"The Accompanist"
                             A film review by
                           Linda Lopez McAlister
                              March 13, 1994

   "The Accompanist," a film by Claude Miller set in Paris in 1942 during the
Nazi occupation is a fascinating study of moral ambiguity, focusing
mainly, but not exclusively, on two women and the complex relationships that
develop between them.

   The accompanist of the title is Sophie Vaseur (played by Romaine Bohringer)
a rather ordinary-looking twenty year-old pianist who attends a concert of the
acclaimed soprano Irene Brice (Elena Safonova) and is transfixed by her
glamour, her regal presence, her sophistication. She goes backstage to see
about a job as Irene's accompanist and faints from excitement and hunger.
Irene, in a grand gesture, brings Sophie along to a dinner party where those
such as she and her husband Charles Brice (Richard Bohringer, Romane's
real-life father) hobnob in luxurious surroundings with German officers and
collaborators while ordinary Parisians such as Sophie suffer deprivation and
hardship.

   Sophie gets the job as Irene's accompanist and, because she has some ideas
about the interpretation of the music ,Irene grandly announces she will be her
coach as well. However, it isn't long before Sophie is living in the Brices'
apartment at Irene's beck and call and doubling as her servant and accomplice
in her extra-marital affairs. Sophie is totally smitten with Irene and is
willing to do anything for her; it's almost as though Sophie has no life of
her own and thrives on living vicariously on Irene's.

   In this film neither Sophie nor Irene nor Charles nor Irene's lover Jacques
owns the moral high ground. Each is filled with contradictions and
complicity. Brice is getting rich off the occupation while telling himself (a
la Oskar Schindler) that it's only business and he doesn't really support the
Nazis. Irene performs for the Gestapo, sleeps with a member of the Resistance,
and seems utterly self involved. Sophie craves the fame, attention, and luxury
that are showered on Irene whom she simultaneously idolizes and resents.

   Nearing the end of the War the Brices flee France for England and Sophie
comes along, foregoing a proposal of marriage from a young French Jewish
Resistance fighter on the ship in order to stay with Irene. In London, the
Brices are suspect and only Irene's connections with her lover in the Free
French Forces keeps them out of prison. The tensions among Irene, Sophie, and
Charles become increasingly dangerous and finally erupt. After the war ends we
see Sophie returning by train to Paris but it is difficult to know whether her
experiences have changed her and allowed her to grow into her own person. It
may be that Sophie can only live vicariously through others; certainly it is
hard to imagine what her life will be like without Irene. In voice-over at the
beginning and the end of the film we hear Sophie musing, "life is elsewhere,
outside of you, it rubs against others but passes you by."

   I found this to be a fascinating film, though somewhat overly long (some
sequences such as those with Sophie's mother that aren't meaningfully
developed could have been cut.  The performances, especially those of
both Bohringers, are very good indeed. People are predicting great things of
Romane who stars in another new French film now showing on the foreign/art
film circuit, "Savage Nights."

   For the WMNF Women's Show this is Linda Lopez McAlister on women and film.

   Copyright 1994 by Linda Lopez McAlister. All rights reserved. Please do not
reprint this review without the permission of the author.