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Almost Peaceful
Empire Pictures


8.0

based on 17 reviews
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How did we calculate this?

based on 1 votes
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Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: Not Rated

Starring Simon Abkarian, Lubna Azabal, Zabou, Clotilde Courau, Vincent Elbaz, Julie Gayet, Stanislas Merhar, and Denis Podalydès

Set during the largely unexplored period immediately after WWII, the film follows a group of mostly Jewish Parisians who attempt to restart their lives and rekindle their capacity for happiness in the shadow of unspeakable horrors. (Empire Pictures)

GENRE(S):	Drama \| Foreign
WRITTEN BY:	Michel Deville Rosalinde Deville Robert Bober (novel Quoi de neuf sur la guerre?)
DIRECTED BY:	Michel Deville
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: March 29, 2005 Theatrical: August 20, 2004
RUNNING TIME:	94 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	France
LANGUAGE(S):	French (with English subtitles)

Original title "Un monde presque paisible"

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Variety David Stratton

A gentle, sad and at times funny film in the best French tradition of high-quality cinema.

Village Voice Leslie Camhi

French director Michel Deville has managed to preserve the work's great virtues--the intimacy, discretion, grace, and humor with which it speaks of both irredeemable disaster and the taste for life that survives it.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

Modest, wise ensemble piece.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

These are people who are just waking up to life again. It may appear to be the ultimate non-action movie, but in the context of these lives, it is the highest kind of drama.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

Like the work of an expert tailor, it's done with unobtrusive skill, essential warmth and seamless grace.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Unlike any other film I have seen about the Holocaust.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The gently told comedy-drama is more colorful than you'd expect, using wry humor and lively music to keep sentimentality at bay.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

It takes talent to make audiences care about ordinary people doing ordinary things, just as it takes guts to end a movie with something as corny as the sounds of children playing.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Deville gently reveals that they're all simultaneously hauntingly fragile and amazingly resilient, their smiles as piercing as any resigned gaze.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

The film was adapted from a 1993 novel by Robert Bober, who drew on his own childhood experiences, and as it unwinds, one begins to appreciate Deville's desire to see things work out well for these people.

Chicago Reader Andrea Gronvall

In its embrace of human imperfection the movie recalls with elegant formal simplicity the populist threads of 30s French cinema.

The Hollywood Reporter Richard James Havis

It's a quiet film, shunning melodrama and political polemic. Instead, it opts for a human touch, conveying how a group of very different survivors come to terms with the past and plan a future in their own unique ways.

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

The most pleasant aspect of the picture is its relish of the moment in which it is set. Deville doesn't omit mention of the anti-Semitism in postwar France; still, this little tailoring shop is a good place to have reached after the preceding years.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Succeeds as a delicately moving memory piece about a subject not often put on film: the process of moving on into ordinary life after surviving the Holocaust.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

There's something rather lovely about the mood and intentions of Michel Deville's French movie.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray

Too many of these characters behave like they just stepped out of a Noel Coward production.

New York Post Megan Lehmann

Presumably, Deville wants to show life returning to normal after WWII, but in the context of this inert movie, "normal" equals "tedious."

The average user rating for this movie is 8.0 (out of 10) based on 1 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Tim D-L gave it an8:
A lovely character-driven ensemble piece that generates atmosphere and a sense of place as the story moves steadily along. Not for those seeking a Hollywood-style action movie.

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Almost Peaceful Empire Pictures

Almost Peaceful
Empire Pictures