France, 1940. In the first days of occupation, beautiful Lucile Angellier (Michelle Williams) is trapped in a stifled existence with her controlling mother-in-law (Kristin Scott Thomas) as they both await news of her husband: a prisoner of war. Parisian refugees start to pour into their small town, soon followed by a regiment of German soldiers who take up residence in the villagers’ own homes. Lucile initially tries to ignore Bruno von Falk (Matthias Schoenaerts), the handsome and refined German officer staying with them. But soon, a powerful love draws them together and leads them into the tragedy of war.
Irène Némirovsky was already a renowned living in Paris when she began work on Suite Française in 1942. But due to events that transpired as she wrote it, the novel was unknown until it not rediscovered in 2006.
Publishers Weekly said of the novel:
Celebrated in pre-WWII France for her bestselling fiction, the Jewish Russian-born Némirovsky was shipped to Auschwitz in the summer of 1942, months after this long-lost masterwork was composed. Némirovsky, a convert to Catholicism, began a planned five-novel cycle as Nazi forces overran northern France in 1940. This gripping “suite,” collecting the first two unpolished but wondrously literary sections of a work cut short, have surfaced more than six decades after her death. The first, “Storm in June,” chronicles the connecting lives of a disparate clutch of Parisians, among them a snobbish author, a venal banker, a noble priest shepherding churlish orphans, a foppish aesthete and a loving lower-class couple, all fleeing city comforts for the chaotic countryside, mere hours ahead of the advancing Germans. The second, “Dolce,” set in 1941 in a farming village under German occupation, tells how peasant farmers, their pretty daughters and petit bourgeois collaborationists coexisted with their Nazi rulers. In a workbook entry penned just weeks before her arrest, Némirovsky noted that her goal was to describe “daily life, the emotional life and especially the comedy it provides.” This heroic work does just that, by focusing—with compassion and clarity—on individual human dramas.
Has anyone seen A Little Chaos? It’s another film starring Mathias Schoenharts and Kate Winslet, taking place at the Palace of Versailles during the reign of Louis XIV. It premiered at Tiff but is being released next April. It sounds like a dramedy so I guess it’s too light for Oscar season.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2639254/?ref_=tt_rec_tt
This is flying completely under the radar, and its apparent cheesiness will probably keep it there all season, which is pretty unfortunate because it looked really good on paper (concept + cast). I’d love it to be as fantastic as Atonement but I’m not feeling it yet.
Schoenaerts (in or out of uniform) and Scott Thomas are an instant win for me, and Williams will be bang-on as Lucile.
I don’t think it’s a film that can be hyped. Stealth worked for The Pianist and it will work for this.
I’ve been predicting Williams and Scott Thomas for most of the year to win nominations.
I thought Scott Thomas was brilliant last year in “Only God Forgives”. Hopefully, she’ll forgive AMPAS and turn up when her name is called.
The first reviews for interstellar have arrived!. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/interstellar_2014/?search=interst
Given the dearth of viable candidates for best actress I’ve been expecting an “October surprise” for some time now and wonder if this is it. It would certainly make sense as it’s been obvious since Cannes (even earlier, really) that Chastain in “Eleanor Rigby” was a non-starter and it seems Adams may be as well…
Also let’s all just take a moment to appreciate Matthias Schoenaerts’ talent with accents. Take this, The Drop and Blood Ties. Our Meryl ain’t got nothing on Matthias.
Kristin. Scott. Thomas. All I need is to hear those three words and I will buy a ticket.
Rust and Boner?
lbr I had that scene on repeat
All I could do as I watched this trailer was look for hints of a Matthias Schoenaerts full-frontal.
Oh! I had completely forgotten about the existence of this one.
My guess is that the long post-production time and the lack of promotion is telling.
Looks decent, the book was great and the Williams/Scott-Thomas duo is intriguing and VERY promising. What I don’t understand is this : based on the source material and the talent involved, this is SERIOUS Oscar bait, filming wrapped over a year ago (last September) and now we have a trailer and a poster in late October which suggests this will be out this year. But why no release date then ? And if Weinstein doesn’t plan on releasing it this year – makes sense, the film’s best shot seems to be the female lead, Michelle Williams, and he already has several strong contenders in Best Actress this year – then what’s up with all the recently (and kind of unexpectedly) released material ?