France, 1940. In the first days of occupation, beautiful Lucile Angellier is trapped in a stifled existence with her controlling mother-in-law as they both await news of her husband: a prisoner of war. Parisian refugees start to pour into their small town, soon followed by a regiment of German soldiers who take up residence in the villagers' own homes. Lucile initially tries to ignore Bruno von Falk, the handsome and refined German officer staying with them. But soon, a powerful love draws them together and leads them into the tragedy of war.

No such thing as a free lunch? And what about free film screenings? Nothing to lose, I guess and despite there being something suspect about the poster presentation and a less than inspiring trailer was convinced by others that the original book was so good, this would be fine. Oh dear! This begins well with lines of Parisians fleeing their city for the presumed safety of the outskirts and a splendid and exciting sequence but very quickly descends into 'soap'. There is no other word for it for not only does it become predictable but it is only superficially about the struggle to survive with the German occupation and really about the developing romantic liaisons and family concerns. Beautifully shot but drivel like dialogue and picture and word and music contrive to achieve the height of sentimentality when we should have been shoved much closer to the hell that it must have been, collaboration or not.