Years & Movies: 1987

According to FilmGourmand, Louis Malle's autobiographical film "Au revoir les enfants (Goodbye, Children)" was recognized as the best film of world cinema of 1987.

The script of the film by Louis Malle is based on the director's memories of the period of his studies at a Catholic boarding school near Fontainebleau in 1944, when Louis Malle was 11 years old. Almost all the main characters of the picture had real prototypes. All the plot lines of the film are based on real events. Except for one thing: the boys - the main characters of the picture - were not friends in life. And Louis Malle created this film as a sign of regret about this.

The premiere of Louis Malle's film "Goodbye, Children" took place on August 31, 1987 as part of the Venice International Film Festival. The jury of the festival, chaired by the great Greek Actress Irene Papas, awarded the film the highest prize - the Golden Lion. The outstanding Soviet and Russian film director Sergei Solovyov was a member of the jury of that festival.

In early 1988, the film by Louis Malle was nominated for the American Golden Globe Award in the category Best Foreign Language Film. However, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association awarded its prize to the Swedish film "Mitt liv som hund (My Life as a Dog)" directed by Lasse Hallström. In the company of relative losers Louis Malle's film was accompanied with the French film "Jean de Florette" by Claude Berry, the Soviet film "Monanieba (Покаяние, Repentance)" directed by Tengiz Abuladze, the Soviet-Italian film "Очи чёрные (Oci ciornie, Gypsy Lover, Dark Eyes)" by Nikita Mikhalkov.

A little later, the film "Goodbye, Children" received two Oscar nominations, including in the category Best Foreign Language Film. However, the award in this category was awarded by the American Film Academy to the Danish film "Babettes gæstebud (Babette's Feast)" directed by Gabriel Axel.

In the same year, in 1988, Louis Malle's film "Goodbye, Children" won three Italian David di Donatello Awards, including Best Foreign Film and Best Foreign Director (Louis Malle). At the same time, the film received three nominations for the European Film Academy Award, but won only one of them - the Best Screenwriter. In the Best Film category, "Goodbye, children" lost to the Polish film "Krótki film o zabijaniu (A Short Film About Killing)" by Krzysztof Kieslowski, and in the Best Director category, Louis Malle lost to Wim Wenders, director of the film "Der Himmel über Berlin (Wings of Desire)".

In 1989, Louis Malle's film "Goodbye, Children" received 4 nominations for the British BAFTA Award, of which it won only one - Best Director. In the Best Film category, the British Film Academy gave preference to Bernardo Bertolucci's film "The Last Emperor", and in the Best Foreign Language Film category - the already mentioned film "Babettes gæstebud (Babette's Feast)". In the same year, in 1989, Louis Malle's film received the Danish Bodil Film Award as the Best European Film.

It is quite understandable that in his homeland in France, Louis Malle's film "Goodbye, Children" received 9 nominations for the national Cesar Award, of which it won seven, including the most important ones: Best Film and Best Director.

Louis Mahl's film "Goodbye, Children" received completely rave reviews from professional film critics. The guru of American film criticism, Roger Ebert, gave the film maximum 4 stars and included it in his list of "Great Movies". The Washington Post film reviewer Rita Kempley described the film in her review as follows: "Louis Malle's "Au Revoir Les Enfants" is more than his wartime memoir; it is an epitaph to innocence."

The authoritative Russian film critic Sergey Kudryavtsev gave the film 8.5 points on a 10-point scale and wrote about Louis Malle's film: "Malle's sad confession about a childhood invaded by war, about the inadmissibility and unnatural strife between people, their persecution for racial, political and any other reasons was still heard and understood. The truth, put into the mouths of the heroes-children from a Catholic college, turned out to be a kind of revelation. The French director achieved not just success with this picture - he received some kind of retribution and atonement for the sins that he did not commit at all... The director is sad and restrained in this movie, not allowing despair to break out, that it is still impossible to change anything in his past and replay fate anew."

70% of IMDB and Kinopoisk users gave the film ratings from 8 to 10. Taking into account this indicator and the above, the rating of Louis Mahl's film "Goodbye, children" according to Filmgourmand was 10.956, which allowed it to take the 13th Rank in the Golden Thousand.

