Memoir of War – It’s a long war [MOVIE REVIEW]
Melanie Thierry in “Memoir of War.” Photo courtesy of Music Box Pictures. “Memoir of War,” written and directed by Emmanuel Finkiel, based on the semi-autobiographical novel, La Douleur by Marguerite Duras, is a good try at something that was almost impossible from the beginning. “La Douleur” (Sorrow) is a much more appropriate title for this endeavor as it is an attempt by Finkiel to translate Duras’ rather existential book onto the screen. In brief, and it is the only thing brief about this film, we follow Marguerite, a novelist, through her daily life as her voice-over recites whole passages lifted from the book. Nobly, Finkiel has tried to recreate the interior life of the heroine almost entirely through words, perhaps because there is no real action. He has forgotten, or perhaps ignored, the fundamental rule of cinema – it is a visual medium. Marguerite, a member of a Resistance cell in Paris, is mourning the loss of her husband, Robert who has been arrested by the Gestapo. Trying to glean information, she contacts a French collaborator, Rabier, working in Gestapo headquarters. He is attracted to her but is as interested in pulling information from her as she is from him. Her…
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