Suite Française
17/03/15 Filed in: Cinema
We saw Suite Française today. Set in the French town of Bussy during the early part of the Second Word War, it at first shows us how the residents react to the arrival of German soldiers, which in many cases amounts to denigrating their neighbours in order to win favour for themselves.
The story revolves around Madame Angellier, a fearsome lady who has few friends, being that she collects rent from many of the locals, and her daughter-in-law, Lucile, who she domineers and demeans. Into this strained company comes the German officer Bruno von Falk. Lucile's husband is away fighting, but their marriage appears to have been arranged and Madame Angellier is clearly of the opinion that Lucile is not good enough for her son.
Bruno turns out to be a true gentleman, who composes music, and Lucile soon finds herself with romantic feelings for him, despite the ill feeling towards French women who consort with Germans. But meanwhile others are not faring as well under the German occupation. A family that rents a farm from Madame Angellier is particularly affected when a German officer billeted with them starts to show an interest in the farmer's wife. A sequence of events leads to the death of this officer, which provokes a deadly response from the German command.
The story revolves around Madame Angellier, a fearsome lady who has few friends, being that she collects rent from many of the locals, and her daughter-in-law, Lucile, who she domineers and demeans. Into this strained company comes the German officer Bruno von Falk. Lucile's husband is away fighting, but their marriage appears to have been arranged and Madame Angellier is clearly of the opinion that Lucile is not good enough for her son.
Bruno turns out to be a true gentleman, who composes music, and Lucile soon finds herself with romantic feelings for him, despite the ill feeling towards French women who consort with Germans. But meanwhile others are not faring as well under the German occupation. A family that rents a farm from Madame Angellier is particularly affected when a German officer billeted with them starts to show an interest in the farmer's wife. A sequence of events leads to the death of this officer, which provokes a deadly response from the German command.
This jolts Lucile from her romantic idyll and from this point she takes great risks to protect the farmer, Benoît, who is now in hiding from the Germans. This final part of the film portrays the emotional conflict in the minds of both Lucile and Bruno, as both attempt to follow their consciences, knowing that they are on opposite sides. Both must make difficult choices and the denouement comes as a bit of a surprise.
I enjoyed this film but can't help but thinking that it would have been better if it had been filmed in French. For a film like this realism is important, and while we had the mayor of the town (the Viscount) at one point speaking German, as did the Germans in the minor parts, he later drops into English. All the French characters are voiced in English throughout, as are the principal Germans. So we have German officers billeted with French families without apparently any language difficulties. Great for English language viewers but hardly realistic.
I also think that cultural identities are lost with this approach but realise that to make money a film needs big names and, unfortunately, fully subtitled films seem unpalatable to many people, which is a pity.
I enjoyed this film but can't help but thinking that it would have been better if it had been filmed in French. For a film like this realism is important, and while we had the mayor of the town (the Viscount) at one point speaking German, as did the Germans in the minor parts, he later drops into English. All the French characters are voiced in English throughout, as are the principal Germans. So we have German officers billeted with French families without apparently any language difficulties. Great for English language viewers but hardly realistic.
I also think that cultural identities are lost with this approach but realise that to make money a film needs big names and, unfortunately, fully subtitled films seem unpalatable to many people, which is a pity.