War ... and how it affects the lives of our children
Overview
Orphaned after a Nazi air raid, Paulette, a young Parisian girl, runs into Michel, an older peasant boy, and the two quickly become close. Together, they try to make sense of the chaotic and crumbling world around them, attempting to cope with death as they create a burial ground for Paulette's deceased pet dog. Eventually, however, Paulette's stay with Michel's family is threatened by the harsh realities of wartime.
Ratings
Curator score: 9.0/10
IMDb: 8.0/10
Letterboxd: 4.09/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 100%
TMDB: 7.8/10
Director
René Clément
Production
Silver Films
Cast
Brigitte Fossey, Georges Poujouly, Philippe de Chérisey, Laurence Badie, Suzanne Courtal, Lucien Hubert, Madeleine Barbulée, Jacques Marin, Pierre Merovée, Denise Péronne, Violette Monnier, Fernande Roy, Louis Saintève, André Wasley, Amédée, Marcel Mérovée, André Enard, Marcelle Feuillade, Roger Fossey, Bernard Musson
Where to watch
Darkroom
Curator Review
Verdict
A devastating, formally elegant wartime tragedy that turns childhood play into a ritual for surviving grief. Its emotional force, iconic child performances, and stark opening make it one of the essential postwar films about innocence under siege.
Best for
viewers drawn to heartbreaking World War II dramas
fans of poetic, child-centered cinema
people interested in early European art-house classics
audiences who appreciate restrained but devastating emotional payoffs
Skip if
you want an uplifting or hopeful war story
you are sensitive to the death of children or animals
you prefer fast-paced plotting over mood and symbolism
you dislike older films with a fairy-tale, allegorical tone
Overview
Forbidden Games is one of cinema’s most piercing portraits of childhood colliding with war. René Clément stages the opening catastrophe with brutal clarity, then shifts into something quieter and stranger: a child’s attempt to make death legible through games, rituals, and make-believe. That contrast gives the film its lasting ache.
Worth noting
What makes it endure is the tenderness of the two central performances and the way the film treats their bond as both innocent and tragically fragile. The rural setting, the burial ground for lost animals, and the adults’ confused hypocrisies all contribute to a world where children are left to invent meaning from ruins.
Bottom line
The film can feel melodramatic at times, but its emotional directness is part of the power. It is not merely sad; it is mournful, compassionate, and deeply aware of how war distorts the language of play, family, and faith.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Zegan (5★) · 177 likes
"Michel! Michel! Michel! ... Mama! Mama! ... Michel! Michel! Michel! Michel! Michel!"
Another sad movie with such a heartbreaking ending!
syf (4★) · 119 likes
Paulette : "what's a cemetery?"Michel : "it's where they put the dead to be together."Paulette : "why do they put them together?"Michel : "so they're not sad."
protect Michel and Paulette at all costs🥺
Paul Elliott (4.5★) · 96 likes
Directed by French filmmaker René Clément, and adapted from François Boyer's 1947 novel The Secret Game, Forbidden Games is a compelling and beautifully delicate film about a five-year-old child in WWII France who suffers the loss of her parents and puppy in a German air raid and encounters a ten-year-old boy, and together they endeavour to endure the devastation which encircles them. The performances of the two children are excellent, and despite evoking a great deal of sadness, the movie also… more Directed by French filmmaker René Clément, and adapted from François Boyer's 1947 novel The Secret Game, Forbidden Games is a compelling and beautifully delicate film about a five-year-old child in WWII France who suffers the loss of her parents and puppy in a German air raid and encounters a ten-year-old boy, and together they endeavour to endure the devastation which encircles them. The performances of the two children are excellent, and despite evoking a great deal of sadness, the movie also… more
Mario Melendez (4★) · 73 likes
I remember that when I started to make a collection of DVD films made by Criterion in 2009-2010 this was one of the first films I acquired and if I'm not mistaken this one is now OOP. Have a lot of high hopes this one gives a great treatment in a near future for sure.
The film is narrated in fairy tale mode and tells us about two children who are unaware of the harshness of the real world and… more
Varghese (5★) · 71 likes
“Come away, O human child!To the waters and the wildWith a faery, hand in hand,For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand." - William Butler Yeats
There are only a handful of movies which have made me bawl my eyes out.This winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, a Special Award as Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars is a devastating and lyrical poetic ode to loss of childhood innocence. Featuring heart wrenching performances and soulful background score this one is timeless!!!