Forbidden Games (EOTWS)

End Of The Week Shorts #18 extract: Forbidden Games (1952)

Forbidden Games is an emotional tour de force. There's no other film I know that manages so many serious themes - war, death, lies, poverty, family - and so many varying emotions simultaneously. In such, it's very difficult to define the genre of this film. Is it a historical film? A drama? A tragedy? A dark comedy? A romance? A family film? There are elements of everything mentioned in Forbidden Games and Clément manages each detail almost perfectly. The only hiccup of this film, in my view, was Paulette's, the littler girl's, initial reaction to her parents death. Beyond this, this narrative weaves and meanders between emotions and themes whilst it explores the idea of death and how a child copes with such an idea to sometimes absurd, yet sometimes profound, effect. 

I think it'd be safe to say that Forbidden Games is something of a masterpiece, if not, a great film with an uncanny ability to emotionally guide you through its story.