Suite Française

Suite Français was on TV and its plot seemed interesting. A romance between a married French woman and a married German officer during the occupation of France. How, I wondered how can a woman fall for a man like that? Regardless of his personality, the position he is in wouldn't allow any feelings to develop unless the woman in question has an unhealthy mind.

I was wrong. It is a beautiful story that worked for me on every level. They immediately recognise each other as kindred souls (he is actually a composer and she studied music in school) but the circumstances are never undermined or swept away. They lose their minds for a minute but never have sex (they were going to but both were rudely awakened before they even got together). I would have liked this story anway but the lead actors were both very good. Michelle Williams is not someone I care for but she always comes through and Matthias Schoenaerts is the same. This guy is interesting in the fact that he is a good actor but I think his career is held back by his physiqué. He is very tall and the camera doesn't really love him. But he is great in the part and I liked him everytime I watched him (fave performance Rust and Bones).

The story of the novel is even more chilling. The writer Iréne Némirovsky was an Ukranina Jewish woman who actually died in a consentration camp (Auschwitz) in WWII. I was already feeling too much after the film and finding out (neatly explained right before the credits) how it was written and how the author died before completing it (apparently she wrote only two novels of a planned 5 novels of the story) affected me.