A Bag of Marbles
Hard-nosed realists are likely to be incensed by the Holocaust drama “A Bag of Marbles.” But viewers willing to accept what filmmaker Christian Duguay is trying to accomplish will react differently.
We know the full scale of the horrors that are threatening the film’s central figures — two Jewish boys in Nazioccupied France — but the youngsters don’t. They understand that they are in terrible danger but are unaware of the details and depth of their peril. As they flee for their lives, forced to deny their heritage, we’re asked to observe their experiences and empathize with the dread these children — ages 10 and 12 at the start of their journey — must be feeling when forced to leave a happy and loving home.
The story in this French Canadian co-production is based on reality, taken from Joseph Joffo’s fictionalized memoir of his youthful experiences during World War II. Joseph (Dorian Le Clech) and his brother Maurice (Batyste Fleurial) are the youngest of four sons of a Jewish barber (Patrick Bruel) in occupied Paris. It’s a sign of the boys’ naivete that they are willing to trick two Nazi officers into getting their hair cut in their father’s shop.
But things are moving in a direction in which pranks will be impossible. The boys’ parents decide to send them off, by themselves (so as not to arouse suspicion), to Nice, in the French “free zone,” where they will meet up with the rest of the family. They end up hitchhiking to this promised land, not the only journey they will be forced to take.
Duguay nicely suggests the sense of youthful freedom that the boys periodically feel, while not turning a blind eye to the deadly hazards of the road (including collaborators, con men and German officials bent on tricking them into revealing their Jewish heritage). They relax a bit once they reach Vichy France, where they encounter reasonably friendly Italian soldiers — although Joseph finds shelter with the family of a bookstore owner who admires the Germans.
But it’s a false paradise. When the Germans cement their control over the area, Joseph and Maurice are forced to move again.
There are moments when “A Bag of Marbles” threatens to stray off into wistfulness, with its emphasis on childish things (the title referring to Joseph’s favorite childhood pastime), its nostalgia-tinged photography and a rosy depiction of the allure of family life that sometimes strays toward the sentimental.
In the end, these are minor matters, and we can’t help but admire the boys’ intelligence and resiliency (and, frankly, their luck — a point the film insists on repeatedly).
This isn’t the first film to try to deal with the horrors of the Holocaust from a child’s perspective, but it’s tricky material, and this one succeeds because it is direct and forthright.
It’s also well acted, especially by the two young leads and the veteran Bruel. The remarkable scene when the boys’ father first tries to instill in them — abruptly, even shockingly — the magnitude of the dangers ahead will stay with you.