ADIEU MONSIEUR HAFFMAN/FAREWELL MR HAFFMAN

France, 2021, 115 minutes, Colour.

Daniel Auteuil, Gilles Lellouche, Sarah Girardeau, Nicholas Kinski.

Directed by Fred Cavaye.

For audiences looking for a strong and substantial French drama, impressive performances, interesting and challenging plot, Farewell Mr Haffman would be a recommended choice.

There have been a number of films about the Jews in Paris in 1941, especially The Round-up, the decree for all the Jews to be assembled in the stadium, then transported to the concentration camps. However, that is not the subject of this film. Rather, this is a background story. We see the Jews being rounded up in a particular neighbourhood in Paris but we stay in the neighbourhood, focusing on the local jeweller, Joseph Haffman, his work and reputation, the threat of the roundup, his being able to have his wife and three children smuggled out of Paris to the Free Zone, his intending to follow.

In fact, the film, based on a theatre piece, remains mainly in the shop, the customer area as well as the basement. There are some scenes in the street, visits to a pawnbroker, an outing to a restaurant. But, the audience stays with the shop over the period of 14 months, 1941-1942.

While the film recreates the atmosphere of fear for the Jews in Paris, audience attention is focused on Joseph Haffman’s assistant, François Mercier. An arrangement is made that Mercier will buy the shop with money supplied by Joseph and that at the end of the war, everything will be restored. In the meantime, Mercier will have a living and the possibility of developing his ambitions concerning his jewellery skills. Mercier has a young wife, rather morose and diffident, the couple wanting to have a child. They move in and the plan seems to begin well.

However, the drama is in Joseph Haffman not being able to escape, returning to the shop, eventually having to stay in the basement for the duration. There is the continued drama of the German presence, especially when a young officer comes to the store and is impressed by the jewellery (that made by Joseph) and becomes a constant customer, bringing his young French companions. The complication is that the officer wants better jewellery and so Joseph has to work on the pieces down in the basement. Of course, we anticipate that there will be difficulties and, probably, an unmasking.

And, within this basic plotline, there is an unexpected development, François unable to impregnate his wife, and a proposal that Joseph do that for him, his wife initially very reluctant, and François trying to persuade Joseph by promising to post letters from him, something which is very dangerous.

As the young wife, Blanche, tries to come to terms with this proposal, and as Joseph is faced with it, the audience is left to ponder the personal issues, the moral issues, the war conditions.

The screenplay is persuasively written. The central performances are excellent, the always reliable veteran Danielle Auteuil as Joseph, an interesting performance from Gilles Lellouche, usually far more boisterous in his roles but here having to be subdued as François. Audiences may not respond well initially to Blanche, Sarah Girardeau, somewhat nondescriptive as a character but, in fact, the screenplay shows quite a strong development in her in the war crises.

A very satisfying, intelligent and interesting French drama.

1. The title, the focus on Joseph Haffman? The Jews in Paris, 1941?
2. Paris, the suburbs, the street, the shop, upper, basement? Pawnshops? Police precincts? Restaurants? The musical score?
3. Audience knowledge of the Jews in France, the roundup? The elderly sent to the concentration camps? The escapes to the Free Zone? Persecution in Paris itself, the French police?
4. The introduction to Joseph Haffman, his skill as a jeweller, close-up on his work, beauty? His shop, clientele, the elderly Jewish clients? His wife, the three children? His devotion? The situation, organising his wife and children to leave, the reluctance, the dollar on the bed for the little daughter to return, the departure and the smuggler? Success? His wanting to organise his business and follow his family? The agent, not able to board the train, the return?
5. François as Joseph’s assistant? His talents? The proposal about his buying the shop, his wife, her hesitance, fears? The arrangement, Joseph giving the money, the deal, the document in François’s name? The plan to restore it after the war? François and Blanche moving in, her hesitations, or the comforts of the new house? François and his plan for his work and customs?
6. Joseph and his return, staying in the basement, the view from the basement, those passing in the street? The meals, the books, writing letters to his family? The months passing?
7. François, his work, Joseph’s jewellery, the German officer, his background knowledge of jewellery, buying the pieces, lavishing them on the French girls, his continued return, others becoming customers? The neighbours and their wariness about François and his contact with the Germans? His wife being wary, refusing to go to meals? François and his increasing prosperity, sales, Joseph’s work, better clothes, the officer supplying better jewels, going to the pawn shop?
8. François and Blanche, unable to have a child, the difficulty with François? His idea about Joseph, the proposal, the arrangement that he would post the letters, the irony that he meant the letters and kept the money? Blanche and her reluctance, fears? Eventually going down, with Joseph, being ready? The audience not seeing anything, the aftermath, her work in the laundry, her dislike of the boss, the pregnant worker? Her not being pregnant, François disappointed? The second time, the revelation that nothing happened? The growing respect between Blanche and Joseph, her coming out of her soft, becoming more herself, is asking her about her dreams when she was young, to use a typewriter? The meals, the talk?
9. François, going to the restaurant, drunk, the return, the sexual attack on his wife, the irony of her being pregnant? And his being the father? Her morning sickness, the officer, his girlfriends and her help?
10. Joseph, a year passing, the episode with the little boy and the ball in the cellar, François ready to confess, not speaking German, bleach to getting the ball and returning it?
11. Joseph discovering that François was using the jewels from Jewish families, the pendant that he had repaired? The news that all the Jews had disappeared from the neighbourhood? The fight with François, François locking him in?
12. The buildup to the climax, François and the jewels and possessions, the money, Blanche discovering that he had burnt the letters, her reaction? His going to the pawnbroker, changing the ID, having Joseph’s ID as he went to the pawnbroker, held up by the local police, arrest, his protest, Blanche not helping him? His being imprisoned? His later denouncing Joseph, read, but the officer seeing that he was in prison already and throwing the letter away?
13. Joseph, coming out of the basement, present with the Germans, the officers suspicions and warning to François? And his acting on this the ID? Locking Joseph again in the cellar, Blanche removing the screws and his getting out?
14. The final images, Blanche, changes in her courage, strength of character, looking forlorn? François in prison? And Joseph reunited with his family?