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Film: The Round Up
Year of production: 2010
UK Release date: 17th June 2011
Distributor: Revolver
Certificate: TBC
Running time: 115 mins
Director: Rose Bosch
Starring: Jean Reno, Mélanie Laurent, Gad Elmaleh, Raphaëlle Agogué, Hugo Leverdez
Genre: Drama/History/War
Format: Cinema
Country of Production: France/Germany/Hungary
Language: French/German/Yiddish
Review by: Qasa Alom
The bar has been set mighty high for films concerning the persecution of Jews during the Second World War by the likes of Schindler’s List, The Pianist and Au Revoir Les Enfants. In more recent times, even the warped brilliance of Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds has managed to treat the harrowing topic in a different and fresh manner. Thus it’s hard to have imagined how The Round Up (La Rafle) could compare. However by using two-and-a-half years of intense research, eye witness accounts and a stellar cast, former investigative journalist Rose Bosch’s picture brings lost memories back to life to make it essential viewing.
Set in 1942’s Paris, the film begins with Joseph Weismann, played by 12-year-old newcomer Hugo Leverdez, forced to go to school with a yellow star sewn onto the breast of his jacket. Met by just as much derision as sympathy, he and most of the Parisian Jews – from both affluent as well as more modest backgrounds – are forced to take refuge in the hills in Montmartre.
Rumours, anxiety and hardship are all rife in the air until, finally, on the night of the 16th July, their worst fears come true and the French police, with the country under the occupation of the Nazis, arrest over 13,000 Jews and cram them all into the Winter Velodrome. Some of them, such as 12-year-old Anne Traube, manage to escape through a mixture of cunning, good fortune and the compassion of French civilians; however, the rest, such as Jo and his family, face the appalling conditions, limited supplies and non-existent sanitation in the enormous gym before being transferred to prisoner camps.
To help the Jews in any form possible, volunteer nurse Annette Monod (played by Inglorious Basterds’ femme fatale Mélanie Laurent) acts as the imprisoned population’s very own Florence Nightingale and forms a strong connection with Jewish doctor David Sheinbaum (Jean Reno).
After the decision to transfer all the captives to the Beaune La Rolande prisoner camp is made, Monod decides to go with them in order to keep as many of the adults and children alive as possible…
The film is shot in an elegant and straightforward style that does not override its content at any point. The constant use of extreme close-ups and lingering static shots renders it easier for the viewer to see what the characters are feeling in a subtle manner without making the picture too word-heavy and bogged down. Much of this can be attributed to Bosch drawing on Roman Polanski for inspiration.
Moreover, Bosch stays true to her research and her chief eye witness’s (Joseph Weisman) account by filming the whole picture from the eye level of a child. This minor alteration, coupled with the hints of nostalgic sepia tone to the picture, transmits a powerful sense of innocence to the viewer about the atrocities they are witnessing, which ultimately enable them to follow the story through the eyes of somebody who lived it.
The only technical extravagance comes in the Winter Velodrome scene that lies at the crux of the film. A long craning CGI intense shot begins by following one person navigate the stadium, concentrating on small details such as children laughing, old women’s faces or police whistling, and ends by slowly zooming out to show the chaotic magnitude of having 13,000 people crammed into one venue.
Whilst the cinematography is generally settled and passive, the same cannot be said about the use of music. The haunting ethereal use of strings throughout the story is a clever tool to direct the viewer’s emotions and is quite reminiscent of Spielberg’s usage in Schindler’s List. The real masterstroke comes with the final scene of the film that for once befits the use of Debussy’s beautiful ‘Claire de Lune’. The soft and tender notes dance with the final pictures in a manner that can only be described as magical.
However, ultimately, it is the characters that bring the film alive and raise it to the level of something more than a historical drama. With an ensemble cast of over seventy speaking roles in the film that covers three different narrative worlds, it would have been very easy to get lost. However, Bosch intertwines the political tussles of Pétain and Hitler with the various personal story arcs of the Jewish community, as well as casting a light on the dilemma for many French Civilians with ease – we even pause for some more poignant moments without making the film’s pace uneven or stilted.
Many of the standout performances are from characters that only appear in a few scenes, such as the French firemen who work tirelessly to make sure every person gets a cup of water; the angelic orphan boy Nono who doesn’t understand what is happening to him; and the sinister camp Marshall, played by Denis Menochet (another actor from Inglorious Basterds), who points out the Jews hiding under his floorboards to Colonel Hans Landa.
