Memoir of War

La Douleur (1985), Marguerite Duras’s rumination on her life in Paris under German occupation and after France’s liberation, receives respectful but rather chilly and remote treatment from writer-director Emmanuel Finkiel. The first half of his adaptation is devoted to 1944-45, when Duras (Mélanie Thierry) becomes involved with Rabier (Benoît Magimel), a collaborationist French cop, as she tries to get information about her husband Robert, a Resistance leader now captive in the internment camps. Rabier promises to help her in exchange for details about her husband’s comrades, and the pair engage in a subtle cat-and-mouse game, with their last meeting occurring just as Paris is falling to the Allies. Rabier departs, never to be seen again, and the second half of the film follows the subdued, somber Duras as she solemnly awaits Robert’s possible return. She walks the streets in a daze, observes how the Gaullists are taking charge even as the poor and dispossessed continue to suffer, and occasionally receives reports that her husband might still be alive. The most incisive aspect here is the story of Mrs. Katz (Shulamit Adar), an elderly Jewish widow who stays with Duras, hoping that her handicapped daughter will be among the returnees. Adar expresses the desolation—the piercing pain of the book’s title—to a degree that the film as a whole fails to capture. Still, one has to admire the ambition that inspired Finkiel to take on the task of bringing La Douleur to the screen. A strong optional purchase. [Note: DVD extras include the production featurettes “On Image and Sound” (19 min.) and “From Melanie to Marguerite” (11 min.), deleted scenes (8 min.), and costume and camera tests (6 min.). Bottom line: a solid extras package for an uneven biographical drama.] (F. Swietek)