‘Suite française' is the title of the first two of a planned sequence of five novels by Irène Némirovsky, first published in a single volume in 2004 that has been hugely successful in France, but also in English-speaking countries and elsewhere.
Six years before, Universal optioned posthumous bestseller for a big-screen adaptation and finally hired English director Saul Dibb (The Duchess) to write the script and direct the period drama Suite Francaise.
Now comes word that My Week with Merilyn star Michelle Williams is in talks to topline the Dibb's WWII drama as Lucille Angellier, a spirited young woman in occupied France who falls in love with a German officer, and is left with a hard decision of choosing between love or her country.
The production will shoot in London next spring.
Here's a synopsis via Amazon:
Beginning in Paris on the eve of the Nazi occupation in 1940, Suite Française tells the remarkable story of men and women thrown together in circumstances beyond their control. As Parisians flee the city, human folly surfaces in every imaginable way: a wealthy mother searches for sweets in a town without food; a couple is terrified at the thought of losing their jobs, even as their world begins to fall apart. Moving on to a provincial village now occupied by German soldiers, the locals must learn to coexist with the enemy—in their town, their homes, even in their hearts.When Irène Némirovsky began working on Suite Française, she was already a highly successful writer living in Paris. But she was also a Jew, and in 1942 she was arrested and deported to Auschwitz, where she died. For sixty-four years, this novel remained hidden and unknown.
Source: Variety