The Round Up is a tremendous achievement that has ensured that one of occupied France’s worst crimes is not forgotten. Indeed, with almost half of the initial 3 million viewers in France being under 20 years old, it’s clear that the film has managed to combine intensive research and dedication to real life stories with a beautiful narrative structure that just about permits it to sit side by side with The Pianist and Schindler’s List. QA
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Film: The Concert
Release date: 16th July 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 122 mins
Director: Radu Mihaileanu
Starring: Aleksei Guskov, Dimitri Nazarov, Melanie Laurent, François Berleand, Miou-Miou
Genre: Drama/Comedy
Studio: Optimum
Format: Cinema
Country: France/Italy/Romania/Belgium/Russia
Having both enjoyed award success and critical acclaim, the teaming of French director Radu Mihaileanu with lead actress Melanie Laurent was promising enough, before adding the wondrous music of Tchaikovsky into the mix.
Under the anti-Semitic Brezhnev regime, Andrei Filipov (Alexei Guskov) lost his prestigious position as conductor of the Bolshoi Orchestra as a punishment for refusing to expel Jewish musicians from the group.
Thirty years on, working as a cleaner at the theatre, he still dreams of taking up the baton once more, and when he finds out that the Bolshoi have been invited to play a concert in Paris, he keeps the news to himself and hatches a plan to take his own orchestra instead.
To this end, he has to reconnect with all the musicians he knew back in the day, getting them to dust off their old instruments and polish up their playing skills. He also has to enlist the help of his old adversary, Ivan Gavrilov (Valeri Barinov), the Communist party activist responsible for Filipov’s humiliating fall from grace, who agrees to go along with the scheme, as he has his own agenda.
Against all odds, the orchestra manages to get to Paris, where the talented violinist Anne-Marie Jacquet (Melanie Laurent) is persuaded to play Tchaikovsky and help heal the wounds of the past...
Mustering a motley crew of Russian musicians with rusty skills to perform at a top venue in Paris is a premise with plenty of comic potential – even if the idea that they can make beautiful music together at the drop of a hat is a bit far-fetched. Still, if you can manage to suspend disbelief and go with the flow, it’s easy enough to be swept away by the enthusiasm and energy of this unlikely ensemble.
Cultural differences between the unruly mob of Slavs and their more sophisticated French hosts play a large part in the humour, and director Radu Mihaileanu highlights the contrast by using fixed camera shots to illustrate Parisian elegance, while hand-held cameras follow the frenetic antics of the Russians.
The cast of characters include an elderly trombonist, who insists that his asthma actually improves his playing, and a gipsy violinist who is particularly well-accomplished on the fiddle, with a sideline in arranging fake passports for orchestra members who need them in a hurry. The character-generated humour works up to a point, occasionally treading a fine line between comic exaggeration and racial stereotyping. Scenes where the Russians speak in faltering French present a particular challenge, as the comic touch runs the risk of becoming lost in translation.
Alexei Guskov, a seasoned veteran of the East European movie scene, with forty films under his belt, gives an earnest and likeable performance as conductor Andrei Filipov, though he comes across as more of a straight man than a natural comedian. His admiration of the violinist Jacquet is such that he keeps all her CDs and press clippings in a folder. A trail of clues seems to suggest a father-daughter relationship, but this is something of a red herring, as the past connection between the pair is not quite so obvious.
Melanie Laurent, best known to an international audience for her role as Shosanna Dreyfuss in Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds, has a luminous screen presence as the virtuoso violinist who is haunted by the music of Tchaikovsky - for reasons she cannot quite fathom. Laurent, who is left-handed, learnt to play the violin for the part, a daunting task as the instrument cannot be converted and must be played be right-handed, so she ended up with tendonitis. Bravo: her playing looks authentic enough and no-one can say she isn’t prepared to suffer for her art.
While the challenge of playing a cool and self-controlled character appears to place constraints on her emotional range at times, she is finally able to give her feelings full expression in the climactic scene, when Jacquet faces her fears to perform Tchaikovsky’s violin concerto for the first time.
The score combines original music by Armand Amar with the sublime harmonies of Tchaikovsky, a fine blend in keeping with the musical theme. Mihaileanu neatly ties up loose ends in the highly-charged final scene, interspersing highlights of the concert with flashbacks telling the fate of the Jewish musicians from three decades earlier, while flash forwards show the orchestra on a world tour following their success in Paris.
The message that reverberates through to the final chord is that people’s lives can be transformed, at least temporarily, through the shared experience of music, which crosses barriers of language and culture to achieve harmony and perfection. The fine performances from the players in this concert may merit a round of applause, but the transcendental music of Tchaikovsky is the star. AL
Interview courtesy Optimum Releasing.
