Adieu Monsieur Haffmann

Flawless work by the cast make this watch an emotion inducing one. It's a people story full of artistic expressions. Great visuals to portray how lives changed. A chronicle on what people saw, felt and had to live through in a time of death. Farewell Mr. Haffmann is for the keen minds to revisit history and admire the strange ways of human mind the fountain of persona.

As revisionism is running rampant in Europa , films such as "l'homme de la cave " (also feat Auteuil) and "Adieu Monsieur Haffmann" are deeply appropriate to our times,appropriate in a way that recent works like "une jeune fille qui va bien " are not.

The depiction of occupied Paris in those darker hours of the twentieth century is uncompromising : the milice and the collaborators, the gendarmes -the story takes place in 1941,the year before the the roundup of Jews in the Paris Velodrome d'hiver-, checking the identity papers , the piles of informers' letters in the offices , the jewels stolen from the deported -where do they come from ? Asks the jeweller hidden in his cellar :the moment when he discovers among them his old friend's pendant is harrowing- , women sleeping with the enemy to get them ,the growing terror of the Jews : although he does not know the existence of the concentration camps ,the jeweller asks himself :"they are going to work in Germany? These old men???"

Some people will blame the director for showing the warts and all of the occupied France: the characters are either afraid (the butcher/smuggler) or profiteers , a la "Lacombe Lucien ": what's the matter,if he's not part of the milice ? Like Louis Malle's hero,he "protects "a Jew ,but,slowly and inexorably, he realizes he can own the workshop and drink champagne in the parties with the German ; like Joseph Losey's "Monsieur Klein" who would buy the Jews' valuable paintings for a song ,the employee understands his time may have come: this is a huis clos , most of the action taking place in a workshop or in a cellar where the owner becomes ,little by little, a prisoner ."I'll pay you what you used to give me "(when you were the boss); no humiliation is spared the jeweller : as his former employee is sterile, he wants him to get his wife pregnant .

Playing with fire may be dangerous : note the similarities -on a smaller scale- with the ending of "Monsieur Klein"!

Extremely well acted by Gilles Lellouche as the unscrupulous employee,Sara Giraudeau as the bewildered wife ,and Daniel Auteuil who perhaps needed this role to make up for the hateful hero of "l'homme de la cave" :he's another "man in the cellar" after all.

Exploring some of the bizarre, darker aspects of the human condition during occupation, this modern drama displays French cinema at its finest. Director Fred Cavaye brings starkly to life a story by Jean Philippe Daguerre, dealing with those shocking years of the Nazi occupation of France. The sickening French collaborators, the inhumanity of innocent families lives being sacrificed to an inhumane regime, and the uncertainty of what might remain in the years to follow.

All performances are uniformly sterling (especially Sara Giraudeau as the perplexed wife) as is the dynamic cinematography by Denis Rouden - making this above-average production riveting from beginning to its somewhat ironic finale. It's rounded off by a thoughtful music score from Christophe Julian.

At times it's perhaps a difficult watch and some plot development might seem a bit forced, but eventually offers some rich rewards. Recommended for contemporary History devotees and studies of human relationships.

Set in 1941 the film is mostly set in the jewelry shop of Mr Haffman. As such it could almost be a stage play. It is atmospherically filmed (with plenty of suspense) and the audience becomes closely involved with the characters.

The character development is clever with the audience's sympathy moving away away from the protagonist as the story develops. I really enjoyed the plot twists with several really clever reveals that added excellent depth to the story.

Sara Giraudeau is fabulous as Blanche.

I just watched this wonderful movie at the Jewish film festival. It's a tremendously acted period piece taking place in the Nazi occupation of France from may 41 through July of 42. A Jewish jeweler sends his family to hopeful safety in the south zone while he arranges to sell his store temporarily to a non Jewish worker until after the war. What comes next is gripping and suspenseful. Great cinematography and direction but most of all the actors were outstanding mr haffman. Mr mercier and his wife and the Nazi officer were all excellent. It's a simple movie with no special effects or action scenes just a great story that stays with you. Great job.