Featuring a gripping, emotional performance from star Melanie Thierry as Marguerite Duras, Emmanuel Finkiel's adaptation of Duras' semi-autobiographical WWII novel is intense and haunting.

| Oct 11, 2021

The film is an admirable adaptation. Women have great stories to tell on screen.

| Oct 11, 2021

It's a strong film addressing a common yet seldom dramatized wartime experience...

| Oct 15, 2020

The film signals the arrival of another major French star actress. Memoir of War is a great film.

| Jul 17, 2020

An overly simple retelling of a complex story.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 29, 2019

La Douleur? Oui. Et les longueurs!

| Original Score: 2/5 | May 28, 2019

The fact the film failed to convert any of its eight César nominations says much, but this still represents a bold bid to recreate a highly distinctive recollection of a unique time.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 26, 2019

Inevitably, the novel's subtleties are lost in translation, and Emmanuel Finkiel's film drags at times, but Ms. Thierry's portrayal of the alternately tender and ruthless writer is fascinating.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 25, 2019

Memoir of War is composed beautifully through highly theatrical camera angles, capturing, for example, reflections in mirrors to brilliant effect.

| Original Score: 5/5 | May 22, 2019

Duras's soul-stripping words are here, but little thought appears to have gone into translating them for cinema.

| Original Score: 2/5 | May 22, 2019

Buoyed by an astonishing central turn by Mélanie Thierry.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 22, 2019

This is a powerful film, for its tense wartime emotions and exploration of inner life.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Apr 23, 2019

Every once in a while, the story of an individual slips through the cracks. Memoir of War is one of those stories and, as such, provides an unseen perspective to a plotline that we all know well.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Mar 2, 2019

Pain, it turns out, can be unbearably dull.

| Original Score: C | Dec 17, 2018

A somewhat lifeless film saved by handsome production values and a strong central performance.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Dec 17, 2018

Thierry's stoic performance and Finkiel's evocation of atmosphere envelop the viewer in a fever dream of dread.

| Sep 6, 2018

Memoir of War is at its best when it focuses on the complex inner life of its compelling protagonist, but even she can't prevent this film from feeling unnecessarily drawn-out by the time it reaches its conclusion.

| Sep 4, 2018

Though writer-director Emmanuel Finkiel has made a valiant effort, 'Memoir of War'...is dedicated and respectful but rather chilly and remote.

| Original Score: C | Aug 31, 2018

Despite its pedigree, Memoir of War does not guarantee safe passage.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 30, 2018

Marguerite Duras's semifictionalized memoir of psychological survival and emotional endurance in Paris during the Nazi occupation makes an uneasy, listless transition to the screen.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Aug 29, 2018