Suite Française

Dir: Saul Dibb

2015

***

The story behind Saul Dibb’s Suite Française is, in my opinion, far more interesting than the film itself. Irène Némirovsky’s novel Suite Française remained unfinished and unpublished for over fifty years. Némirovsky herself died in Auschwitz in 1942. Némirovsky's older daughter, Denise, kept the notebook containing the manuscript for Suite Française for fifty years without reading it, thinking it was a journal or diary of her mother's, which would be too painful to read. In the late 1990s, however, she made arrangements to donate her mother's papers to a French archive and decided to examine the notebook first. Upon discovering what it contained, she instead had it published in France, where it became a bestseller in 2004. The story was to be made into two novels portraying life in France between 4 June 1940 and 1 July 1941, the period during which the Nazis occupied Paris. These works are considered remarkable because they were written during the actual period itself, and yet are the product of considered reflection, rather than just a journal of events, as might be expected considering the personal turmoil experienced by the Jewish author at the time. The right to the novel were acquired by Universal Pictures in 2006 and Ronald Harwood, who wrote the script for The Pianist, was set to write the screenplay, with Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall producing the film. However, TF1 Droits Audiovisuels acquired the rights to the novel from publisher Éditions Denoël and the novel was adapted for the screen by Saul Dibb and Matt Charman, with Dibb directing. Dibb focused his adaptation on book two of Némirovsky's novels, which explores the relationships between the French women and the German soldiers who occupied their village, in particular the story of Lucile Angellier who is awaiting news of her husband, who went to war, when a German officer is billeted in her home. Dibb used the account of the discovery of the manuscript of the novel by Némirovsky's daughter, Denise Epstein, to book-end the film and pay tribute to Némirovsky. Epstein died shortly before production began, but she read drafts of the script. In German-occupied France, Lucile Angellier (Michelle Williams) and her domineering mother-in-law Madame Angellier (Kristin Scott Thomas) await news of her husband, who was serving in the French Army. While visiting tenants, Lucile and Madame Angellier escape an air raid by German bombers. Following the French surrender, a regiment of German soldiers arrives, and promptly moves into the homes of the villagers. The Wehrmacht Oberleutnant Bruno von Falk (Matthias Schoenaerts) is billeted at the Angelliers' household. Lucile tries to ignore Bruno but is charmed by his kindly demeanor and his piano music. Lucile later learns that her husband Gaston's unit has been imprisoned at a German labor camp. Elsewhere, the farmer Benoit (Sam Riley) and his wife Madeleine (Ruth Wilson) chafe under the German officer Kurt Bonnet (Tom Schilling), who harasses Madeleine. Benoit, who was denied the chance to fight because of his leg wound, hides a rifle. As an act of resistance, he steals the German soldiers' clothes while they are bathing. When Lucile discovers that one of her mother-in-law’s tenants Celine (Margot Robbie) is having sex with a German soldier, Celine reveals that Gaston has been having an extramarital affair and has fathered a girl named Simone. Angry with Madame Angellier for withholding her son's indiscretions, Lucile develops romantic feelings for Bruno and he gifts her a piece of his music score. At Lucile's request, Bruno confronts Kurt over his harassment. Lucile's relationship with Bruno draws the hostility of many of the townsfolk. The Viscountess de Monfort (Harriet Walter) later catches Benoit stealing a chicken from her coop. When Benoit points a gun at her, she tells her husband, the collaborationist Viscount de Monfort (Lambert Wilson), who sends the German soldiers after Benoit. While hiding in a barn, Benoit kills Kurt with his gun and flees into the forest. The Germans launch a manhunt and give the town's population 48 hours to surrender Benoit. The German Major (Heino Ferch) takes the Viscount hostage and threatens to execute him if Benoit is not found. At Madeleine’s request, Lucile hides Benoit in the attic of the Angellier mansion with the help of the reluctant Madame Angellier. Despite a massive manhunt, the Germans fail to capture Benoit and the Viscount is executed by firing squad. With the Germans planning to withdraw from the town, Lucile takes part in a plan to smuggle Benoit into Paris, where the French Resistance is gathering. She manages to convince Bruno to issue her travel pass to Paris. However, Bruno’s suspicious orderly suspects that Lucile is harboring Benoit and issues special instructions for the checkpoint guards to search her car. At the checkpoint, Benoit manages to shoot the German soldiers dead with his pistol but is wounded in the shoulder. Bruno arrives on a motorcycle. Lucile faces him with her pistol but is unable to bring herself to kill him. To Lucile’s surprise, Bruno helps her lift the wounded Benoit into the car and allows them to escape to Paris. As she drives away, Lucile smiles at Bruno in gratitude. Lucile and Benoit later join the French resistance and help drive out the Germans. While Lucile later learns that Bruno perished during the war, she treasures the memory of his music score Suite Française. The cast is made up of many actors whom I admire but I can’t say anyone brings a standout performance to the film. I don’t think the film works the way it is written and the stories have been merged quite clumsily. I can’t say I cared for the story at all but romance between solders and French girls did happen, I just find it bizarre that a Jewish women would write about such things as it was happening. That said, the truth should always out, whether we like it or not, although this is a fictional story. It’s just a terrible shame that the romance is unconvincing on screen and the film only really finds it’s pace in the third act. I also find it strange that, once being acquired from an American studio, the French TF1 Droits Audiovisuels decided to still film it in English. It is odd how the Germans still speak German but the French speak in posh English. Overall it is a good film, it just suffers from all the usual cliches that are very easy to avoid in the scheme of things. The story of the novel itself is fascinating and a real success story, the film itself however is devastatingly unremarkable.