La passante du Sans-Souci

'La passante du Sans-Souci' (distributed in the English language markets as 'The Passerby') is the last film in which Romy Schneider appeared. It is a film that the actress really wanted to make, both for personal and professional reasons. It was filmed in two periods in 1981, a dramatic year for Romy. Filming, which began in the spring, was interrupted because she broke a leg and resumed towards the end of the year, but in the meantime she had to deal with the accidental death of her 14-year-old son and the news that she had cancer. She managed to complete the filming and was able to attend the French premiere in April 1982. A month later she would die, so 'La passante du Sans-Souci' remained her farewell film. Romy Schneider creates an overwhelming (double!) role and the presence of Michel Piccoli alongside her is formidable. The film, as a whole, however, disappoints.

We may wonder why Jacques Rouffio was chosen to direct this film? Today we consider him an average director with a thin filmography, but in 1967 he had made a film ('L'Horizon') that addressed a taboo subject of French history - a revolt of soldiers during the First World War, after which he was not entrusted with a another project for almost a decade. He had returned to the fore with two other films that did not avoid controversy, and perhaps because of this fame he was entrusted with directing the screen version of Joseph Kessel's novel, which is the basis of the script. At a time when France had not yet assumed many of the responsibilities of collaboration and deportations during the Second World War, and when neo-Nazi movements were raising their heads again, this film brings to the screen the story of a crime and a trial which bring to the surface events that a large part of the French ignored or wanted to forget.

The problem is that the script is excessively rhetorical and melodramatic, and the historical parallel between the 40s and the 80s is far too demonstrative to be effective. The film begins with a slightly implausible murder. Max Baumstein, the president of a large international democratic organization, a kind of Amnesty International, assassinates the ambassador of Paraguay. He turns out to be a former Nazi officer who during the war had destroyed the lives of the man's adoptive parents. Most of the story is a reenactment of the events of the 1930s through Baumstein's confessions to his wife and trial testimonies. The ending is meant to be a warning about the danger of neo-Nazism that refuses to leave the stage of history.

The performance of Romy Schneider - who plays the roles of Baumstein's wife and the boy's adoptive mother - is intense and emotional. We know today that the actress was already dealing with a serious illness, but none of the physical beauty and inner light that we had admired for more than two decades of her career seemed to have diminished in intensity. Michel Piccoli also has a generous part and plays it with charismatic dignity. However, I found the rest of the cast much less inspired and some of the story details are implausible. 'La passante du Sans-Souci' is worth seeing for the meeting between Romy Schneider and Michel Piccoli and for the great farewell that the formidable actress dedicates us through this last creation of hers on the screen.

I have enjoyed some wonderful French films. Among them are some of the most insightful cinema experiences I can recall. Thought provoking, adult in their treatment of relationships, written with interesting characters and subtle performances. Some have remained in my mind for days after seeing them - very satisfying entertainment. But not this one.

Having watched a lot of movies, viewers get better at evaluating their strong and weak points, they can notice the flaws and strengths more easily. And if movie buffs watch LA PASSANTE DU SANS SOUCI, their reactions are usually diverse. It does not occur to be a great production nor a wonderful film that one could watch all over again. LA PASSANTE DU SANS SOUCI is rather an average work. Yet, after viewing the film, the majority occur to remember it. Why?

Its content is pretty clichéd, the action is far from good, the colors appear to be clearly long in the teeth. A story of a Jewish family escaping the cruel Nazis is rather a widespread theme nowadays, some people would say... This goes in pairs with weak character development since the film is based on flashbacks, the gist being the events of yore that find the light of truth at present in the court. Murder, suspicion, fear, war hardship, prejudice: these are the themes of the movie. The script is also not very clever except for some minor moments. Of course, we get the insight into the psyche of the main character, a Jew Max Baumstein (Michel Piccoli), his childhood, youth and adulthood; yet, it is all around the things that we all know pretty well. Nevertheless, the movie can boast two aspects that are so powerful that lead us all to pardoning possible flaws.

The first strongest point of the movie is the acting from two people, the famous pair of fabulous artists: Romy Schneider and Michel Piccoli. Romy Schneider, in her last movie, plays two roles, two women that appear in Max Baumstein's life: Elsa Wiene, a symbol of motherly love and Lina Baumstein, a symbol of female love. It appears that her two roles are integral, create as if the main character's dream, memory combined with reality and upright thoughts. She is the female of Max's world existing in his inner and outer world. But the most important fact to mention about Romy is not so much her "double acting" but the way she executes it.

