Raphael Fejtö gives Jean Bonnet an independence that makes the friendship in Au Revoir les Enfants convincing. We rate the performance highly for letting two boys want each other’s company and still make it difficult.
Fi1m perspective
Watch how the upper hand passes between the boys in Au Revoir les Enfants (1987). Raphael Fejtö’s Jean Bonnet and Gaspard Manesse’s Julien Quentin register those changes without making a display of them. Manesse makes Julien’s interest in Jean inseparable from his concern about his own position, while Fejtö never lets Jean become merely the object of someone else’s curiosity. Louis Malle’s school drama depends on this difference between the performances. We believe in their friendship because neither boy makes it straightforward.
The school sometimes feels too carefully arranged in memory, and the boys’ difficult companionship is a useful correction to that neatness. Neither performance turns their growing closeness into an excuse to smooth away the competition between them. We found their jostling for position unexpectedly painful, because wanting to be friends does not spare either boy the business of working out who has the advantage. Fejtö does not need to explain every hurt to make us care about Jean.
Jean was his first role, taken at twelve, and remains his only major acting credit. Fejtö subsequently chose writing and directing, making his directorial debut with the medium-length 56 fois par semaine (1996), featuring Romain Duris. Duris also appeared in his features Osmose (2003) and L’Âge d’homme… maintenant ou jamais (2007), whose subjects include young adulthood and adult transitions. There is no succession of major roles here through which we can trace a developing screen manner.
We would therefore be cautious about calling his restraint a signature; it is what works in this particular partnership with Malle and Manesse. We can value the independence he gives Jean without assuming that every character would benefit from the same approach. Start with Au Revoir les Enfants, and watch how much changes between the boys without either actor insisting that we notice.
Biography
Raphaël Fejtö is a French actor, director and writer. He is known for his performance as Jean Bonnet in Louis Malle's Au Revoir les Enfants (1987).
Fejtö made his directing debut with the short film 56 fois par semaine (1996), which he also wrote and starred in. He went on to write and direct the features Osmose (2003) and L'Age d'Homme (2007), the latter starring Romain Duris.
Born in Paris on 17 September 1974, Fejtö has also co-authored and illustrated several children's books.
