Lucie Aubrac - Um Amor em Tempo de Guerra

Engaging story and performances involving members of the French resistance during World War II. Although I have not yet read the account on which it is based, I have no reason to believe the film takes too many liberties with the truth. The locations and sets seem very authentic, and the dialogue is evocative of the way people spoke at the time. Something exceptional is presented by way of action sequences, in fact, where attempts at re-enacting simple events on film often fail; namely, the interdiction of a convoy carrying prisoners and a particularly realistic execution scene. High marks are due the production crew for this one. The overall history of the French resistance is an extremely complicated tale to be retold for purposes of explaining just how this story resonates. Young viewers need to educate themselves in that history in order to appreciate fully this film's merits.

This is a rather small and quiet WWII film. While the film excels at its realistic portrayal of the French Resistance, it is a film that would be "box office poison" in America because its commercial marketability is pretty limited. This is NOT a film that teens or many prospective viewers would rush to the theaters to see! There are few explosions and the nudity isn't the least bit gratuitous. Because of this, it would only have been made abroad or by an independent film maker and so it wasn't surprising that this film was shown on the Sundance Channel.

The story purports to be about a real couple who worked for the resistance movement. When the husband (Daniel Auteuil) is taken by the Nazis, his devoted wife (Carole Bouquet) tries desperately to free him. Both actors are pretty recognizable to American audiences, as Auteuil has appeared in tons of films--playing a sort of "everyman" character and Bouquet played the female lead in one of the Bond films (FOR YOUR EYES ONLY), though she's done plenty of films as well. For a 40 year-old lady, Bouquet is amazingly beautiful and sensuous--way to go, girl! The action is very low-key but tense and the film is a very enjoyable history lesson designed for an adult and discriminating audience.

While not on a par with Berri's remarkable 2 film epic "Jean de Florette" and Manon of the Spring", this is a fairly engrossing, romantic, if somewhat romanticized true story of a married pair of resistance fighters in WWII France. Both Daniel Auteil and Carole Bouquet are solid as the couple, especially in their scenes together, which nicely capture the erotic tension of a married couple deeply in love, whose passion is not just physical, but fed by the fact they admire each other as human beings as well. It's also nice to see a war film where the woman pulls off the heroics to try and save her man, rather than the other way around.

But the darkness of occupied France seems a but sanitized here, the awful price paid by those fighting back and their innocent families is alluded too but never fully dealt with, and there is something a bit light weight about it in the end. Bouquet keeps everything so hidden when not around Autiel that she becomes somewhat opaque.

It's always interesting, but a bit stolid. Rarely truly tense, frightening or emotional. Still it's a good, decent, involving film, if not a great one.

"Lucie Aubrac" tells a slightly tweaked version of the true story of one woman's heroic struggle as a member of the underground Resistance in WWII occupied France. Though artistically and technically excellent, many will find this story only marginally interesting as it lacks the usual suspense, action, and other excesses which the public, especially the young theater-going audiences, expect of such films. Nonetheless, just watching two fine French actors (Bouquet & Auteuil) at work telling a story not oft told in film will be sufficient for many, especially those into Europics who don't mind subtitles.

This film is an excellent tribute to the bravery of the men and women of the French Resistance during the Second World War. The film revolves around Lucie and her attempts to rescue her husband, after he is arrested by the Gestapo at a Resistance meeting. This film is indeed a testimony to Lucie and Raymond's relationship, but in my mind, the film serves equally as an insight into France during the occupation and the political state at the time. An excellent film. - Jonno