How entertaining? ★★☆☆☆
Thought provoking? ★★★☆☆ 2 March 2015
This article is a review of SUITE FRANCAISE. |
“So this is war,” Lucile Angellier (Michelle Williams)
What an annoying voice over. Was it added later? Mostly it appears to be aimed at the lowest common denominator, spelling out the glaringly obvious. And what’s up with the clipped faux-British accent of the normally reliably excellent Williams? Her Lucile is a French country aristocrat. Set in Bussy, central France, no one bothers with French intonation, bar native Lambert Wilson. This is nothing new; William Hurt as a Russian homicide detective in GORKY PARK (1983) to Eric Bana as Hector in TROY (2004) illustrates how North Americans and Antipodeans can default to British. In VALKYRIE (2008), Tom Cruise against the grain kept his speech pattern as Claus von Stauffenberg – the film showcasing how every tongue has dialect disparity. SUITE FRANÇAISE opts out of Franco language imitation, perhaps rightly out of fear on coming across as a character from dated 1980s sitcom ‘ALLO ‘ALLO.
What an annoying voice over. Was it added later? Mostly it appears to be aimed at the lowest common denominator, spelling out the glaringly obvious. And what’s up with the clipped faux-British accent of the normally reliably excellent Williams? Her Lucile is a French country aristocrat. Set in Bussy, central France, no one bothers with French intonation, bar native Lambert Wilson. This is nothing new; William Hurt as a Russian homicide detective in GORKY PARK (1983) to Eric Bana as Hector in TROY (2004) illustrates how North Americans and Antipodeans can default to British. In VALKYRIE (2008), Tom Cruise against the grain kept his speech pattern as Claus von Stauffenberg – the film showcasing how every tongue has dialect disparity. SUITE FRANÇAISE opts out of Franco language imitation, perhaps rightly out of fear on coming across as a character from dated 1980s sitcom ‘ALLO ‘ALLO.
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Deep attraction across sides during the Second World War has been done better, by the likes of Paul Verhoeven in BLACK BOOK (2006) and Ang Lee in LUST, CAUTION (2007). Lucile here is not a civilian co-opted as a spy. From a mousy mouse, her character arc extends to a mouse with courage by the denouement. Put upon by domineering battleaxe of a mother-in-law, Madame Angellier (Kristen Scott Thomas bringing humanity to a role as Meryl Streep did in THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA), Lucile trails in her wake as Madame collects rent from impoverished tenants. Class conflict before and after occupation is the saving grace, adding something refreshing to the war genre.
June 1940, France falls to the Nazis. Train bombed, then the Parisian refugees fleeing to the countryside, is the initial set-piece used to hook the audience. No other is offered. Mild dread is substituted in place. Bussy consists of old men, women, the infirm and children. No one to protect the citizens as an invading force arrives to subjugate. German officers are billeted to the wealthiest homes. Bruno von Falk (Matthias Schoenaerts) is assigned to the Angelliers, for a mildewy forbidden romance that might raise the pulse of some.
“My father said if you want to see what people are truly made of, start a war,” Madeleine (Ruth Wilson)
Another two elevating elements, not drowned out by the tired love story:
- A reminder, if it was needed, of what it is like to be under a colonizing force, especially with what has been going on around the world in recent history (though this is no BATTLESTAR GALACTICA in terms of allegory).
- Echoes of what was discussed in monumental documentary from Marcel Ophüls, THE SORROW AND THE PITY (1969), about collaboration and societal moral failure.
SUITE FRANÇAISE needed a gearshift to be memorable. Beautiful women (Williams, Wilson, Margot Robbie, Alexandra Maria Lara), across social strata, at the mercy of enemy soldiers, is not fully explored by contrasting whether an audience feels the same anxiety for the less good looking. One hopes they would!
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