miriamday-35605 Now I like a floral frock and a well-pressed Nazi uniform (on screen, you understand) as much as the next gal, but I do find the nostalgic framing of WWII in the movies a little troubling – and 'Suite Francaise' is no exception. The hand of the BBC is everywhere visible in the production, from the costumes to the doughty cast of characters who could have come straight from the set of 'Poldark' or 'Lark Rise to Candleford.Michelle Williams plays 'the beautiful Lucille' (as described by the BBC) and Matthius Schoenaerts gives Ralph Fiennes a run for his money as the brooding, handsome and 'refined' (BBC again) Nazi soldier, his refinement on show for all to see via his wistful tinkling on Michelle's, erm, piano.The two, entirely predictably, fancy the pants off each other (or should that be cami-knickers) and various complications ensue, what with him being a Nazi and everything. But the moral of the story is that lurv and that old-British-chestnut 'common decency' prevail, wresting some kind of happy ending from the film and – by extension – the Nazi occupation of France.The film is based on a recently discovered manuscript. Irène Némirovsky, an ultra-nationalist Russian Jew exiled in France, wrote the stories while living under German occupation. In that context 'Suite Francaise' can perhaps be understood as an attempt to humanise an implacable enemy, the natural desire to have love triumph – at least in the imagination. The real story is remarkable and could have made an interesting film, since Irene Nemirovsky's end was not happy and neither love nor common decency prevailed: like 6 million other European Jews she was ultimately betrayed by the people she lived amongst and sent to Auschwitz, where she died.The unending nostalgia for WWII, envisaged as a time of moral simplicities and endless heroism, airbrushes the reality: that millions of 'ordinary' people in every nation in Europe collaborated with the Germans and shared their distrust and hatred of the Jews, while the wealthy admired the Nazis as a bastion against the political left.When poverty comes through the door, the saying goes, love flies out the window. Ignorant hatred of Muslims, xenophobia and anti-semitism are stalking the streets of Europe once again. We should resist these cosy fables, that reduce WWII to a lush setting for romance, and face up to the less palatable realities of our shared past – which no amount of lipstick can gloss over.For a grittier, more complex, troubling and interesting exploration of similar themes see Louis Malle's 1974 film 'Lacombe Lucien.'

rogerdarlington Despite its title (a reference to a piece of music) and its setting (occupied France early in the Second World War), this is largely an English-language film with a British co- writer and director (Saul Dibb) and an international cast. American actress Michelle Williams plays the French villager Lucile Angellier and Belgium actor Matthias Schoenaerts is the German officer Lieutenant Bruno von Falk who become romantically involved. The first half is rather slow and plodding but then the plot picks up. What makes the characterisations interesting is that Bruno is represented as an essentially good German, while many of the French are shown in a less than flattering light.The film is actually an adaptation of the second of two stories that was intended to be a novel of five tales written in French by Irene Némirovsky, a woman of Ukrainian Jewish descent who was deported from France to Auschwitz in 1942 where she died of typhus. Némirovsky's older daughter kept the notebook containing the manuscript for fifty years without reading it but, when she discovered what it contained, she had it published in France in 2004. The film adaptation was released ten years later.

robert-temple-1 This is a film of the first two volumes of a planned five-volume novel by Irène Némirovsky (aka Irina Lvivna Nemirovska, born in Kiev), born 1903, died in Auschwitz on 17 August 1942. Némirovsky was a successful Jewish writer living in France who in her lifetime published three novels, all of which were filmed: David GOLDER (1931, filmed a second time in 1950) and LE BAL (1931, filmed a second time in 1993). In 2015 a film was made in France of her novel DEUX. She was arrested as a Jew by the Gestapo just after finishing volume two of her final novel. The manuscript remained in a suitcase and was not looked at until 1998, when it was rediscovered and published in France to great acclaim. The female lead in this film is played by the amazing Michelle Williams, one of our most talented film actresses in the world, whose work I have previously had occasion to praise to the skies, as for instance in LAND OF PLENTY (2004, see my review) and INCENDIARY (2008, see my review). In this film she has a rather subdued role, of a young woman who is shy and emotionally suppressed, living under the tyrannical eye of an authoritarian other-in-law, played sternly by Kristin Scott Thomas. The other spectacular performance in the film is by Matthias Schoenaerts, He is a Belgian actor (his name is Flemish). He plays the polite Lieutenant in the Wehrmacht who is billeted in Michelle Williams's house. He is not only a classical pianist but a composer. The music he composes while he lives in the house he names 'Suite Francaise', hence the title of the film. It is a very pleasant piece of music originally composed for the film by Alexandre Desplats, the French film composer. The film is superbly directed by Saul Dibb, who also jointly wrote the screenplay. The story is extremely sad and full of pathos. It shows clearly the bombing of the columns of civilian refugees from Paris by the psychotic pilots of the Luftwaffe. As we now live in an age of refugees once again, it is possible to appreciate more fully the horrors experienced by the French refugees shown in this film. We have the usual sadistic Nazi assassination of a Mayor as a reprisal to the inhabitants of a small town. Such films serve to remind us always of what happened under Nazi rule. But the biggest revelation is the avalanche of letters informing on people, a massive betrayal by the French against themselves, eager to settle scores with their neighbours by turning them in to the Nazis, not bothering much whether the information provided is true or lies. We also see the Mayor openly collaborating with the occupiers (before he is shot, that is). The film is very powerful and emotionally upsetting, and an excellent cinematic achievement.

Zainab Raza Following in the genre of war-romance. This film is set in 1940 France, featuring a young girls journey through the hardships of a German invasion. Michelle Williams played character, Lucille, extraordinarily showing emotions flipping throughout the plot. With not so high a rating, I was surprised by the way the film took pleasure in diverting my mind on the expectations I had for its ending. With some parts showing a melodramatic town atmosphere, it however creates a modern twist on an unexpected love connection, during a time in which such relationships were not even thought of. A great film to watch, if you are looking for a different angle on World War 2 romances.