Belgian actor Matthias Schoenaerts has been having success over the last few months opposite Marion Cotillard in Jacques Audiard’s Rust & Bone, and now he’s got a new project up his sleeve, as the Daily Mail reports he’s joined the cast of Suite Francaise, which already has Michelle Williams and Kristin Scott Thoman attached to star.
The film is based on Irene Nemirovsky’s novel, which she wrote (but never completed) during World War II, shortly before she was arrested and taken to a concentration camp, where she died. The novel was finally published in 2004 and praised for its firsthand look at the ever-changing situation for French people as the Nazis took over.
Michelle Williams will play Lucille Angellier, a young woman in Nazi-occupied France who falls for a young German soldier (Schoenaerts) while her husband is off fighting the war. Her only escape is playing the piano, which piques the interest of the soldier who was a composer before the war. Scott-Thomas is set to play Lucille’s mother-in-law.
Saul Dibb (The Duchess) will direct, with production scheduled to begin next spring in London.
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