Description
Suite Française is a 2015 war romantic drama film directed by Saul Dibb and co-written with Matt Charman.
It is based on the second part of Irène Némirovsky‘s 2004 novel of the same name.
The film stars Michelle Williams, Kristin Scott Thomas, Matthias Schoenaerts, Sam Riley, Ruth Wilson, Lambert Wilson and Margot Robbie. It concerns a romance between a French villager and a German soldier during the early years of the German occupation of France during World War II. Suite Française was filmed on location in France and Belgium. It was released theatrically in the UK on 13 March 2015 and premiered in the US through Lifetime cable network on 22 May 2017.
*The film was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition.
In German-occupied France, Lucile Angellier and her domineering mother-in-law Madame Angellier await news of her husband Gaston, who was serving in the French Army. While visiting tenants, Lucile and Madame Angellier escape an air raid by German Ju 87 stuka bombers. Following the French surrender, a regiment of German soldiers arrives, and promptly moves into the homes of the villagers.
Wehrmacht Oberleutnant Bruno von Falk, a member of the German nobility, is billeted at the Angelliers’ household. Lucile tries to ignore Bruno but is charmed by his gentlemanly demeanor and his piano music. He gives her a piece of the sheet music. Lucile later learns that her husband Gaston’s unit has been imprisoned at a German POW camp.
Elsewhere, the farmer Benoit and his wife Madeleine chafe under the German occupation
As an act of resistance, he steals the German soldiers’ clothes while they are bathing.
When Lucile discovers that one of her mother-in-law’s tenants Celine is having sex with a German soldier, Celine reveals that Gaston has been having an extramarital affair and has fathered a girl named Simone. Angry with Madame Angellier for withholding her son’s affair, Lucile allows herself to develop romantic feelings for Bruno. At Lucile’s request, Bruno confronts Kurt over his harassment. Lucile’s relationship with Bruno draws the hostility of many of the townfolk.
The Viscountess de Montmort later catches Benoit stealing a chicken from her coop.
When Benoit points a gun at her, she tells her husband, the collaborationist Viscount de Montmort, who sends German soldiers after Benoit. While hiding in a barn, Benoit kills Kurt with his gun and flees into the forest.
The Wehrmacht launches a manhunt and give the townsfolk 48 hours to surrender Benoit.
A Wehrmacht Major takes the Viscount hostage and threatens to execute him if Benoit is not found.
At Madeleine’s request, Lucile hides Benoit in the attic of the Angellier mansion with the help of the reluctant Madame Angellier. Despite a massive manhunt, the Germans fail to capture Benoit and the Viscount is executed by firing squad.
As the Germans plan to withdraw from the town, Lucile takes part in a plan to smuggle Benoit into Paris, where the French Resistance is gathering. She manages to convince Bruno to issue her a travel pass to Paris. However, Bruno’s suspicious orderly suspects that Lucile is harboring Benoit and issues special instructions for the checkpoint guards to search her car.
At the checkpoint, Benoit manages to shoot the German soldiers dead with his pistol but is wounded in the shoulder. Bruno arrives on a motorcycle. Lucile faces him with her pistol but is unable to kill him. To Lucile’s relief, Bruno instead helps her lift the wounded Benoit into the car and allows them to escape to Paris.
As she drives away, Lucile smiles at Bruno in gratitude. Lucile and Benoit later join the French resistance and help liberate France from the Germans. While Lucile later learns that Bruno von Falk perished during the war, she always treasures his musical score Suite Française.
Casting
- Michelle Williams as Lucile Angellier
- Kristin Scott Thomas as Madame Angellier, Lucile Angellier’s mother-in-law
- Matthias Schoenaerts as Oberleutnant Bruno Von Falk
- Sam Riley as Benoit Labarie, Madeleine’s husband
- Ruth Wilson as Madeleine Labarie, Benoit’s wife
- Lambert Wilson as Viscount de Montmort
- Clare Holman as Marthe
- Margot Robbie as Celine
- Alexandra Maria Lara as Leah, Anna’s mother
- Harriet Walter as Viscountess de Montmort
- Eileen Atkins as Denise Epstein
- Tom Schilling as Oberleutnant Kurt Bonnet
- Eric Godon as Monsieur Joseph, Celine’s father
- Deborah Findlay as Madame Joseph, Celine’s mother
- Diana Kent as Madame Michaud
- Cédric Maerckx as Gaston Angellier, Lucile’s husband and Madame Angellier’s son
Conception and adaptation
On 9 November 2006, Michael Fleming from Variety reported that the rights to Irène Némirovsky‘s novel Suite Française (written during the Nazi occupation of France but published posthumously in 2004) had been acquired by Universal Pictures.
Irene was a novelist, murdered during the Holocaust, in Auschwitz. Her works were expected to have been created within the war years erworks Ronald Harwood, who wrote the script for The Pianist, was set to write the screenplay, with Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall producing the film.[4] The following year, TF1 Droits Audiovisuels acquired the rights to the novel from publisher Éditions Denoël.
The novel was adapted for the screen by Saul Dibb and Matt Charman, with Dibb directing.
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