''Calm at Sea'' () is a 2011 German / French drama film directed by

Volker Schlöndorff Volker Schlöndorff (; born 31 March 1939) is a German film director, screenwriter and producer who has worked in Germany, France and the United States. He was a prominent member of the New German Cinema of the late 1960s and early 1970s. He ha ...

. The film depicts the events leading to the 1941 execution of a group of French communists, including the 17-year-old Guy Môquet, as retaliation for the assassination of a German officer by the French resistance.

Cast

* as Guy Môquet * Marc Barbé as Jean-Pierre Timbaud * Ulrich Matthes as

Ernst Jünger Ernst Jünger (; 29 March 1895 – 17 February 1998) was a German author, highly decorated soldier, philosopher, and entomology, entomologist who became publicly known for his World War I memoir ''Storm of Steel''. The son of a successful busin ...

* as Lucien Touya * Sébastien Accart as Bernard Lecornu * as Claude Lalet * Jacob Matschenz as Soldat Otto

Production

The film was inspired by the experiences of the German writers

and

Heinrich Böll Heinrich Theodor Böll (; ; 21 December 1917 – 16 July 1985) was a German writer. Considered one of Germany's foremost post-World War II writers, Böll received the Georg Büchner Prize (1967) and the Nobel Prize for Literature (1972). Bio ...

, who served in France during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Jünger, who features as a character in the film, was tasked by Otto von Stülpnagel, the German Military Commander in France, to treat the executions of the French prisoners in literary form. Jünger did so, but destroyed his manuscript and the text was presumed lost until a copy was found and published posthumously as ''Zur Geiselfrage. Schilderung der Fälle und ihrer Auswirkungen'' (). Böll's stories '' A Soldier's Legacy'' and '' The Train Was on Time'' are not about these events, but there is a soldier in the film modelled on Böll and his literary characters.

Reception

The film was mostly positively received. Jörg Schöning sums it up in ''

Der Spiegel (, , stylized in all caps) is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of about 724,000 copies in 2022, it is one of the largest such publications in Europe. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner ...

'': “Schlöndorff's film, which is not particularly interested in the more recent questions of humanity, thankfully concentrates on the concrete. The sea in the morning is the stroke of luck of a documentary game: the people, their actions and words are historically documented, the consequences of their actions are highly dramatic - and still trigger considerable emotions today.” ''Filmgazette'' editor Wolfgang Nierlins judged: "Schlöndorff's film shows the fateful course of events, relentlessly aggravated by human arbitrariness and blind coincidence as a tragic event." He understands ''Calm at Sea'' as “a differentiated plea for humanity” and awards 8 out of 10 possible stars.

References

External links

* * 2011 war drama films 2011 films German war drama films French war drama films 2010s German-language films 2010s French-language films Films directed by Volker Schlöndorff Films set in 1941 World War II films based on actual events Films about the French Resistance 2011 drama films 2011 multilingual films French multilingual films German multilingual films 2010s French films 2010s German films French-language German films German-language French films German-language war drama films French-language war drama films Ernst Jünger {{drama-film-stub