This lack, in this personal film, contrasts greatly with Malle’s masterpiece, My Dinner With Andre, which is a film that is 98% set in a restaurant, with two old friends conversing. There, every word that is uttered has heft, and a viewer is left with far greater imagery burnt into their memories than in your typical special effects film.

Perhaps not coincidentally, one of the film’s best scenes, prior to the ending, also is set in a restaurant, where, after Julien’s and Jean’s ‘lost in the woods’ incident, and the two of them physically scrapping, Julien’s mother (Francine Racette) takes the two of them, and his older brother François (Stanislas Carré de Malberg) - who also goes to the boarding school and delights in giving wrong directions to German soldiers - to a fancy restaurant. There, they see some Vichy officers try to toss an old Jew out on the street, over the objections of a waiter.

What is interesting is that Malle does not let the scene just play out as an ode to anti-Semitism, the way a bad filmmaker like Steven Spielberg would. No, he spikes the scene and subverts any potential didacticism by having the German officers, at a nearby table, actually threaten and toss out the Vichy thugs, thereby allowing the old Jew to finish his meal in peace. Malle’s political intent is clear — invaders are bad enough, but collaborators are the real evil in such a time and situation. The best film to ever deal with this was Ingmar Bergman’s Shame (Skammen), but that was in a wholly fictive setting. Malle’s film makes its point well, but stings for its historic reality. Were more scenes in the film filled with those sorts of subtle, but effective moments, the film’s pacing would be picked up, for ‘pacing’ in a film can be subjective. It’s not the actual unfolding of events in real screen time that matters most, but the number of memorable moments that occur in a film.

The DVD, from The Criterion Collection, is part of the collection 3 Films By Louis Malle, along with Murmur Of The Heart (Le Souffle Au Coeur) and Lacombe, Lucien. The film is in its original 1.66:1 aspect ratio, and is very clean, and almost entirely free of blemishes. There is no audio commentary, only a theatrical and teaser trailer. There are insert essays by film critic Philip Kemp and historian Francis J. Murphy.

There is a fourth bonus disk with supplements, such as interviews with Malle’s wife, actress Candice Bergen, and Malle’s biographer, the film critic Pierre Billard. There are also excerpts from a French TV program on the two other films, and filmmaker Guy Magen’s video character study of the traitorous Joseph from this film. There are also three audio interviews with Malle from 1974, 1988, and 1990. The final extra is Charlie Chaplin’s 1917 comedy classic, The Immigrant, which is seen within Au Revoir Les Enfants. Unfortunately, having seen many versions of that silent comedy classic, the musical arrangement for this version is atrocious and too overstated.