A loving pair in the black light, he a soldier, she a lovely maiden, and threatening bombers in the background. The poster of SUITE FRANÇAISE could fit well in an RTL or SAT 1 movie event. Love before the horrors of wars, especially the second one, is a topic that always works. If it’s based on real events – even better! Saul Dibb’s film could be slightly true: it is based on Irène Némirovsky’s posthumous bestseller which became a small literary sensation in 2004.
It’s about Lucille (Michelle Williams) who lives in a small French town at her step-mothers (Kristin Scott Thomas). The husband and son is fighting in the war and so Lucille has a lot of time to flirt with German officer Bruno von Falk (Matthias Schoenaerts), who is living in their house during the German occupation. It makes it even easier when the German is revealed to be an esthete who plays melancholic pieces on the piano (the reason for film’s name) and generally doesn’t fit with the image of the barbaric Nazi. This love story in the foreground is a lot less interesting than the subtext of this nicely arranged melodrama made on 35mm film. It’s about the prejudice that Lucille is confronted with: by being so close to the enemy she is seen as a whore by the community, even if she’s secretly hiding a resistance fighter. SUITE FRANÇAISE often uses broad strokes though – especially with Tom Schilling as the young Nazi caricature – the visually stunning romance that the poster promises.

Michael Meyns

Translation: Elinor Lewy