Watched this by chance, the title spoke to me and I knew nothing of it. A pleasant surprise!
I'm a sucker for movies in this time period, WWII, and this movie lives and breathes the paranoia and horror of Nazified Europe most realistically. If anything, it's the normalcy of the peoples' lives in occupied France juxtaposed against the sadistic manipulation of the German army that amplifies the on screen emotions. Perhaps it's just that it is real, that it happened more or less as in the screenplay, and is not some fictional time and place conveying a love story. Perhaps it works because of the investiture of caring from all involved in the production. Whatever. It works. It works very well.
A love story.
I do not wish to give anything of the movie away to someone who's not seen it . . . but the essence of this movie is the love between the characters. The primary goal of the Nazi monster brigade is to strip away humanity by reducing or eliminating the emotions----to create insensate automatons in those who are enslaved or destroyed. If the Nazis were to truly succeed they would entirely eliminate strong emotion ties. Not letting them see those ties, hiding them, is critical to keeping them alive and intact. Thus the title.
Acting is quite nicely done. Everyone stays credibly in character and the acting syncs with the script. I didn't fault any of the performances, and this includes the bit players. Lighting, camera work, editorial flow, all are top-notch. There's much to like and much to respect in this movie. Hats off to everyone who contributed to it. I recommend it heartily.
I'm a sucker for movies in this time period, WWII, and this movie lives and breathes the paranoia and horror of Nazified Europe most realistically. If anything, it's the normalcy of the peoples' lives in occupied France juxtaposed against the sadistic manipulation of the German army that amplifies the on screen emotions. Perhaps it's just that it is real, that it happened more or less as in the screenplay, and is not some fictional time and place conveying a love story. Perhaps it works because of the investiture of caring from all involved in the production. Whatever. It works. It works very well.
A love story.
I do not wish to give anything of the movie away to someone who's not seen it . . . but the essence of this movie is the love between the characters. The primary goal of the Nazi monster brigade is to strip away humanity by reducing or eliminating the emotions----to create insensate automatons in those who are enslaved or destroyed. If the Nazis were to truly succeed they would entirely eliminate strong emotion ties. Not letting them see those ties, hiding them, is critical to keeping them alive and intact. Thus the title.
Acting is quite nicely done. Everyone stays credibly in character and the acting syncs with the script. I didn't fault any of the performances, and this includes the bit players. Lighting, camera work, editorial flow, all are top-notch. There's much to like and much to respect in this movie. Hats off to everyone who contributed to it. I recommend it heartily.