Word: safonova
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Accompanist directed by Claude Miller starring Elena Safonova, Richard Bohringer and Romane Bohringer...
...Accompanist" is not a typical World War II flick. Though what action there is takes place in occupied France and war-torn London, reference to international conflicts serve only to illuminate the nature of individual characters. Focusing on Irene Brice (Elena Safonova), a diva on the brink of universal success, her husband Charles (Richard Bohringer), and her impoverished accompanist, Sophie Vasseur (Romane Bohringer), the movie--through lighting, facial close-ups, music, and symbols--studies personalities, not history...
...women who play Irene and Sophie, Elena Safonova and Romane Bohringer make do quite well with the faces with which they have been endowed. Bohringer's expression is convincingly impenetrable and Safonova's face when singing on stage is the flexible mask of an actress. Safonova, however, portrays Irene too personably in her private life; she does not behave as contemptibly towards Sophie as her words suggest she should, and not content with her concert audience's attention, she arrogates foe herself too much of the film audience's allegiance somewhat, it does not significantly disturb the balance...
Sophie Vasseur (Romane Bohringer) has eyes made for adoration. They are large, dark, serious, so very intense; they might belong to a puppy just saved from the city pound. Sophie's eyes have found their love object in Irene Brice (Elena Safonova), a concert singer in occupied Paris during World War II. Talented and high-spirited, apparently gliding through life, Irene can juggle the affections of a businessman husband (Richard Bohringer) and a lover (Samuel Labarthe) who is in the Resistance. Sophie, a promising pianist, is pleased to be Irene's accompanist and maid; she serves tea, irons, watches, tries...
...main reason is the performances; this film is a gift to his actors from director Claude Miller (who, with Luc Beraud, adapted Nina Berberova's novel) and from the actors to the receptive viewer. Safonova is a blond vision of grace under all kinds of pressure. But the fresh revelation is Romane Bohringer, daughter of co-star Richard Bohringer. A solemn beguiler, she perfectly embodies pent-up passivity as it longs for the golden chains of an enslaving passion...