They talked while Paris didn’t burn

Published 5:38 pm Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Paris was not destroyed by the retreating Germans during World War II, so the outcome of “Diplomacy” is not in question. That is, unless some “Inglourious Basterds”-style historical embroidery were to break out.

But director Volker Schlondorff is no Quentin Tarantino, and “Diplomacy” plays as a minimalist dialogue on the nature of ethics and responsibility. Most of it takes place in a room at the Hotel Meurice in August 1944, the headquarters of General Dietrich von Choltitz (played by Niels Arestrup).

Von Choltitz has been military governor here for less than a month; with the Allies already pounding at the outskirts of town, he’s doomed to eventually surrender the city. But Hitler has charged him with destroying the riches of Paris — bridges, Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower — before capitulation.

The film, adapted from Cyril Gely’s popular play, pits von Choltitz in a long tête-à-tête with the Swedish diplomat Raoul Nordling (André Dussollier). Nordling, a staunch Parisian, is there to argue against detonating the already-rigged explosives.

As a by-the-rules military man, von Choltitz already has plenty of blood on his hands, including the liquidation of Jews in Russia. And there’s another reason he might hesitate to disobey the Fuhrer’s orders, which Gely’s script withholds until late in the discussion.

This encounter is fictionalized and historians still dispute the details of how Paris was saved. Nordling was only one of a number of voices imploring von Choltitz to refuse the order, and the Resistance had something to do with it, too (the novel and movie “Is Paris Burning?” previously explored the question, and also gave the world a melodic Maurice Jarre anthem nearly as stirring as the “Marseillaise”).

“Diplomacy” might not be solid history, but Schlondorff — the German filmmaker still best known for “The Tin Drum” — understands the theatrical possibilities here. This is a chance to bat around lofty ideas, spoken by two articulate adversaries who embody the “but for this foolish war we might have been comrades” school of drama. In that sense, “Diplomacy” has its roots in the civilized enemies of Jean Renoir’s classic “Grand Illusion.”

The two actors are key to making that work: old pro Dussollier carries an aristocratic twinkle, while Arestrup (the prison godfather in “A Prophet”) moves like a battered former boxer, worn down by battle but still lethal in the clinches. Their full-to-bursting presence is enough to give weight to this conversational chamber drama.

“Diplomacy” (3 stars)

As the occupying Germans prepare to depart Paris, a diplomat (Andre Dussollier) tries to argue the military governor (Niels Arestrup) out of destroying the great city. It didn’t happen quite like this, but the subject makes for a good conversation. In French, with English subtitles.

Rating: Not rated, probably PG for subject matter

Showing: Varsity theater