films Corona]]<br/>[[Loews Cineplex Entertainment|Loew's Inc.]] (USA)
| released       = {{Film date|1952|05|09|France|ref1=<ref name="JPBox Office"/>|1952|12|8|USA|ref2=<ref name="nyt52" />|df=y}}
| runtime        = 86 minutes
| country        = France
| language       = French
| gross          = $36.8 million<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.jpbox-office.com/fichfilm.php?id=9623|title=Jeux interdits (1952)- JPBox-Office|last=JP}}</ref>
}}
'''''Forbidden Games''''' ({{langx|fr|Jeux Interdits}}) is a 1952 French [[War film|war]] [[Drama (film and television)|drama film]] directed by [[René Clément]] and based on [[François Boyer]]'s novel ''Les Jeux Interdits''.
 
While not initially successful in France, the film was a hit elsewhere. It won the [[Golden Lion]] at the [[Venice Film Festival]], a [[Academy Honorary Award|Special Award]] as [[Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film|Best Foreign Language Film]] in the United States, and a [[BAFTA Award for Best Film|Best Film from any Source]] at the [[British Academy Film Awards]].

==Plot==
It is June 1940, during the [[Battle of France]].<ref name="CritCol"/>  After five-year-old Paulette's parents and pet dog die in a German air attack on a column of refugees fleeing [[Paris]], the traumatized child meets 10-year-old Michel Dollé whose peasant family takes her in.<ref name="CritCol"/> She quickly becomes attached to Michel. The two attempt to cope with the death and destruction that surrounds them by secretly building a small cemetery among the ruins of an abandoned watermill,<ref name="CritCol"/> where they bury her dog and start to bury other animals, marking their graves with crosses stolen from a local graveyard, including one belonging to Michel's brother. Michel's father first suspects that Michel's brother's cross was stolen from the graveyard by his neighbour. Eventually, the father finds out that Michel has stolen the cross.

Meanwhile, the French [[National Gendarmerie|gendarmes]] come to the Dollé household in order to take Paulette. Michel cannot bear the thought of her leaving and tells his father that he would tell him where the stolen crosses are, but in return he should not give Paulette to the gendarmes. When his father doesn't keep his promise, Michel destroys the crosses by throwing them into the stream. Paulette ends up going to a [[International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement|Red Cross]] camp, but at the end of the film is seen running away into a crowd of people in the camp, crying for Michel and then for her mother.

==Cast==
* [[Georges Poujouly]] as Michel Dollé
* [[Brigitte Fossey]] as Paulette
* [[Philippe de Chérisey|Amédée]] as Francis Gouard
* [[Laurence Badie]] as Berthe Dollé
* Suzanne Courtal as Madame Dollé
* Lucien Hubert as Dollé
* [[Jacques Marin]] as Georges Dollé
* Pierre Merovée as Raymond Dollé
* Louis Saintève as The Priest

==Reception==
The film was widely praised among critics, whose "howling protests" were heard at the [[1952 Cannes Film Festival]] where it was not an "official entry of France";<ref name="nyt52"/> instead, it was "screened on the fringe of the Competition."<ref>{{cite web| url= https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/article/57998.html | title= France at Cannes| date= 8 March 2011| author= Herpe, Noël| author-link= :fr:Noël Herpe|access-date= 2012-10-07| publisher= Cannes Film Festival| quote= René Clément won awards in 1946 for ''[[La Bataille du rail|La Bataille du Rail]]'', in 1949 for ''[[The Walls of Malapaga|Au-Delà des Grilles]]'' and in 1954 for ''[[Knave of Hearts (film)|Monsieur Ripois]]'' (but oddly, not for ''Jeux Interdits'', which was screened on the fringe of the Competition, but went on to make the entire world weep); {{langx|fr|René Clément se voyait récompenser en 1946 pour ''La Bataille du rail'', en 1949 pour ''Au delà des grilles'', en 1954 pour ''Monsieur Ripois'' (mais curieusement pas pour ''Jeux interdits'', projeté en marge de la compétition avant de faire pleurer le monde entier...)|italic=invert}}<!-- N.B. the date and the original French quote are from the PDF version whose URL https://www.festival-cannes.com/assets/File/Filmographie%20Pays/Cin%C3%A9ma%20fran%C3%A7ais_HERPE.pdf is supplied at the end of the cited URL. if trans_quote and trans_url were supported, I would have used them-->}}</ref>

The film was entered into competition at the [[13th Venice International Film Festival]]; festival organizers at first considered the film ineligible because it had been screened at Cannes;<ref name="nyt52"/>  it ended up receiving the [[Golden Lion]], the Festival's highest prize.