Mélanie Laurent was born in Paris on February 21, 1983. Her mother was a dance teacher and her father a dubbing actor. She came to cinema almost by chance after being spotted by Gérard Depardieu, who gives her a role in Un Pont Entre Deux Rives (Frédéric Auburtin and Gérard Depardieu, 1998). In 2000, Rodolphe Marconi offered her a role in his film Ceci Est Mon Corps with Louis Garrel and Jane Birkin. The film is presented at the Cannes Film Festival.
In 2005, Laurent’s reputation is consolidated thanks to roles in Jacques Audiard’s De Battre Mon Coeur S’est Arrêté and in the oddball Belgian comedy Dikkenek (2006). Her career really took off with a leading role in Je Vais Bien Ne T’en Fais Pas, directed by Philippe Lioret. She obtains several nominations and awards for this performance, for example, the Romy-Schneider award in 2006 and the Cesar award of the rising star in 2007.
Her first short-film as a director, De Moins En Moins, was in the selection at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008. In 2009, Laurent gains international recognition for her performance as Shosanna Dreyfus in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds.
In The Concert, she playes Anne-Marie Jacquet, a young virtuoso solo violinist invited by conductor Andrei Simoniovich Filipov to accompany his old Jewish and gypsy musicians in the reformed Bolshoi Orchestra, who after years in the wilderness has been invited to perform at the Châtelet Theatre in Paris…
What made you interested in this script?
I was immediately taken by this group of Slavic has-beens, and also, I was attracted to the rhythmic alternation between the comical scenes and the moments of pure emotion. The script combines themes that appeal to me on a personal level: communism and the hopes that it embodied, the long-gone ideals which some people still cling onto, the power of the Russian mafia, and so on. Behind the comedy and the lightness, there is a political theme which I liked.
As for my character, I was really excited about the prospect of playing an instrument, even though I was only miming the movements! I also liked the fact that my role is that of a real woman, one who might even be slightly older than I am.
Describe Anne-Marie Jacquet…
She is quite a cold woman, obsessed with music and lives in her own world. She is someone who holds back her emotions, until the final scene in which she allows them to completely submerge her.
The most difficult thing for me was to stop myself from smiling. I am quite an expressive person, so I really had to exercise a lot of self-control.
What is her view on Andrei?
She admires him immensely. It is perhaps this man that gave her the desire to do what she does: no doubt she’s listened to all his records on repeat for years, and this is what drives her on now. What’s interesting is that she has never performed Tchaikovsky, but she doesn’t know the reason why. So she decides to take an enormous risk by playing a concerto, at a crucial point in her career, because Andrei is involved. Also, she accepts to let her guard down and adapts to the rather unorthodox working methods of these Russian musicians.
How did your violin lessons go?
I had lessons for three months with an extraordinary teacher, Sarah Nemtanu, who is the first violin soloist with the French National Orchestra. She has since become a friend. Thanks to her, I was able to interact with an orchestra and see how it functions. This helped me develop my character and to learn the technique of handling the violin and the bow.
Did you have any particular difficulties?
I’m left-handed and the violin is the only instrument that cannot be inverted: the right hand holds the bow, which was a real nightmare! The movement was so unnatural for me that I ended up getting tendonitis.
The concert scene is exceptionally intense. It was a scene that really made its mark on me. Not even Radu could foresee that we would get so emotional. I completely let myself be taken by the music and I went into a trance. I had to stop myself because I started shaking: I had let go of my violin and was sobbing. In that moment, I had the impression that my body had become the music. It was so strong that I thought I was going to faint.
Was the world of classical music already familiar to you?Not at all. But now I really enjoy listening to classical music. Since I make music myself, I enjoy listening out for the first violins. I like it when a production leaves something with me, like The Concert has, and that it helps me discover something that will change my life. I still listen to Tchaikovsky’s concerto now, switching off all distractions, from the beginning right to the end…
What was it like filming with Alexei Guskov (Andrei)?Something beautiful happens when two people don’t have a common language: we acted a lot with looks and shared sensations. I found this quite sweet, not having to communicate with language. This placed the emphasis on the acting, without stiffness in the exchanges.
And with François Berléand?We kept laughing uncontrollably. It’s fantastic to meet an actor as brilliant as he is, who has a real gift for lightness and humour.
What is “the ultimate harmony” for you?In my job, there are moments of beauty, like, for example, when you come across a scene that you don’t really know how to approach, and the director comes to have a quiet word. Suddenly, everything becomes clear: you act out the scene and then it doesn’t belong to you anymore. I get the impression that “the ultimate harmony” is something that doesn’t belong to you anymore and is the summit of perfection. It is something that isn’t mulled over, and you can’t look for it.
What are your best memories from filming?
The Châtelet Theatre, and the experience of playing with an orchestra. OR
