Films as Essential Tools of National Historical Analysis Research Paper

Films as Essential Tools of National Historical Analysis - Research Paper Example Cinematic and narrative elements of movies together with other stylistic devices help to bring out the intended meaning or outcome. Modern filmmakers have creatively used various aspects that show events that depict historical growth of particular nations. These films show the reasons why certain historical aspects have faded away or have remained and why they hold particular importance to those nations. Au Revoir les Enfantes also known as Goodbye Children is about a French boarding school that is under the administration of priests (Everett 49). The school seems to be a place of protection where people enjoyed peace and harmony until a new student gets into the school. The new student was allocated a room, which he could share with a student who was top in his class. Despite the fact that they became rivals at their first contact, they later form an inseparable bond linked by a shared secret. They became friends one night when they got lost in the woods and are rescued by German so ldiers. The soldiers wrapped them in blankets and drove them back to school. The film was written and directed by Louis Malle. It was produced in the year 1987 (Everett 49). The movie is based on an event that happened in January 1944. Louis Malle was twelve years old when the incident happened. At that time, he was attending a Jesuit boarding school along Fountainebleau. After the Christmas holiday had ended, schools were back with normal classes and other operations. In the middle of the scholastic year, three new students joined the school one of whom became a rival and competitor with Mall. Malle used to top the class in scholastic domain. After several weeks in school, Germans arrested the young boy who competed with Malle together with the other newcomers. Julien did not know about the true identity of jean but tried as much as he could and learnt that Jean was a pseudonym. The headmaster of the school also disappeared at the same time. The three boys were of Jewish decent. Th e convent school in Au revoir les enfants, on the other hand, is an elite institution for wealthy children, and it attempts to insulate itself from events outside its walls.   This is also a familiar trope in Holocaust/Occupation films... the wealthy elite who go into denial and/or lie about what's going on around them in order to hang onto not just wealth and power, but also customs, tradition, and civility. As the film documents, films can be used to show important historical events that took place at a certain period in time. This film captures the events that took place during the Second World War and their impacts. It is a fiction film that was created from the memories from a journalist’s conscience (Aitken 207). It is a story about France during the Second World War. It is essential to note that the young boy, Jean Bonnet was different from the other students in the school. He had a curly hair and did not eat pork. However, the secret about his decent becomes an open secret when everyone knows that he is Jewish. The catholic priests who are the administrators of the school admitted the Jewish boys as an act of charity because the boys lived as pseudonyms because they did not know the whereabouts of their parents (Aitken 207). Malle’s films clearly show the use of the narrative trope of class, morality, and opportunity during crisis. For instance,  Lucien Lacombe is a working-class farm boy who is able to advance himself during the Vichy crisis,