Suite française
Handsome adaptation of Irène Némirovsky’s epic novel vividly depicts French rural life under the Nazis.
The now-celebrated origins of Suite Française, which became a publishing sensation in 2004, are as startling and extraordinary as anything on screen – arguably more so. Having fled Paris as the Nazis approached in 1940, the Ukrainian-Jewish writer Irène Némirovsky relocated to Issy-l’Evêque in Burgundy, where she began work on a planned five-part tale of war and peace. But after being transported to Auschwitz, Némirovsky died (aged just 39) in 1942, her notebooks entrusted to her daughters Denise and Elisabeth, who believed them to be diaries. It wasn’t until the 1990s that Denise discovered what turned out to be the first two instalments of Némirovsky’s extraordinary unfinished work. Published under the umbrella title Suite Française, these two self-contained novellas were reportedly optioned by Hollywood’s Universal Pictures. But by 2007 the title had returned to the French ownership of TF1, with whom British co-writer/director Saul Dibb has brought this French/UK/Belgian co-production to the screen.
Taking the novel’s lead, Saul Dibb’s nuanced, compelling film offers an intriguing close-up portrait of Bussy, a northern French village forced to host a garrison of Nazi soldiers. At the film’s heart is a sort-of romance between timid Lucile (Michelle Williams), and a cultured, piano-playing Nazi officer, Bruno (Matthias Schoenaerts). But more lasting than the film’s romantic angle is the snapshot that Dibb (‘Bullet Boy’, ‘The Duchess’) offers of a class-ridden society under the spotlight of occupation.
The themes of collaboration, compassion and betrayal run through the film, and characters who initially seem to be one thing, like Lucile’s hard-hearted mother-in-law (Kristin Scott Thomas), emerge as more complex. Even the film’s portrayal of the Nazi soldiers is satisfyingly complicated. Also refreshing is a sense that we’re thrown into the middle of the uncertainty of war; ‘Suite Française’ works hard to free itself from the benefit of hindsight.
The film is not without its problems – Michelle Williams is an elusive lead, and a wide array of characters come at the expense of depth – but it’s a knotty, thoughtful piece of work nonetheless.
The themes of collaboration, compassion and betrayal run through the film, and characters who initially seem to be one thing, like Lucile’s hard-hearted mother-in-law (Kristin Scott Thomas), emerge as more complex. Even the film’s portrayal of the Nazi soldiers is satisfyingly complicated. Also refreshing is a sense that we’re thrown into the middle of the uncertainty of war; ‘Suite Française’ works hard to free itself from the benefit of hindsight.
The film is not without its problems – Michelle Williams is an elusive lead, and a wide array of characters come at the expense of depth – but it’s a knotty, thoughtful piece of work nonetheless.
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