Palace (1985)
Directed by Edouard Molinaro

Film Review

Right from the beginning, Palace conveys a sense of amateurishness which prevent what might have been an effective war-time drama from having any positive impact. Most of the characters are no more than unconvincing archetypes and much of the implausible, badly constructed plot descends to the level of a comicbook adventure story. It's not a lack of inspiration that Edouard Molinaro shows in his direction, but a lack of willingness to make the film at all. Like his previous half-hearted comedy La Cage aux folles II it looks as if he was forced into making the film against his will.

Even though the film boasts two formidable actors in the lead roles - Daniel Auteuil and Claude Brasseur - the characterisation is so weak that we really don't care what happens to them. Where the film does stand up reasonably well is in getting across the prevailing mood in wartime Germany.  There are a few standout scenes - such as the one where Auteuil is sheltered by a German woman and her mother - which do engage our feelings and pointedly express the weariness of the German people towards the latter stages of World War II.  Unfortunately, these are rare oases in a desert of depressing dreariness and far from being a compelling wartime drama Palace impresses as a film whose reason to be is hard to fathom.

Film Synopsis

A French soldier, Lucien Morland, is captured by the Germans during the liberation of France in 1944.  Taken to Germany, he manages to escape and, by chance, meets up with his brother, Robert, who shelters him in a prisoner-of-war camp.  Robert works as a pianist and odd-job man in a hotel, and might be able to give his brother safe passage back to France - if he is prepared to wait, that is...