Gaspard Manesse makes childhood friendship awkward in ways films often tidy away. His reputation rests on Au Revoir les Enfants, and we rate that performance highly: Julien wants a friend without giving up the upper hand.
Fi1m perspective
Julien Quentin wants to know Jean Bonnet, but he also wants to know where he stands with him. In Louis Malle’s Au Revoir les Enfants (1987), Gaspard Manesse makes those two concerns inseparable. He is persuasive because he does not make Julien choose between wanting a friend and wanting the upper hand. The boy can be difficult company without becoming a child we are merely asked to disapprove of. That is why we rate the performance so highly.
The later filmography is sparse: Erreur de jeunesse (1989), Comme il vient (2002) and Un transport en commun (2009). Manesse also composed the score for Comme il vient, and his subsequent work has been primarily as a musician, playing trumpet with the Surnatural Orchestra. It is a small body of film work, with long gaps between the later appearances. Julien remains the part on which his screen reputation rests.
Raphael Fejtö, playing Jean, is crucial to why it works. He gives the other boy a life that does not depend on Julien noticing him, so Manesse has someone to respond to who will not simply confirm Julien’s importance. The upper hand passes between them without either actor making a display of the change. We found their jostling unexpectedly painful, because the wish to spend time together never quite stops them making companionship difficult.
Julien is Malle’s stand-in in a semi-autobiographical story, which makes Manesse’s ease with the boy’s less appealing behaviour especially valuable. A child remembered by an adult can too easily become wiser or kinder than the children we know; this one remains concerned with his own position. The school sometimes feels a little too carefully arranged in memory, and the naturalness of the acting cannot quite remove that impression. It is a small reservation about a film we recommend without hesitation. Give Au Revoir les Enfants an evening when there is no need to hurry on to something else.
Biography
Gaspard Manesse is a French actor, composer and musician. He was born on 25 March 1975 in Paris.
Manesse made his screen debut as Julien Quentin in Louis Malle's Au Revoir les Enfants (1987). He later appeared in Erreur de jeunesse (1989), Comme il vient (2002), for which he also composed the score, the short film Cet été-là (2007) and Un transport en commun (2009). He plays trumpet with the Surnatural Orchestra and has worked as a market gardener and spokesperson for the Confédération paysanne.