Upon its release, it was lambasted by some, who said it was a "vicious and unfair picture of the [[peasant]]ry of France";<ref name="nyt52"/> in France, 4,910,835 theater tickets were sold,<ref name="JPBox Office"/> making it the most successful film at the French box office in 1952.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Benson |first1=Ed |title=The Screen of History in Clément's Forbidden Games.|journal=Literature/Film Quarterly |date=2005 |volume=33 |issue=3 |page=207}}</ref> Following its December 1952 release in the United States, [[Bosley Crowther]] called it a film with "the irony of a ''[[Grand Illusion (film)|Grand Illusion]]'', the authenticity of a ''[[Random Harvest (film)|Harvest]]'' and the finesse of French films at their best";  according to Crowther, the film is a "brilliant and devastating drama of the tragic frailties of men, clear and uncorrupted by sentimentality or dogmatism in its candid view of life."<ref name="nyt52"/>
 
At the [[25th Academy Awards]], ''Forbidden Games'' won an out-of-competition [[Academy Honorary Award|Special Award]] as [[Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film|Best Foreign Language Film]].<ref name="CritCol"/> In December 1952, at the [[National Board of Review Awards 1952|24th National Board of Review Awards]] it was chosen as one of that year's five top foreign films.  At the [[1952 New York Film Critics Circle Awards]], it won for Best Foreign Language Film.

In 1954, it was BAFTA's [[BAFTA Award for Best Film|Best Film from any Source]]; in 1955, at the [[27th Academy Awards]], [[François Boyer]] was nominated for an [[Academy Award for Best Story]]; [[Philip Yordan]] won, for his work on ''[[Broken Lance]]''.

Decades after its release, [[David Ehrenstein]] called it "deeply touching" and wrote: "[[Brigitte Fossey|Fossey's]] is quite simply one of the most uncanny pieces of acting ever attempted by a youngster.  Clément’s sensitivity doubtless accounts for much of what we see here, but the rest is clearly Fossey’s own."<ref name="CritCol"/>

''Forbidden Games'' has an approval rating of 100% on [[review aggregator]] website [[Rotten Tomatoes]], based on 19 reviews, and an average rating of 8.8/10.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/forbidden_games_2015 | title=Forbidden Games | website=[[Rotten Tomatoes]] }}</ref>

[[Roger Ebert]] added the film to his ''[[The Great Movies|Great Movies]]'' collection in 2005, writing: "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 tear-jerker. It doesn't try to create emotions, but to observe them."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Ebert |first1=Roger |title=Forbidden Games movie review & film summary (1952) |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-forbidden-games-1952 |website=RogerEbert.com |access-date=27 December 2019}}</ref>

==Soundtrack==
The main theme of the soundtrack is a [[guitar]] arrangement of the [[melody]] "[[Romance (guitar piece)|Romance]]," performed by [[Narciso Yepes]].

==Home media==
''Forbidden Games'' was released on Laserdisc in 1988 by [[Criterion Collection]] (under license of Turner and [[MGM Home Entertainment|MGM/UA Home Video]]), who later also released it on DVD in 2004 by license of [[Warner Bros.]] and [[Turner Entertainment Co.]]

==References==
{{Reflist|refs=
<ref name="CritCol">{{cite web| url= https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/952-forbidden-games | title= Forbidden Games| first=David |last=Ehrenstein |author-link=David Ehrenstein | publisher= Criterion Collection |access-date= 2012-10-07}}</ref>
<ref name="JPBox Office">{{cite web| url=https://www.jpbox-office.com/fichfilm.php?id=9623| title=Jeux interdits| publisher=jpbox-office.com |access-date= 2012-10-07}}</ref>
<ref name="nyt52">{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1952/12/09/archives/the-screen-in-review-forbidden-games-the-winning-french-film-at.html| title='Forbidden Games', the Winning French Film at Venice Fete, Opens at Little Carnegie| work=The New York Times|first= Bosley|last=Crowther| date=9 December 1952|access-date= 2019-12-04}}</ref>
}}

==External links==
* {{IMDb title|0043686}}
* {{rotten-tomatoes|forbidden_games_2015}}
* [https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/408-forbidden-games-death-and-the-maiden ''Forbidden Games: Death and the Maiden''] an essay by Peter Matthews at the [[Criterion Collection]]

{{René Clément}}
{{Navboxes
|title = Awards for ''Forbidden Games''
|list =
{{Academy Award Best Foreign Language Film}}
{{Academy Honorary Award}}
{{BAFTA Best Film}}
{{Blue Ribbon Award for Best Foreign Film}}
{{New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Foreign Language Film}}
{{Golden Lion}}
}}
{{French submission for Academy Awards}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Forbidden Games}}
[[Category:1950s French-language films]]
[[Category:1950s war drama films]]
[[Category:1952 drama films]]
[[Category:1952 films]]
[[Category:Best Film BAFTA Award winners]]
[[Category:Best International Feature Film Academy Award winners]]
[[Category:Films about orphans]]
[[Category:Films about the Battle of France]]
[[Category:Films about funerals]]
[[Category:Films awarded an Academy Honorary Award]]
[[Category:Films based on French novels]]
[[Category:Films directed by René Clément]]
[[Category:Films set in 1940]]
[[Category:Films set in cemeteries]]
[[Category:Films set in France]]
[[Category:Films shot in France]]
[[Category:Films with screenplays by Jean Aurenche]]
[[Category:Films with screenplays by Pierre Bost]]
[[Category:French black-and-white films]]
[[Category:French war drama films]]
[[Category:French World War II films]]
[[Category:Golden Lion winners]]
[[Category:1952 French films]]
[[Category:French-language war drama films]]