2004 French war romance film, adapted from the novel of the same name, directed by Pierre Boutron and starring Julie Drum, Michael Gallablu, and Thomas Join.
In 1941, France was occupied by Germany and became a defeated country, the German army was stationed, the materials were tight, and everything was given military priority in the service of the war. Jenny is a young piano teacher who lives in a small town near the sea with her elderly grandfather, and every day in addition to going to the students' homeschooling, she queues up to buy food, goes to her cousin's house to get some milk, and goes to the beach to buy some marine fish.
Jenny's father died in World War I and her mother died, and every year she would go to her parents' graves to worship and then return home to clean up their rooms. Suddenly, one day, their house was requisitioned by the German officers, who were reluctant but could not refuse, and they chose the room of Jenny's parents, which made Jenny particularly angry.
In the evening, Grandpa was reading a book by the fire, Jenny was playing the piano next to him, and a German officer came in, greeted the two very politely and introduced himself, saying that he had also been asked to live here and had no intention of offending them. The two expressed their attitude in silence, and Jenny led him to the room and left in a hurry.
After that, Officer Werner went out every morning and returned at ten o'clock in the evening, and when he came home, he would always greet the two people in the living room, he was so polite but also talking to himself, and the grandparents never responded.
One day, Jenny went out to find that the bicycle had been stolen, walked a long way home so that her feet were blistered, the next day still had to walk out, the foot hurt to stop to check the injury, the officer passed by and asked her to get in the car, very gentlemanly opened the door, Jenny went straight over, without words and eye contact, Werner got on the car and followed her for a short distance, and ordered the soldiers to speed up. Jenny returns in her cousin's car, but is disgusted by his frivolity.
That night, the officer came back and went upstairs without greeting, then changed into a set of civilian clothes and went downstairs, came over to borrow a stove to roast the fire, and then said that it made him a little homesick, he respected people who loved his country and loved French culture, and said that he had been a composer and loved music, and that he had joined the army because the family tradition had no choice. After saying that, I said goodnight and went upstairs.
Jenny's view of the officer gradually changed, from blind rejection to curiosity, she saw that he would take the initiative to pick up the fallen child, take the initiative to ask from the child's mouth to learn his name, Jenny began to pay attention to her own image, change her hairstyle and wear new clothes, just for a short encounter in the living room every night, listening to the officer's self-talk.
Jenny discovers that her Jewish student family has moved away and learns from her neighbors that the Germans are deporting prisoners of war. On Christmas Eve, the cousin brought a chicken, the grandfather and grandson dressed up and ate a long-lost rich breakfast, the officer was going to participate in the Christmas activities in the barracks, the grandfather finished eating to do Mass, the two were alone, the officer played a piano for Jenny who listened quietly, and then walked to her side and said Merry Christmas and left quickly.
There was only Jenny left in the room, and she went into the officer's room to see an open letter on his desk, where there was a picture of a woman, and then Jenny lay down on the officer's bed, imagining the breath of the master, and unconsciously fell asleep, until the sound of the whistle came from downstairs, and suddenly woke up, hurriedly put the letter back on the table and returned to her room, not knowing that it closed the door and blew the letter to the ground.
The officer came back to see the letter on the ground, knew that she had come, and went to the beach the next day to wait for Jenny, perhaps to explain to her about the woman in the letter, but he never spoke, and helped Jenny pick up the fish scattered on the ground, and was very close to each other.
The cousin came over to confess his rejection to Jenny, and began to forcibly kiss Jenny despite her defiance, and the officer came back here without saying or doing anything, but had already helped Jenny break the siege, and then he went straight upstairs, ignoring Jenny in a disheveled dress, as if he hadn't seen anything.
Once, when the grandchildren heard Werner and two other officers arguing about the acts of war, he came back and questioned the quiet two, what should I do. The war has broken down national borders, everyone has been forced to stand in line, and they can't help but fight for the war, and Werner finally says his answer, we can only be loyal to our position and country.
Jenny's neighbors were members of the Resistance, and they used the geranium on the windowsill as a signal to secretly discuss the anti-German matters, and then Jenny found out that the German army had arrested the person who had often visited the neighbor's house and told the neighbor, the neighbor asked Jenny to take care of her children, they were ready to act, and Jenny promised her.
At night, Jenny found through the window that someone had installed explosives under the officer's car, her first reaction was to warn the officer, but out of patriotism and could not do so, because she could not betray her country, the contradictory Jenny guarded by the window all night, until in the morning when the officer was about to go out, Jenny played the urgent piano, attracting the officer to listen back, because since he came except for the first time, she had not heard the girl playing the piano again, and at the end of the song, the horn sounded outside, and the officer prepared to go over, but looked up to see Jenny's nervous eyes, He understood that something was wrong, and then the car started, and the explosion sounded, and neither the two officers and one officer in the car survived.
Shortly after the incident, the neighbor couple was arrested, and Jenny took the child over, and they were not implicated. Werner was ready to leave, he was sent to the Russian front, where it was minus forty degrees, nine deaths, he said goodnight to the two for the last time, saw Jenny's tears, could only say goodbye, and then turned away.
Jenny chased out, looking at the officer with four eyes facing each other, tearful eyes, she only said goodbye, this was the first word she said to him, and it was also the last conversation between them, the officer had a surprise on his face, but did not say anything more, got into the car and left. Later Jenny joined the Resistance.
All the silence and monologues, in the end, as calm as the sea.