Un monde presque paisible

"Almost Peaceful (Un monde presque paisible)" uniquely focuses on a slice of time hitherto unexplored in film.

It's set in Paris in 1946 as co-workers in a tailor shop just try to have normal lives. But they are only physically recovered.

They are each survivors in different ways, whether from the camps, hidden, accidentally escaped, or joined the Resistance, or, for the non-Jews, compromised with the occupiers. All are youthful (the most likely demographic to have survived), whether during the war they were children, teens, young adults, or had started families. They are just trying to pick up their pieces, re-learning the quotidian.

But the tiniest things bring back uncontrollable memories, as powerfully as Proust's madeleine to use a French cultural comparison.

Particularly noteworthy are the Jews' relationships with gentiles. Where in most movies somehow all Frenchmen were members of the Resistance, here they recognize their informers, or the apathetic stand-byers, those who had gladly taken over their apartments, etc. etc. And those who think that it doesn't matter anymore and accidentally stumble into more emotions than they bargained for.

Over the gradual unfolding of the film, each fully developed and emotionally damaged character very individually adapts to breathing more freely and assertively and we cheer each quiet, little step in their progress.

The movie serves as a beautiful illustration of why so many survivors' stories didn't come out for another 50 years.

While it is based on an autobiographical novel, a neighbor of mine who was a child in France in 1946 supported its realism.

Almost Peaceful Almost Peaceful is a French film written and directed by Michel Deville, about mainly Jewish tailors working in the same shop, each going through something different. They show how they deal with their problems and try to restart their lives after the Holocaust. The business is run by a Holocaust survivor Albert and his wife Léa. They hire six new people all but one are also survivors of the Holocaust. This movie takes place right after the Holocaust in 1946.

Léa, Albert's wife, does not feel that she is in love with Albert any longer. Even though she has children with him and they look like a happy family, on the inside she is secretly in love with another man who works at the shop with her; Charles. Charles got separated from the people he loves during the war. Now that it is over he hasn't reunited with them, and lost them to the death camps. He deals with his problems by isolating himself and not dating. He tries not to feel for any other women, Charles isn't ready to move forward; he might never be able. When Léa opens up to him and explains her feelings to him, he tells her basically that he is never going to be over his wife, no matter what and he will not move on. Léa tries to restart her life by telling the person she cares about the most how she feels and Charles does the same by keeping his family in his mind and never leaving them even though they might be gone.

Maurice, one of the younger men Albert hired in the shop seems to have a problem with keeping long term relationships after the war. It seems like he is fine on a normal day, but when he is by himself he is lonely. Which is understandable, he went through the worst time of his life and came out of it alone. He tries to get rid of his problems by seeing a prostitute. He always goes to see the same prostitute, Simone. One day she asks him out for coffee and after a while he decides to take her up on that, they start liking each other more and they start seeing each other like a relationship. Maurice doubts it will last but at the end of the movie he was happy, so he tries to restart his life by trying new things. David is a young child that we meet right at the end of the movie. Even though he is only there for a short time his role is important in the film. David lost his parents in the war, right before his father left him he gave him a pocket watch, every now and then David listens to his watch. The watch means everything to this boy, it reminds him of the person who meant everything to him, and with the watch that person can be wherever he goes.

Joseph is another one of the younger men Albert hired. When Joseph and his family were arrested, Joseph ran for his life. While his parents were waiting to be taken away he ran out of line and did not stop until he was safe. His parents did not turn around and watch him so it would not cause as much attention. Joseph told this story when he realized the man at the police precinct was the same Police Commissioner that arrested him and his family. The Commissioner was being extremely harsh to him and said he will try his best so that Joseph would not get what he wanted or needed. Joseph went in his face and told the commissioner that he will become a writer and write about everything he went through. He will write what this man did to him and how he feels and his whole life story. Joseph starts to deal with his problems and restart his life by telling his life story.

