Casting Call: Suite Française
In which we suggest who should star in the next big adaptation, remake, or historical film.
“A novel should be like a street full of strangers, where no more than two or three people are known to us in depth.” —Gabriel Corte in Suite Française
Suite Française begins with the mass exodus from Paris. It is June 1940, the Germans are coming, and the streets are clogged with cars carrying families and their furniture. They are heading East or South— Nîmes, Vichy, Tours—in the hopes that removing themselves from Paris will save them from France’s fall. It doesn’t.
Written by Irene Némirovsky between 1940 and 1942, as the very events she describes are unfolding, the story behind Suite Française only adds to its poignancy. Némirovsky initially intended to write a series of five books, but only completed the first two—”Storm in June” and “Sweet”—before she was arrested in France for being Jewish and sent to her death at Auschwitz. According to her notes, the intended titles of the next three books were “Captivity,” “Battle,” and “Peace.” Némirovsky’s eldest daughter discovered “Storm in June” and “Sweet” written in one of her mother’s notebooks in the 1990s and published them together in 2004. Unsurprisingly, the book became a bestseller—although not without controversy. Despite being Jewish herself, Némirovsky is often accused of being an anti-Semite, as in her early writings—such as David Golder—Jewish characters are portrayed with the grossest of stereotypes prevalent at the time.
Long on the Brit-List (the British version of the Black List), English writer-director Saul Dibb’s (Bullet Boy, The Duchess) screenplay adaptation of Suite Française is finally getting produced, and Michelle Williams is in talks to play Lucile Angiers, a character in “Sweet.” Fortunately for us, there are plenty of characters in Suite Française, which means plenty of other characters to cast! Click through the slideshow above to see who we think should star alongside Williams.
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