mlzarathustra The 2014 film version is polished and accessible, but it adds several scenes of gratuitous violence and overdone drama from added subplots that detract from the very detachment and sophistication that make the book so unusual. It's probably still worth watching, keeping in mind that it is a garish shadow of the original.Also, it only covers the second half of the book. The English translation of the book by Sandra Smith is excellent.

SnoopyStyle It's 1940 and France is on the verge of falling. Lucile Angellier (Michelle Williams) lives with her mother-in-law Madame Angellier (Kristin Scott Thomas) who ruthlessly collects rent from her tenant farmers. Her husband along with many of the men are away at war. She befriends poor farmer Madeleine Labarie (Ruth Wilson) and her crippled husband Benoit (Sam Riley). As France is occupied, the villagers are forced to billet German officers. The Angelliers are assigned Bruno von Falk (Matthias Schoenaerts). He's been assigned to read through the letters written by the villagers ratting out each other. Madame Angellier evicts the Josephs and Celine Joseph (Margot Robbie) is bitter for being forced into the barn.I really like all the supporting characters in the village. The conflicting paths are compelling and the same character often have opposing modes. The central romance is less appealing. This requires Michelle Williams to lose her senses and fall in a full-on romance novel relationship. She does her best but a younger and more naive actress would probably work better. It should be a relationship of intense trust issues but the movie is driving for romanticism. It's really wrong-headed. There are also other minor issues about the third act.

Peter Halse Having just read the book for a book group, I looked forward to this. To describe it as a travesty would be too kind. I realise that films can't treat books literally, that they need to translate literary effects into cinematic ones, but this isn't the problem here. Rather it's that the subtleties of the book are ignored by a film which tramples on them with jackboots and despoils the central relationship for no obvious reason. It's a cruel insult to the grace and candour of Irene Nemirovsky, who died in Auschwitz without finishing what might have been the greatest novel of the twentieth century. Read the book instead.

fill25908 War time is not easy, particularly for lovers, the stronger the love is, the bitter they will feel. That's how French village girl Lucile and German lieutenant Bruno linked together, they are not just linked by second world war but also piano, the cruelest thing and the most beautiful thing in the world simultaneously, different from the other WWII war films, Suite Francaise showed a warm German heart under the cold uniform, perhaps that's reason the officer's name is Bruno Von Falk, "Von" reminded people his German side, but Bruno is a typical Italian name -- here the officer already lost half of his coldness, and his piano composer background causing his sensitive character covers his solider's duty particularly when it is peaceful war time, the Chopin taste piano piece pulling submissive Lucile into his emotion world: a little bit sad, a little bit helpless, a little bit romantic... Any women would just love this character, after knowing the movie is based on Ukrainian Jewish author Irène Némirovsky same name novel, people might wonder what really happened to the author so that she wrote such a beautiful story.Madame Angellier (Kristin Scott Thomas) is another shining character in the movie, she was mean as much as Grandet, as the war going deep into the peaceful village life, she changes as much as Lucile and other villagers like Joseph couple, Madeline family etc.