After the first viewing of the movie, I became breathless for a while and asked the person who was watching the film with me: is it possible that this is all acted? Is it possible to achieve such a marvelous insight into art of portrayal? No, these roles are biographical. In the famous scene when Max plays the violin at the Christmas party, Romy looks at him and genuine tears fall on her cheeks. Max reminds her of her beloved son David whom she tragically lost in July 1981. In another powerful moment when she says "It's all over" referring to her husband Michel, she desperately looks for relief in drinking. That's what the actress did in the last years of her life. She not only shouts in despair "I want my Michel" but also "I want my David!" Yet, the destiny occurs indifferent to cry. Besides, you cannot skip the nostalgic scene at the railroad station... Romy Schneider does something absolutely unforgettable, a thrill that goes through your back, something you cannot resist. Therefore, LA PASSANTE DU SANS SOUCI, being Romy's last film, is, undeniably, one of the most "Romy Schneider films."

The male star of the movie, Michel Piccoli, is also very convincing in the role of Max. He kills the eminent figure but gives a logically heartfelt justification for his deed: "I wish no one would have to live so difficult a life I had in my youth due to Nazis and the hell they had given to us." Mr Piccoli had appeared in films with Romy before, but I admit that this is the best of his roles. Piccoli appears to be genuine, very memorable and clever enough to manage difficult scenes that create dense atmosphere. Yet, no one can say, in spite of the fact that he plays the main role, that it is so much the Michel Piccoli movie as the Romy Schneider one.

The second strong point of LA PASSANTE DU SANS SOUCI is the exceptional sentiment. Due to specific music, dense atmosphere, nostalgia created mostly by Ms Schneider, you as a viewer are, unwillingly even, led into the world of this film, into the tragedies of people that suffered, into the endless walk towards happiness. You, together with the characters, have a feeling, more to say, a desire to create something better in the world. You suddenly realize that there is something missing around us: shortage of empathy, perhaps. It all raises questions and reflections about such critical truths like justice, dignity of life, social relations, etc. Young Max playing the violin seems to symbolize this quest for a better world, lost world that we have to recapture. And that is the strongest power of the film because if it hadn't been for the heartfelt message and reflections, what sense would that all carry?

I agree that the Nazis are showed in a very stereotypical way: just a group of bandits who want to raise the terror on the streets and who are only good at beating the Jews whom they meet by chance. However, what could be the view of these people created in the mind of a small boy who lived in fear. I personally think that those scenes showing Max hiding himself under tables and trembling with fear draw our attention to one of the key aspects of war: who really suffers are the innocent children.

All in all, there would be, of course, much to criticize about the film. It's a flawed movie, certainly. Yet, it has the fabulous roles/role of Romy Schneider and the truly unforgettable mood. The message is all right too. It makes us realize that both the characters and we all are constantly the endless walkers towards happiness. Therefore I rate it 7/10

Don't let the opportunity pass by to watch another movie with Michel Piccoli and Romy Schneider.

Don't expect anything. Strange enough, Kessel wrote great stuff, but in the end this one plot here doesn't cut it. It has holes between the original and the screenplay. So the plot moves along in a clever way, though continuously stumbling over its own feet. Like not using whatever the plot offers, but dragging in detail.

I don't want to go into the spoiler section, therefore I offer a short sentence only on the ending: It doesn't fit. It isn't quite logic. And the very end looks like an effort in educating the audience. Why, actually, after a movie that has already been filled with ethic and moral goodness, and painted the bad guys in all possible shadows of black.

Were it not for the fantastic three main characters, it would be thumbs down.

Joseph Kessel was a pillar of the French literary world. A Jewish writer who often wrote about war and exotic locales, he was elected to the Academy, becoming a sort of Hemingway figure. North Americans know him through The Lion (Cardiff), Night of the Generals (Litvak), and The Horsemen (Frankenheimer). The latter had one of the best performances by Omar Sharif I can recall. L'Armee des ombres (Melville) was one of the most moving resistance stories I've seen. Too, he wrote Belle de Jour, which all Deneuve fans are eternally grateful for.

This film is not on a level with the others. Slow, talky, and with the political themes not fully brought out (although the scene with Maria Schell and the urn containing her husband's ashes is wonderful), I'd be hard pressed to make a case for it as essential viewing. For Romy Schneider completists.