The 2017 film "Un sac de billes" was about the second time that the autobiographical novel "Marble bag" by the famous French writer Joseph Joofou was brought to the screen. The first adapted version was released in 1975, and the earlier version also had a translation title called "A Painful Childhood", which seems to be suspected of biasing the original temperament.
It is difficult for people in times of war not to suffer. For children, their life that could have been frolicking and playing was completely shattered, and one second they may still be innocently playing, the next second they fall into a situation of or displacement or life and death, and some even lose their lives when they are still ignorant of what war is.
In the face of suffering, Joseph Joof's creative attitude seems to be relatively positive, and he has the words in the preface to the book "Marble bags" - "This book is not the work of historians." It is a memory of my childhood at the age of ten, telling the story of my adventures during the occupation of France. Thirty years on (the writer was born in 1931), memory and forgetting can change some of the details of the story, but the main thing is still fresh: its authenticity, its intimacy, its humor and panic, and nothing is missing. ”
Watching the latest film version of "A Bag of Marbles", the audience seems to be able to feel that this version is more faithful to the original work, both authenticity and intimacy, witty and panicked from time to time appear throughout the film, and fully and meticulously reproduce the main storyline and context - in German-occupied France, two young Jewish brothers Morris and Joe who grew up in Paris, in order to avoid Nazi arrest, and their parents and brothers acted separately, crossing France to Nice and peace, but the good times were not long, and the short and sweet reunion was stifled by the pace of German occupation. The two brothers once again live independently, encountering all kinds of hardships and tribulations, waiting for the extraordinary experience of returning to Paris for family reunion...
In the process of escape, the brothers experienced many thrilling tests, and gradually showed a witty and sensitive side, and their good wishes to reunite with their families made them full of courage in their hearts. Of course, if there is no strange well-meaning person along the way to help, the brothers are afraid that they will have encountered an accident long ago. In this section, both the novel and the film show the nobility of human nature in extreme circumstances, such as the doctor who examined the brothers' bodies, kept secrets for them, and wrote the conclusions of the examination in favor of them, while the doctor himself was sent to a concentration camp because of his Jewish status, and before leaving, he was still taking care of the sick Joe, leaving the opportunity for life to the young man... For example, the priest who protected the brothers on the train risked to go to the Nazi officers with a fake birth certificate to "fish" for the brothers in a certain district of Nice... In some cases, humans can still expect the kindness of strangers.
It can be said that this film is more down-to-earth, with sufficient details, from the perspective of children to see France in World War II and various people at that time, etc., retaining the inner activities and true feelings of children. Like the novel, the film truly reflects the social situation and people's inner world in France during the war from one side. As the pro-Germanists did, and so on, as the resistance did. The film does not pay much attention to the pro-German faction, but when Joe finally shouts that he is Jewish, the owner of his shop, the pro-German person's facial expression is wonderful, presumably the heart is also broken, and the young actor who plays Joe in the film, Baptiste Fleriel, also performs well.
Some passages of the film are somewhat suspected of flat and direct narration, but from time to time the sudden situation has played a role in adjusting the rhythm, and some rhythms are still good, both the release of emotions, but also far from the point of sensationalism, and the final reunion, but also with a lot of regrets.
At the end of the film, the appearance of the elderly brothers in reality makes the audience sigh - looking back on the past, when people are reflecting on the war, what else do they need to reflect on?