In the Shadow of Stardom

By RICHARD CORLISS

Sophie Vasseur (Romane Bohringer) has eyes made for adoration. They are large, dark, serious, so very intense; they might belong to a puppy just saved from the city pound. Sophie's eyes have found their love object in Irene Brice (Elena Safonova), a concert singer in occupied Paris during World War II. Talented and high-spirited, apparently gliding through life, Irene can juggle the affections of a businessman husband (Richard Bohringer) and a lover (Samuel Labarthe) who is in the Resistance. Sophie, a promising pianist, is pleased to be Irene's accompanist and maid; she serves tea, irons, watches, tries to keep secrets. Servant and mistress, darkness and light -- why, the two women might be in different movies.

We all have supporting roles in the movies that are other people's lives. Sometimes we are so enthralled with someone else that we barely star in our own. Denial of self becomes a silent declaration of love -- especially a first love like Sophie's. She could be a sister to Willa Cather's Lucy Gayheart or a daughter to Stevens the butler in The Remains of the Day. This implosive sort of devotion is found often enough in life but rarely in films. That The Accompanist exists at all is the first reason to cherish it.

The main reason is the performances; this film is a gift to his actors from director Claude Miller (who, with Luc Beraud, adapted Nina Berberova's novel) and from the actors to the receptive viewer. Safonova is a blond vision of grace under all kinds of pressure. But the fresh revelation is Romane Bohringer, daughter of co-star Richard Bohringer. A solemn beguiler, she perfectly embodies pent-up passivity as it longs for the golden chains of an enslaving passion.