Plot

A French boarding school run by priests seems to be a haven from World War II until a new student arrives. Occupying the next bed in the dormitory to the top student in his class, the two young boys begin to form a bond.

In 1944, upper class boy Julien Quentin and his brother François travel to Catholic boarding school in the countryside after vacations. Julien is a leader and good student and when the new student Jean Bonnet arrives in the school, they have friction in their relationship. However, Julien learns to respect Jean and discovers that he is Jewish and the priests are hiding him from the Nazis. They become best friends and Julien keeps the secret. When the priest Jean discovers that the servant Joseph is stealing supplies from the school to sell in the black market, he fires the youth. Soon the Gestapo arrives at school to investigate the students and the priests that run and work in the boarding school.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

The story of a young Jewish boy, Jean Kippelstein aka Jean Bonnet, living under a false identity in a Catholic residential school in Nazi-occupied France. The headmaster knows of his background and is part of the conspiracy to protect him. Jean befriends a classmate, Julien Quentin. who learns of Jean's secret but keeps that information to himself. When Jean's true identity is revealed, the boy, the headmaster and others are taken away by the Gestapo, never to be seen again. Semi-autobiographical account of director Louis Malle's life at boarding school during World War II.—garykmcd

January, 1944 in Nazi-occupied France. From their Paris home, preteen Julien Quentin and his older, teenaged brother François Quentin have just returned to the all-boys boarding school at St. Jean de la Croix - a Carmelite convent - following the Christmas break. Outwardly, they are sent to boarding school because of the war, which is not to say that they may have been sent there regardless by their overbearing mother and absentee father, who they have not seen in two years as he works in Lille. Julien, generally looked up to by his classmates and respected by his teachers, likes to appear tough to his classmates, while in reality he is closer to being a scared little boy, a side of himself he is not afraid to show to his mother. A manifestation of the child side of himself is that he still occasionally wets his bed, something he hides in cleaning up before others awaken. The direct day-to-day issues of the war generally do not enter the school, and as such the boys are generally able to act like boys: they roughhouse (largely under the supervision of the teachers), and take advantage of getting care packages from home - which they are supposed to share in the Christian spirit - to trade with Joseph, an older boy who works in the kitchen, for things they really want, such as cigarettes. This term, three new boys enter the school, one, Jean Bonnet, who is the same age as Julien and as such is assigned to Julien's class. Jean is Protestant and is therefore exempt from many of the Catholic rituals of the convent, such as communion. Beyond his name being easy to ridicule ("Easter bonnet"), Jean is treated as an outsider by his classmates due to his reserved nature. However, Julien slowly begins to see in Jean aspects of himself, that familiarity which eventually blossoms into a friendship between the two boys. That friendship is strengthened when Julien learns the secret reason behind Jean being at the school. This term will also show Julien what the Nazi persecution means to general French life, events at the school which will be part of him for the rest of his life.—Huggo

At a Carmelite boarding school, rebellious twelve-year-old Julien is leading a safe childhood, protected from the horrors of war and the turmoil raging in German-occupied France. The arrival of a new student, the reserved but brilliant Jean, immediately sparks an intense rivalry between the two boys, paving the way for a strong bond, and a true friendship. However, more and more, Julien begins to suspect that there is more to his new best friend than meets the eye and that he is harbouring an unexpected secret; one that must be kept under wraps at all costs, as the Nazis arrive at their door.—Nick Riganas