Goodbye Monsieur Haffmann (2021)

Directed by: Fred Cavayé | 115 minutes | drama | Actors: Daniel Auteuil, Gilles Lellouche, Sara Giraudeau, Nikolai Kinski, Mathilde Bisson, Anne Coesens, Jérôme Cachon, Guillaume Marquet, Yoann Blanc, Pierre Forest, Claudette Walker, Pierre Reggiani, Néma Mercier, Alessandro Lanciano, Tiago Coelho, Angel Bouchery

The premise of ‘Adieu Monsieur Haffmann’ is a promising one. The Jewish jeweler Haffmann (Auteuil) wants to flee from the registration obligation of the Nazis and manages to evacuate his family. He temporarily transferred his Paris business to an employee (Lellouche). Unfortunately, Haffmann does not manage to go with his family in time, and he has to go into hiding in the basement of his own business, with the family of the man to whom he has transferred the business.

Most of the movie takes place in the basement of the jewelry store, filmed in dark tones. But ‘Adieu Monsieur Haffmann’ is not your average Holocaust drama. The oppressive atmosphere is marked by the triangular relationship in the house. As a person in hiding, Haffmann is dependent on his former subordinate Mercier and his wife Blanche (Giraudeau), who has an above-average interest in the jeweler.

There is also cultural tension between the distinguished Haffmann and the ‘ordinary’ Frenchman Mercier. Now the boss is suddenly in a dark basement and his employee eats in the daylight in the beautiful living room. A source of disastrous plot entanglements, you might say, but Cavayé keeps it on a slow oppression, appropriate to the hopeless hiding situation. Even the sex is smug, stuffy and muted.

Initially, it is mainly decent male roles that stand out, with the addition that Auteuil always blazes and shows his talent; also in this case. The key role is played by the subtle Giraudeau, an exciting actress with Modigliani traits; Blanche develops from a quiet house sparrow into a fatal power factor, while the tension between the men rises. And that against the background of the Second World War. Nice.