Calm at Sea

Calm at Sea (French: La mer à l'aube) is a 2011 German / French drama film directed by Volker Schlöndorff.^[1][2] The film depicts the events leading to the 1941 execution of a group of French communists, including the 17-year-old Guy Môquet, as retaliation for the assassination of a German officer by the French resistance.

Calm at Sea
Film poster
French	La mer à l'aube
Directed by	Volker Schlöndorff
Written by	Volker Schlöndorff
Based on	Zur Geiselfrage by Ernst Jünger
Produced by	Bruno Petit
Starring	Léo Paul Salmain [fr] Marc Barbé Ulrich Matthes
Cinematography	Lubomir Bakchev
Edited by	Susanne Hartmann
Music by	Bruno Coulais
Release date	14 October 2011 (2011-10-14)
Running time	90 minutes
Countries	France Germany
Languages	French German

Cast

• Léo-Paul Salmain [fr] as Guy Môquet
• Marc Barbé as Jean-Pierre Timbaud
• Ulrich Matthes as Ernst Jünger
• Jean-Marc Roulot [fr] as Lucien Touya
• Sébastien Accart as Bernard Lecornu
• Martin Loizillon [fr] as Claude Lalet
• Jacob Matschenz as Soldat Otto

Production

The film was inspired by the experiences of the German writers Ernst Jünger and Heinrich Böll, who served in France during World War II. Jünger, who features as a character in the film, was tasked by Otto von Stülpnagel, the German Military Commander in France, to treat the executions of the French prisoners in literary form. Jünger did so, but destroyed his manuscript and the text was presumed lost until a copy was found and published posthumously as Zur Geiselfrage. Schilderung der Fälle und ihrer Auswirkungen (lit. 'On the Hostage Issue: Description of the Cases and Their Ramifications'). Böll's stories A Soldier's Legacy and The Train Was on Time are not about these events, but there is a soldier in the film modelled on Böll and his literary characters.^[3]

Reception

The film was mostly positively received. Jörg Schöning sums it up in Der Spiegel: “Schlöndorff's film, which is not particularly interested in the more recent questions of humanity, thankfully concentrates on the concrete. The sea in the morning is the stroke of luck of a documentary game: the people, their actions and words are historically documented, the consequences of their actions are highly dramatic - and still trigger considerable emotions today.”^[4]

Filmgazette editor Wolfgang Nierlins judged: "Schlöndorff's film shows the fateful course of events, relentlessly aggravated by human arbitrariness and blind coincidence as a tragic event." He understands Calm at Sea as “a differentiated plea for humanity” and awards 8 out of 10 possible stars.^[5]