Almost Peaceful is a movie about how people might deal with their past. It shows what people have done after they lost everything that they lived for, and they live again when the worst has passed. Everyone deals with things differently. One person might keep to themselves while another feels they have to tell the whole world. Either way is fine, it all depends on what will make you feel like you can live again. If I went through any of the things these people had to deal with I don't know what I might do. Now when I am not feeling great, I deal with my problems by entering a bad mood stage and I ignore the people I am mad at and become angry. But that is how I deal with things, and I can't be blamed for that, and neither can any of these people!

[See the IMDb home page for this film for the cast names. They aren't known much in the U.S.]

Most movies (and stories) about Jews and the Holocaust take place either during the war or very long after when events combine to force recollection. Sometimes such latter-day stirrings lead to centrally critical flashbacks as in the currently showing "Rosenstrasse." French veteran director and writer Michel Deville has a different approach in "Almost Peaceful," one that works rather well.

The time is the France of 1946 and a fairly flourishing tailor shop is run by Albert, married to Lea. They have two little kids, a boy and a girl. During the war the Jewish couple suffered separation, Albert in hiding in a house and Lea with their first child secreted away on a farm.

Albert has a big heart and his shop has workers who survived the camps or hid during the terror. Most are Jewish. One young man fought in the Resistance. An older fellow was liberated from the death camps but his wife has not been found and he knows that she surely is lost. Lea, believing Albert is no longer enchanted with her, might go for a fling with the seldom smiling tailor but he is still married in his heart. He is sad but not despondent - in his own way he seeks to regain some joy in just being alive.

This eclectic admixture embraces several young men, one a writer-in-promise, the other something of a certifiable klutz with two left hands and a big heart. A bespoke craftsman he never will be.

The title of the movie reflects the reality the people in the tailor shop encounter every day. The Nazis are gone, collaborators have been punished but the "usual suspects," those dependable anti-Semites of the stripe who railroaded Dreyfus, are still around. One of the young men seeks permanent papers from a police inspector to be coldly told that the officer will do everything in his power to thwart the guy's application. He leaves the place and confidently remarks to a cop outside the front door that it's a new day in France when a Jew can walk OUT of a police station. That encapsulates the experience of not only the film's characters but so many other Jewish survivors in France and other countries. There is greater protection, less peril but...they are still rejected as different by many.

The charm of "Almost Peaceful" is how some very ordinary people begin life anew after very extraordinary experiences. The tattoos on several of the characters' wrists are barely visible, just enough to remind viewers of their ordeal.

Children - born, expected and hoped for - play a central role in the film. The excellent, unaffected acting prevents what might have been a cloy plot from ever being so. There's a lot of subtle charm and good humor here as the tailor shop crew and their friends carefully but optimistically renew a vibrant life after a deadly storm.

The film ends, appropriately, satisfyingly at a Jewish summer camp where kids experience fun, games and as much food as they want. Their playful laughter is the story's fine coda.

By the way, IMDb lists the composer correctly as Giovanni Bottesini and has a page for him with no information. Do other "film score composers" such as Beethoven and Mozart have their own nearly blank IMDb pages? I think someone didn't realize that Bottesini, perhaps the finest composer ever for the double-bass, died in 1869.

8/10

'Un monde presque paisible' (Almost Peaceful) is a touching little film that keeps its story so quietly gentle that the effect is genuinely memorable. Director and screenwriter Michel Deville based this engrossing movie on a novel by Robert Bober: it is a unique vision and sharing of how Jews recovered from WW II.

Set in 1946 in Paris, the owner of a tailoring business seeks out Jews who have either returned from the camps or have been in hiding, or were part of the Resistance, who by luck escaped the fate of so many others, or were outcast otherwise during the horrors of WW II and offers them employment and emotional support. These are healthy people physically: emotionally the damage is deep and requires tender nurturing to start the road to health. The story unfolds slowly and allows us to witness the means by which each of these victims help each other heal and regain self confidence and learn to live in a world without the fear of extermination. The movement of the story is one of emerging trust and the director and actors each bring to the concept a fine sense of history and of the manner in which fellowman can coexist with a little help from their friends.

The cast is uniformly excellent and the atmospheric cinematography by Andre Diot is stunningly beautiful and reminiscent of the post war France period. The musical score is solely dependent on string quartets and matches the intimacy of the message of the film. In French with English subtitles. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp