THE NOTEBOOK (Le Grand Cahier) – The Review

This week’s big studio release, THE GOOD LIE, gives us a look at a current conflict or war starting from the viewpoint of children (and following them as adults in the US). For this new foreign film we journey back several decades to see a war, World War II to be precise, through the eyes of children over in Europe, much as in 2008’s WINTER IN WARTIME. While that was through the viewpoint of one pre-teen boy, this new film concerns two pre-teen boys, twins who share an intense unspoken bond. Hopefully movie goers will not be confused by the English translation of the title, for this has very little in common with the tear-jerker from ten years ago, although this one is pretty darn sad. Its original title is LE GRAND CAHIER, Hungarian for THE NOTEBOOK.

As the film begins we meet the twins (Lazlo and Andras Gyemant) on a very happy day. It is 1944 and their soldier Father is back on leave at the lush apartment home they share in a bustling Hungarian city. But the joy is short-lived. When Father returns to battle, Mother realizes that she cannot keep them at home. They board a train to a distant rural village where she takes the boys to the farm run by her bitter, estranged mother whom the townspeople call “The Witch” (Piroska Molnar). After a terse reunion, Mother leaves her heartbroken sons in care of their cruel, sadistic Grandmother who refers to them as “Bastards”. Over the next few months the twins decide to toughen themselves by fasting and beating each other (this perplexes the German officer that takes lives in the garden shed). Besides the officer, the twins befriend a thieving, disfigured neighbor, a lustful deacon, his spiteful maid, and a sympathetic Jewish shoemaker. As the seasons change, the boys harden as they come to the realization that they can only survive this life on their own resolve.

The film conveys the misery of occupied existence so well it almost reminded me of the old “gentleman’s club” sketch from Monty Python in which rich old stiffs, while smoking cigars and swilling brandy, tried to one up each other with tales of their terrible childhood (“Each day we’d wake up before we went to bed, trudge two hours to…”). Not to trivialize the drama, but things never seem to get better. As the story progresses we see the light seep out of the boys’ eyes until they’ve retained a permanent dead-eyed stare. This scares those who believe that twins are cursed, while others seem to be drawn toward them, as if mesmerized. The suffering is almost too much to witness, but we also see that incredible love they share. No one, nothing will separate them. We also see how war drains the life force from a town. This is perfectly presented by the cinematography of Christian Berger who paints the harsh, cold land as a purgatory on Earth. Director Janos Szasz never gives in to sentiment, instead showing us how no adversity can extinguish that spark of determination that propels them to survive, to rise up once more. The will to live fills each page and frame of THE NOTEBOOK.

3.5 Out of 5

THE NOTEBOOK opens everywhere and screens exclusively in the St. Louis area at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinemas