SOUVENIR

UK, 1989, 93 minutes, Colour.
Christopher Plummer, Catherine Hicks, Michel Lonsdale, Christopher Cazenove.
Director by Geoffrey Reeve.

Souvenir is a very good film based on the novel The Pork Butcher by David Hughes. It has been brought to the screen by producer-turned director Geoffrey Reeve, producer of some Alistair MacLean? adventures of the '70s, Puppet on a Chain, as well as British dramas The Shooting Party, The Whistle Blower.

The film was made in France and uses Paris and countryside locations very well indeed. It focuses on a German soldier who was 20 in the '40s returning to the place where he fought in World War Two. It has more memories than he realised. This brings about a tragic awareness and questions about reopening the scars of the war as well as the need for expiating guilt.

Christopher Plummer is excellent in the central role of the soldier. He gives a bravura performance. Catherine Hicks is persuasive as his daughter and Michel Lonsdale is the mayor of the village.

The film is quite moving, especially in its lyrical evocation of the affair in 1944 and in its emotional stress as hostages are rounded up in the town and put into a church which we know will be set on fire. The film has a great deal to say about human nature as well as the war.

1. The impact of the film as drama? Study of human nature? War? Its relevance to the '80s?

2. Credibility of characters and plot, the experience of war and the memories, the German and the French? Soldiers going to the United States and establishing a life after the war? The '80s and memories?

3. The title: remembrances of youth, the past, the fact of remembering? The regrets of not following things up? The relationship between Ernst and Jenny? His keeping her photo? Memorials and museums as souvenirs? The consequences of keeping the souvenirs, being devoted to them? Ernst's discovery of the truth and its place as a souvenir? The repercussions for his psyche? The psyche of allies and enemies reliving the war experience?

4. French locations, the '80s, Paris, the countryside, the village of Lascaud?

5. The portrait of Ernst, the pork butcher? His life in America, the taking over of his shop, selling up, the discussion about the money, travel? His decision to go to Paris? Audiences having to fill in the background of his life: wife and his not loving her, daughter? His arrival, the tension, Tina's apprehensiveness about him, going to the apartment, the dinner and Henri talking French? Taunting him? His hearing the couple fight?

6. The decision to travel, hiring the car, taking Tina with him"~ the bond between the two, talking and telling the story, beginning to share the past, in the shop, Tina finding the photo, talking about it at the picnic? The intercutting of the memoir? At twenty years of age, in the army, in occupied France, the attraction towards Jenny, his understanding of her background, truly in love with her for more than forty years, her work at the cafe, in the bushes, the children passing, the sexual encounter, intercut with the dancing, Charles Trenet and the American song?

7. His arrival in the '80s, the bond between father and daughter, the celebrations of the Fourth of July and the significance for France, the mayor and his ambitions,-hopes for a united Europe? Processions and speeches? The encounter with William Root, the discussion with him, his pressurising them? Wandering the town, seeing the plaque, discovering the fate of the women and children, looking for the place where the men were shot, going into the church, sitting there contemplating? His memories of the resistance, the massacre of the,-two officers? The rounding up of the men, of the women and children? His grief at the realisation of what had happened? His place in the round-up?

8. The grief, going to the hall, seeing the children dancing as they did forty years earlier? Wanting to speak, being overwhelmed? Tina and William and their concern? His going to the mayor's house, accusing himself of guilt, the need to confess, the truth about his locking the door, going away and not knowing what happened? Guilt, Motion, needing to purge himself?

9. The mayor and his place in the town, the discussions with William Root, the publicity? His wife and her devotion? His interest in meeting Ernst? His philosophy about a United Europe? Forgetting the war? His telling Ernst the truth about his place in the Resistance, his killing the officers, his discovery of what had happened in the burning church, his responsibility for the hostages, setting up the memorial? His political views? Taking down the plaque? Change of heart?

10. The theme of remembering or forgetting? The population of the town born after the war? The passion of the war, time healing old scars, opening them up, guilt, judgment? The importance of the curator of the museum, his absence at the roll-call and not dying? His taking people round the museum, dedicating forty years of his life? His overhearing the mayor's speech? The decision to kill him?

11. Tina, her relationship with her parents, disliking her father, his not expressing emotion to her? Not loving her husband, their clashes? Travelling with her father, curious, her various moods? Her antagonism towards Root? Tired, his helping her, puzzled about her father, blaming him? Helping him in his anguish? The reconciliation? The night with William and her future? Watching her father killed, the look of reconciliation and peace?

12. Root as an international journalist, covering up, his enquiry, manipulation, of the mayor, of Tina and Ernst, helping Tina, arranging the meeting, present at his death? A future with Tina?

13. The importance of the life journey, the memories? Healing of memories?

14. The lyrical sequences of the '40s? The realities of war in the occupied town? The brutality of the killing? The tension of the round up of people from their ordinary way of life, the build-up to the separation of the men, the reaction of the people, their all filing into the church? The audience knowing what was to happen to them?

15. Ernst's death, saving the mayor, a hope for a united Europe? His own expiation?