[yasr_overall_rating]
Marguerite must navigate through the hardships of the Liberation after losing her husband and starting a relationship with the enemy during the War.
“Memoir of War,” originally released as “La Douleur,” is a slow-moving French film that chronicles the hardships of a wife whose husband is captured by Nazi collaborators during World War II. Mélanie Thierry plays Marguerite, the wife of Robert, an important figure in the French underground movement.
As Marguerite tries to send food and clothing to Robert in prison, she begins to meet regularly with his captor, a French collaborator named Benoît Magimel, played by Pierre Rabier. Marguerite is anxious to learn the fate of her husband but is reluctant to accept Benoît’s kindnesses. Nonetheless, Benoît remains persistent – smitten as he is with the fact that Marguerite is a writer.
In between the regular but cautious public liaisons with Benoît, Marguerite continues to attend resistance meetings at her peril. There, she receives instruction to obtain what information she can, but with the admonition to never let her guard down.
Benjamin Biolay plays Dionys, a fellow underground associate and the best friend of Marguerite’s husband. Dionys is Marguerite’s anchor throughout the film. It is he, more than anyone, who helps Marguerite retain her sanity through the seemingly endless ordeal of uncertainty.
It is interesting to watch how people might have lived in the days leading up to France’s liberation by the Allied forces. In a scene at a lavish restaurant, for example, the Nazi collaborators appear smug, but we realize that it is only a veneer. Beneath the exterior hides the troublesome notion that their days are numbered. The resistance members, on the other hand, grow more confident as the Allies advance inexorably on Paris.
The narrative jumps back and forth through time in order to better frame the overall story. The film is ultimately as much about mood and atmosphere as anything else. When Robert finally does return, emaciated and near death, we realize that Marguerite has already considered him dead for some time. The ghost of the man that returns is her husband in name only.
Thierry is a compelling screen presence who has appeared in American films such as “Babylon A.D.” and Terry Gilliam’s “The Zero Theorem.” She takes a firm grasp of this material and confidently communicates the dreary plight of Marguerite during the Nazi occupation of Paris.
Emmanuel Finkiel adapted the screenplay and directed from a novel by Marguerite Duras. “Memoir of War” is a bleak and introspective account of war, and records with care the long, slow toll it takes on ordinary people. If you like existentialist-style French films, this one is for you.
Opens at the Angelika Film Center in Dallas Friday, August 31st
