MEMOIR OF WAR/ LA DOULEUR
France, 2017, 127 minutes, Colour.
Melanie Thierry, Benoit Magimel, Benjamin Biolay, Gregoire Leprince-, Emmanuel Bourdieu, Anne -Lisa Heimberger.
Directed by Emanuel Finkiel.
This Memoir of World War II, France in 1944-45, the German occupation of Paris, is that of celebrated novelist, Marguerite Duras, well-known in the years after the war with her memoirs on novels, and various film versions.
Melanie Thierry plays her, young, with a reputation as a writer, but severely anxious because of the disappearance of her Resistance leader husband, Robert. Withdrawing into her own world, she is part of the events but so much of the atmosphere of the events passing her by in her anxiety. There are various characters of the resistance who support her. She encounters an official, a Nazi sympathiser, played by Benoit Magimel. There is also a kindly landlady who gives her support but is also anxious about the return of her imprisoned daughter.
The screenplay is a combination of realism, the linear development of Paris in those years. However, the film opens with the author saying she discovered a diary she had written at the time, did not remember it but recognised the style and the language. Excerpt from the diary, illustrating her frame of mind and emotions, also permeates the film with a voice-over inserted into the realism.
1. The title? World War II? The focus on 1944-1945?
2. The status of Marguerite Duras? As a writer? The experience of the war, her husband and his absence, return? Her subsequent career, reputation?
3. The re-creation of Paris during these war years, the German occupation and presence, German soldiers, officers, sympathisers? The effect on the public in Paris? Hardships? The changing fortunes in these years, the departure of the Germans, the liberation of Paris, news of the concentration camps, the return of soldiers from war, the prisoners from the concentration camps?
4. The style of the screenplay, the adaptation of Marguerite Duras’ memoir, her finding it, reading it, not remembering writing it, but it’s having her style? The indication of her mind and emotions during the war? Concern about her husband?
5. The effect of the screenplay, the timeline of the years, the detail of the events? Yet, the subjective voice-over by Marguerite, the dramatic and poetic expressions of, suffering, sadness? The effect of the interplay between the two?
6. Marguerite as a character, age, author, seeing her at work? At home? Discussions with the officials? Making pleas about her husband? Parcels for him? The encounters with Pierre, Nazi sympathiser, his ambitions to set up a store when the war was won by the Germans? The meetings, the cafes, his interest in her, her being willing to use him, but no affection? Leading to confrontation?
7. The resistance, her husband absent, imprisoned, the various contacts, Dionys and his concern, help? Her relying on him? Her attacking him? His continued support? The other members of the resistance, François Mitterand?
8. The attention to daily life, Marguerite at home, audience immersed in the experience of the German occupation and the hardships?
9. The old lady, friendship with Marguerite, concern about her daughter, giving used to Marguerie, Hitler killing himself, the decision to return to Lyon in this her daughter returned?
10. Marguerite’s psychological state, taking for granted that Robert was dead, news of his return, her fear of seeing him, accepting him home, his emaciated state, the visit to the beach, her watching him, the silhouette in the water?
11. An opportunity to appreciate some of the work of Marguerite Duras? And to experience her interpretation of the German occupation?
