Sarah's Key
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This article needs additional citations for verification. (May 2012) |
| Sarah's Key.. | |
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 Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Gilles Paquet-Brenner |
| Produced by | Stéphane Marsil |
| Written by | Serge Joncour Gilles Paquet-Brenner |
| Starring | Kristin Scott Thomas Mélusine Mayance Niels Arestrup Frédéric Pierrot |
| Music by | Max Richter |
| Cinematography | Pascal Ridao |
| Editing by | Hervé Schneid |
| Studio | Hugo Productions Studio 37 TF1 France 2 Cinema Canal+ TPS Star France Televisions Kinology Ile de France |
| Distributed by | Anchor Bay Entertainment The Weinstein Company UGC Madman Entertainment StudioCanal UK |
| Release date(s) |
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| Running time | 111 minutes |
| Country | France |
| Language | French English |
| Budget | EU10,000,000[1] |
| Box office | $21,118,093 |
Sarah's Key (French: Elle s'appelait Sarah) is a 2010 French drama directed and co-written by Gilles Paquet-Brenner and an adaptation of the novel with the same title by Tatiana de Rosnay.[2]
Sarah's Key follows an American journalist's present-day investigation into the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup of Jews in German-occupied Paris in 1942. It tells the story of young girl Sarah's experiences during and after these events, illustrating the participation of the French bureaucracy while also showing how other French citizens hid and protected Sarah from Vichy France authorities.[3]
The film alternates between Sarah's life in 1942 and the journalist researching the story in 2009.
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Plot [edit]
In 1942, 10-year-old Sarah Starzynski (Mélusine Mayance) hides her younger brother from authorities carrying out the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup, locking him in a hidden closet and telling him to stay there until she returns. She takes the key with her when she and her parents are transported to the Vélodrome d'Hiver, where they are held in inhuman conditions by the Paris Police and French Secret Service.[4]
The deportees are transferred to the French-run Beaune-la-Rolande internment camp. The adults are deported to Auschwitz, leaving the children in the camp. When Sarah tries to escape with a friend, Rachel, a sympathetic Paris police guard spots them. When Sarah begs him to let them go so she can save her brother, he hesitates then lifts the barbed wire to let them out.
Sarah and Rachel fall asleep in a dog house at a farm where they are discovered by the farmers, Jules and Genevieve Dufaure. Despite knowing who they are and the associated danger, the Dufaures decide to help the girls. Rachel is dying, and when they call attention to themselves by calling in a doctor, a skeptical German officer asks them if they know anything about a second Jew child. The officer begins a search for the second child, only to be interrupted when the French physician carries out the dead body of Rachel. Days later, the Dufaures take Sarah back to her family's apartment building in Paris. Sarah runs up to her apartment, knocking on the door furiously. A boy, twelve years old, answers. She rushes in to her old room and unlocks the cupboard. Horrified by what she finds, she starts screaming hysterically.
After the war, Sarah continues to live as a family member with the Dufaures and their two grandsons. When she turns 18, she moves to the United States, hoping to put everything that happened behind her. She stops corresponding with the Dafaures when she gets married and has a son, William. When her son is 9, Sarah – still blaming herself for her brother's death – commits suicide by driving into the path of a truck. Her son believes that her death was an accident.
In the present, the French husband of journalist Julia (Kristin Scott-Thomas) inherits the apartment of his grandparents (his elderly father was the boy who opened the door to Sarah in August 1942). Having previously done an article on the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup, Julia finds her interest piqued when she learns that the apartment came into her husband's family at about the time of the Roundup, and she begins to investigate what happened nearly 70 years earlier. Her father-in-law tells Julia what he knows so she will quit prying.
Julia begins an obsessive quest to find any trace of Sarah, eventually learning of her death in Brooklyn and finally locating William in Italy. She meets with him and asks him for information about his mother, but learns to her surprise that William does not know his mother's history or even that she was a Jew, believing only that she had been a French farm girl. Listening in amazement, William rejects the story and dismisses Julia. Later, everything is confirmed by his dying father, who finally tells him the whole secret story of Sarah's background, including what led to his mother's suicide.
Julia discovers that she's pregnant, having given up hope of a second child after years of unsuccessful attempts to conceive. Her husband loves their life with their 12 year old daughter, Zoe, and does not want to have another child at this point in life. Julia ultimately decides against an abortion, divorcing her husband and moving with Zoe to New York City, where she gives birth to a daughter.
The film ends two years later with a scene in which William, having accepted the truth and contacted Julia, meets her for lunch and gives her additional information about his mother. Julia has brought her daughter along to the meeting. William breaks into tears when Julia looks at him tenderly and says her daughter's name is Sarah.
Cast [edit]
- Kristin Scott Thomas - Julia Jarmond
- Natasha Mashkevich - Mrs Starzynski
- Arben Bajraktaraj - Mr Starzynski
- Mélusine Mayance - young Sarah Starzynski
- Charlotte Poutrel- Adult Sarah
- Niels Arestrup - Jules Dufaure
- Dominique Frot - Geneviève Dufaure
- Frédéric Pierrot - Bertrand Tezac
- Michel Duchaussoy - Édouard Tezac
- Gisèle Casadesus - Mamé Tezac
- Aidan Quinn - William Rainsferd
Release [edit]
The film had a preview at the Toronto International Film Festival on 16 September 2010, then it had a wide release in France on 13 October 2010 and in Italy on 13 January 2012.
Reception [edit]
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This section requires expansion. (May 2012) |
The film has been critically well-received,[5] currently holding a 73% rating on the film review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes.[6]
Although British, Scott-Thomas delivers her English dialogue in an American accent, but for most of the film she speaks fluent French as she is Anglo-French. She has done many Anglo-French movies in French and received a César Award nomination for this performance.
Home video [edit]
The film was released in the USA on DVD and Blu-ray on 22 November 2011.
See Also [edit]
References [edit]
- ^ "Box office / business for Sarah's Key". IMDb.com. IMDb.com, Inc. Retrieved 28 May 2012.
- ^ "Sarah's Story". Dimension Films. The Weinstein Company. Retrieved 28 May 2012.
- ^ Peter Bradshaw (4). "Sarah's Key – review". The Guardian (in English). Guardian News and Media Limited. Retrieved 28 May 2012.
- ^ RACHEL SALTZ (21). "The Horror of Yesterday and the Everyday of Today". The New York Times (in English). The New York Times Company. Retrieved 28 May 2012.
- ^ Kenneth Turan (22). "Movie review: 'Sarah's Key'". Los Angeles Times (in English). Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 28 May 2012.
- ^ "Sarah's Key (2011)". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster, Inc. Retrieved 28 May 2012.
