Rated PG-13 for disturbing situation/holocaust and thematic material
Cast: Kristin Scott Thomas, Melusine Mayance, Niels Arestrup, Frederic Pierrot, Michel Duchaussoy, Dominique Frot
Director: Gilles Paquet-Brenner
The story is gut-wrenching, tragic, and unforgettable. Yet with every harrowing tale comes the promise of rebirth and hope. It is presented as a love letter to an unborn child; a spiritual passage of sorts to leading a more purposeful and fulfilling life.
Based upon the novel by Tatiana de Rosnay, "Sarah's Key" is set during the Holocaust. There have been many individual stories involving atrocities committed during that time, and many more that have yet to see the light of day. Some cynical viewers might scoff at the idea of yet another tragic account. The movie answers such criticisms before they're raised. We don't recall them for originality but to understand, learn, grow, apply lessons, and live with greater conviction. At one point in the film, a younger colleague of the journalist writing about the horrific events says, "I can't believe this happened right in the middle of Paris, in front of all these people. It's disgusting." The journalist fires back. "And what exactly would you have done in that situation? None of us knows what we'd do." The journalist is well aware that no lesson has ever been learned from passing judgment. It just doesn't work that way.
The incident referred to is the Vel d'Hiv Roundup of Jewish families in 1942 Paris. The Starzynskis were one such family, plucked from their home not by the Nazis, but the French authorities themselves (a distinction made clear in the movie... fear cast a considerable net from Hitler's homeland during World War II). They were shipped off, along with around 8,000 other French Jews, to the Paris Velodrome before being transferred to various transit camps. The conditions at the Velodrome were beyond appalling... the heat was stifling, they had little water and virtually no food, and were devoid of any basic sanitary facilities. (Captives were reduced to defecating on the floor.) Before long, prisoners who had lost all hope began tossing themselves from the structure's upper tier onto the concrete below, in full view of horrified onlookers cramped together in the seats.
From there, the families were shipped to camps where parents were separated from their offspring. The story is driven by the need of ten-year-old Sarah Starzynski (Melusine Mayance) to return home to recover something she locked away before being rounded up. It's something of such value that she risks her life to flee the camp. (You may or may not already know what is locked away, but I did not know before seeing the movie and I won't reveal it here.) With key in hand--and with the help of an unusually kind guard--she escapes with a fellow captive and begins the journey back.
The story cuts back and forth in time, between 1942 and 2009, when an American journalist named Julia Jarmond (Kristin Scott Thomas) moves her family into the heart of Paris. She is currently working on an article about the Vel d'Hiv Roundup and, during the course of her research, learns of an unsettling connection between her own family and that of Sarah's. Her investigative work uncovers painful truths, but truths that need to be shared. Her efforts take her from France to the States to Italy, and her passion is one of several factors contributing to an increasingly strained marriage. (She recently discovered she's pregnant, but her husband is steadfast in his reluctance to having another child.)
Kristin Scott Thomas has grown on me during the last few years. I wasn't completely sold on her back in "The English Patient" and "The Horse Whisperer." I had a hard time accepting her as a romantic lead; she seemed too emotionally detached. (Yes, even in "Patient." Juliette Binoche was the heart of that film.) Yet she's so good here, playing a woman whose passion for her work takes hold of her heart's choices as well. She senses a stronger truth, a lesson to be learned and passed along to future generations; she desperately wants to keep her baby. Melusine Mayance brings a potent combination of feistiness and compassion to Sarah. (I liked the way she handled the guard who ultimately freed her.) And Aidan Quinn is effective in a small but crucial role late in the film as Sarah's son. We understand both his reluctance to learn the truth about his mother and his need to overcome that reluctance.
Director Gilles Paquet-Brenner brings to light another powerful story of the Holocaust, one that contains pain and heartache but offers hope. There will be some who don't see the need for more accounts of hardship, but as explained in the movie's bookend voice-overs, every story must be told. At least, until the day comes when we've nothing left to learn from history. I don't see that day coming.
* * * 1/2 out of * * * * stars
Based upon the novel by Tatiana de Rosnay, "Sarah's Key" is set during the Holocaust. There have been many individual stories involving atrocities committed during that time, and many more that have yet to see the light of day. Some cynical viewers might scoff at the idea of yet another tragic account. The movie answers such criticisms before they're raised. We don't recall them for originality but to understand, learn, grow, apply lessons, and live with greater conviction. At one point in the film, a younger colleague of the journalist writing about the horrific events says, "I can't believe this happened right in the middle of Paris, in front of all these people. It's disgusting." The journalist fires back. "And what exactly would you have done in that situation? None of us knows what we'd do." The journalist is well aware that no lesson has ever been learned from passing judgment. It just doesn't work that way.
The incident referred to is the Vel d'Hiv Roundup of Jewish families in 1942 Paris. The Starzynskis were one such family, plucked from their home not by the Nazis, but the French authorities themselves (a distinction made clear in the movie... fear cast a considerable net from Hitler's homeland during World War II). They were shipped off, along with around 8,000 other French Jews, to the Paris Velodrome before being transferred to various transit camps. The conditions at the Velodrome were beyond appalling... the heat was stifling, they had little water and virtually no food, and were devoid of any basic sanitary facilities. (Captives were reduced to defecating on the floor.) Before long, prisoners who had lost all hope began tossing themselves from the structure's upper tier onto the concrete below, in full view of horrified onlookers cramped together in the seats.
From there, the families were shipped to camps where parents were separated from their offspring. The story is driven by the need of ten-year-old Sarah Starzynski (Melusine Mayance) to return home to recover something she locked away before being rounded up. It's something of such value that she risks her life to flee the camp. (You may or may not already know what is locked away, but I did not know before seeing the movie and I won't reveal it here.) With key in hand--and with the help of an unusually kind guard--she escapes with a fellow captive and begins the journey back.
The story cuts back and forth in time, between 1942 and 2009, when an American journalist named Julia Jarmond (Kristin Scott Thomas) moves her family into the heart of Paris. She is currently working on an article about the Vel d'Hiv Roundup and, during the course of her research, learns of an unsettling connection between her own family and that of Sarah's. Her investigative work uncovers painful truths, but truths that need to be shared. Her efforts take her from France to the States to Italy, and her passion is one of several factors contributing to an increasingly strained marriage. (She recently discovered she's pregnant, but her husband is steadfast in his reluctance to having another child.)
Kristin Scott Thomas has grown on me during the last few years. I wasn't completely sold on her back in "The English Patient" and "The Horse Whisperer." I had a hard time accepting her as a romantic lead; she seemed too emotionally detached. (Yes, even in "Patient." Juliette Binoche was the heart of that film.) Yet she's so good here, playing a woman whose passion for her work takes hold of her heart's choices as well. She senses a stronger truth, a lesson to be learned and passed along to future generations; she desperately wants to keep her baby. Melusine Mayance brings a potent combination of feistiness and compassion to Sarah. (I liked the way she handled the guard who ultimately freed her.) And Aidan Quinn is effective in a small but crucial role late in the film as Sarah's son. We understand both his reluctance to learn the truth about his mother and his need to overcome that reluctance.
Director Gilles Paquet-Brenner brings to light another powerful story of the Holocaust, one that contains pain and heartache but offers hope. There will be some who don't see the need for more accounts of hardship, but as explained in the movie's bookend voice-overs, every story must be told. At least, until the day comes when we've nothing left to learn from history. I don't see that day coming.
* * * 1/2 out of * * * * stars
