Friday a week ago I went to a movie featuring the life of a woman I knew nothing about. Two and a half hours later I knew a lot about her. It's some of that 'lot', and the film which portrayed it, which I'm writing about today. Just click the arrow to view the film's trailer. If you find the trailer a bit confusing – too many extracts pushed together in a short space - I'm not surprised. The film itself, however, presents no such difficulty. Because of its marathon length there is time and time enough to see plenty of expanded detail. Some of the episodes are so lengthy and so horrible that sometimes I shut my eyes and waited until the scene changed. Horrible?Yes of course it's horrible. Part of it anyway. The concentration camps of World War II weren't pretty. This film makes no attempt to soften them. Simone Jacob, as she was when single, spent time in three of them – Drancy (a French internment camp) Auschwitz-Birkenau and Bergen-Belsen. Simone was only 16 (born 1927) when interred and escaped being killed in the gas chambers by lying about her age, saying she was 18. Children were killed. Those 18 and over (adults) worked. Simone dug foundations and built walls on construction sites. Conditions were fiercingly awful. Crowded into wooden bunks; hardly room to move; rats and mice for company; food given them in big buckets, without plates and utensils. Simone, who stayed close to the only two family members who had not been separated from her, risked her life one night to leave her building to go and find a spoon for her ailing mother. Her mother contracted typhus, survived the infamous 1945 death march but died at Bergen-Belsen just before liberation. LaterLater in the film the horror diminishes but certainly lingers. It lingers in the scenes of Simone Veil the young magistrate (she married at university) protesting at the terrible prison conditions she encounterd when visiting clients. Their living conditions were almost unbeliveable. Then when she became a member of government and promoted measures unpopular with men and other conservatives she had to experience at least the colourings of horror again. She was bombarded with vile personal abuse and damage to her house. She shrugged it off and continued on. Veil thought that if Europe united, peace was likely to be preserved. After her experience of war she was desperate for peace, thought the EU was the best means of ensuring that, and became its became first woman president. Appreciation
'It is just one example of Veil’s modesty, courage and determination throughout her life. The abortion law, during her time as health minister, was her hardest political fight, and the one for which she is best-known. The law passed, as did an earlier piece of legislation from her, making access to contraception easier. Almost 30 years later, Veil remains an inspirational figure and has often been named one of France’s most liked people of all time.' I'm gladI'm glad I saw this movie. It has introduced me to an inspirational figure I'd not come across before. I'm not familiar with French history except in a most general sense but I do understand now why 'Veil... has often been named one of France’s most liked people of all time.' I've seen some critcism of the film's confusing time sequences. It does use the retrospective trick quite often but I think such a technique emphasises the view that the very horrors Veil endured as a young person account for her fierceness in adult life to put wrongs right. Are the concentration camp scenes too long? That could be said. But the very length of them underlines the horror. I'm sure that's what the producers wanted. The film enriched me. It's part of a French film festival showing in New Zealand now. I hope it’s also in other parts of the world. If you want to be enriched, please go and see it. □ John McInnes Friday 23 June 2023 ##########
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