Irène
Némirovsky was an international bestseller in her own lifetime, but today she
is best known for an unfinished posthumous publication. Of Russian-Jewish
heritage, Némirovsky was denied citizenship by France and ultimately deported
to Auschwitz, despite her fame and status as a Catholic convert and political
conservative. Her tragic fate echoes throughout the pages of the incomplete
novella sequence belatedly published in 2004. Ironically, the film adaptation
has had a circuitous fate as well. Two years after Saul Dibb’s Suite Française (trailer here) opened throughout most of Europe, the Weinstein production
finally bows this Monday on Lifetime.
Dibb
and co-screenwriter solely adapted Dolce,
the second novella set in the provincial village of Bussy, but if viewers want
to get a sense of the “French Exodus” depicted in Tempête en Juin, they can check out Christian Carion’s admirable Come What May. Lucille Angellier and her
stern mother-in-law Madame Angellier are surprised by the sudden arrival of domestic
war migrants from the cities, but the property-holding Madame quickly moves to
exploit it. The next wave of visitors are even more disruptive. Those would be
the occupying National Socialist military forces.
Like
every large household, the Angelliers are forced to quarter a German officer.
In their case, they are relatively fortunate to host Commander Bruno van Falk,
a music composer somewhat suspect among his comrades for his perceived lack of enthusiasm
for their Nazi business. However, as the heretofore loyal wife develops an
ambiguous friendship with her boarder, it leads to friction with her suspicious
mother-in-law and their resentful neighbors. Yet, their sort of affair will
give the younger Madame Angellier cover for sheltering a rebellious fugitive.
Frankly,
it is utterly baffling how an adaptation of a legit bestseller related to the
Holocaust starring Michelle Williams, Kirstin Scott Thomas, and a pre-Wolf of Wall Street Margot Robbie in a
small supporting role could be shelved for so long. If the Weinstein Company
were publicly traded, we’d say dump your stock now, because if they can’t
market a film like this, they are in serious trouble.
Granted,
Dibb’s Suite is not a likely Oscar
contender, but it is solidly presentable. As a point of comparison, Carion’s
film is probably half a star better, but solely due to Matthew Rhys’s standout
supporting turn, for which there is no equivalent in Suite. Still, Scott Thomas is absolutely pitch-perfect as Madame
Angellier, for reasons that ought to be intuitively obvious. Nobody does upper-crust
snobbery better than her, but she also makes her redemptive moments exquisitely
poignant.
As
her daughter-in-law, Michelle Williams is not exactly dazzling in any respect,
but she develops some effective chemistry with Matthias Schoenaerts. Robbie
actually makes a bit of an impression as Celine, the village trollop, but it is
Sam Riley who really lost out from the film’s dithering non-release. He does
some of his best, most intense work as Benoit, the resentful tenant farmer
itching to join the resistance. On the other hand, it is frustrating to see
Claire Holman (the under-recognized X-factor, who made Inspector Lewis such a reliable viewing pleasure) woefully
under-utilized as Marthe, the loyal servant.