In addition to Louis Malle's film "Goodbye, children", the following films were included in the" top ten " of the best films of world cinema in 1987 according to FilmGourmand:

- The Last Emperor. Director Bernardo Bertolucci, UK. Movie's Rating - 10,750; 20th Rank in the Golden Thousand.
- Pelle erobreren (Pelle the Conqueror). Director Bille August, Denmark. Movie's Rating - 10,103; 39th Rank in the Golden Thousand.
- Krótki film o zabijaniu (A Short Film About Killing). Director Krzysztof Kieslowski, Poland. Movie's Rating - 9,687; 67th Rank in the Golden Thousand.
- Der Himmel über Berlin (Wings of Desire). Director Wim Wenders, Germany. Movie's Rating - 9,171; 130th Rank in the Golden Thousand.
- Full Metal Jacket. Director Stanley Kubrick, USA. Movie's Rating - 8,825; 207th Rank in the Golden Thousand.
- Холодное лето пятьдесят третьего (Cold Summer of 1953). Director Aleksandr Proshkin, USSR. Movie's Rating - 8,251; 443rd Rank in the Golden Thousand.
- The Untouchables. Director Brian De Palma, USA. Movie's Rating - 8,185; 488th Rank in the Golden Thousand.
- Десять негритят (Ten Little Indians). Director Stanislav Govorukhin, USSR. Movie's Rating - 8,130; 549th Rank in the Golden Thousand.
- Hachikô monogatari ハチ公物語 (Hachi-ko). Director Seijirô Kôyama, Japan. Movie's Rating - 8,129; 553rd Rank in the Golden Thousand.

10 most "cinegenic"*, in our opinion, events of 1987:

- The death of the Herald of Free Enterprise ro-ro ship. The eight-deck passenger-car ferry Herald of Free Enterprise sank just after leaving the Belgian port of Zeebrugge. 193 passengers and the entire crew were killed. The reason for the death was the negligence of the boatswain's mate, which, in turn, was the result of poor management at the ferry company Townsend Thoresen.
- Massacre in Lieu. The armed forces of the Republic of China (Taiwan) shot a boat with Vietnamese refugees. The wounded were finished off point blank. 19 unarmed refugees were killed.
- Accident of IL-62 in Warsaw. The IL-62M of the Polish airline LOT, which was flying on the Warsaw-New York route, caught fire 23 minutes after takeoff. The commander of the airliner decided to return back to Warsaw, but during the landing approach the plane lost control and crashed on the outskirts of Warsaw. All 183 people on board were killed - 172 passengers and 11 crew members.
- Massacre in Hashimpur. In the village of Hashimpur, Uttar Pradesh, India, 19 Indian police officers surrounded 42 young Muslims, took them to the outskirts of the city, shot them in cold blood, and threw their bodies into a nearby irrigation ditch.
- Flight of Matthias Rust. On the professional holiday of Soviet border guards, 18-year-old amateur pilot from Germany Matthias Rust flew on a light-engine plane on the Helsinki-Moscow route and landed without hindrance on Red Square in the capital of the USSR. The Soviet court sentenced Matthias Rust to 4 years in prison for hooliganism. USSR Defense Minister Sergei Sokolov and Air Defense Commander Alexander Koldunov were removed from their posts.
- Disaster "Doña Paz". Between the islands of the Philippine archipelago, the passenger ferry "Doña Paz" collided with the oil tanker "Vector". The collision killed approximately 4,300 people, making it the largest maritime disaster in peacetime.
- The incident in Mecca. During the Hajj, pilgrims from Iran staged an illegal anti-American and anti-Israeli demonstration. As a result of the armed clashes that followed the demonstration, 402 people were killed (275 Iranians, 82 Saudi law enforcement officers, 42 citizens of other countries), and 649 people (303 Iranians, 145 Saudis, 201 citizens of other countries) were injured.
- The Hoddle Street Massacre. In the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia, military school cadet Julian Knight shot 7 people and seriously wounded another 19. The reason - a nervous breakdown caused by debt, conflicts with a girl-friend and relatives.
- Explosion of Boeing 707 over the Andaman Sea. DPRK intelligence agents detonated a South Korean Boeing 707-3B5C passenger plane over the Andaman Sea. All 115 people on board were killed.
- The first Palestinian intifada. The First Intifada began in Palestine, initially manifested in the throwing of stones by Palestinian teenagers. The intifada lasted 6 years, during which 111 Israelis and more than 2,000 Palestinians were killed.

Also, John Houston died.

*-By "cinegenic" in the present context, we mean events that either have already been reflected in world cinema, or deserve to be the basis of the plot of a future film.

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