Adieu Monsieur Haffmann

Movies on Holocaust are always very emotional but this one is even more loaded with all kinds of emotions. The characters just jump out of the screen and become a part of your life too. It takes a very good script, an excellent direction and larger-than-life actors to achieve that.

It's a drama set in Paris, France, beginning in May 1941 and extending into late 1942. It follows the story of a Jewish-owned jewelry shop after the Germans have taken over Paris.

Joseph Haffmann (Daniel Auteuil) is a successful middle-aged jeweler of great skill. When he sees signs stating all Jews need to report for a census, he sends his wife and three children to a safer area in Vichy France. François Mercier (Gilles Lellouche) is Haffmann's recently-hired French assistant. Mercier is an unhappy man who could not serve in the army because of a bad leg that requires a brace. He is also despondent because, after several years of marriage, he cannot have children with his wife, Blanche (Sara Giraudeau). The doctors have indicated Blanche is healthy, so François blames himself.

Haffmann concocts a scheme to save his business during the German occupation by "selling" it to Mercier, with the understanding he will repurchase the shop after the war. He promises to help Mercier then set up his own shop. Mercier agrees though Blanche is skeptical. However, Haffmann is foiled in his efforts to follow his family and is forced to hide with the Merciers, who have already moved into Haffmann's home above the shop.

The film then follows the difficult changes in the relationship between Haffmann and the Merciers, especially since a German Commandant named Jünger (Nikolai Kinski) becomes a major customer of the store. Relationships deteriorate until a surprise allows for a righteous ending.

"Adieu Monsieur Haffmann" is perhaps the best film I've seen this year. The acting, direction, and cinematography, are all excellent. The righteous ending seems a little improbable and subtracts my rating from a 10 to a 9. The viewer gets into the souls of the three principal characters. The film is derived from a play, so almost all the action takes place in one building. Highly recommended.

To set the scenes appropriately, extract the best from your actors and reduce the background music - make the audience they're a part of the movie too - simply brilliant!

This film had my complete attention from start to finish. Very well acted and full of ironic twists. For me, this movie was a profound exploration of the moral dilemmas that people face in times of crisis. With many movies these days, especially American movies, you more or less know within about ten minutes where the story is going. Not so with Farewell Mr. Haffman. It's a film that makes you examine yourself and wonder what you would do in such a situation. Great acting by all three of the main characters, so much so that you forget the actors and become totally absorbed in the characters they are portraying. I love movies set in this period, but this one is also exceptionally well directed and acted.

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.