Books at the movies

With the release of Suite française this week and the recent release of The Second Best Marigold Hotel recently we took a look back at the books again…

War time France….

Suite française by Irène Némirovsky

Due out on March 13th, if this is anything as good as the book – then this will be outstanding.

In the book, Iréne , herself a Jew (who had converted to Roman Catholicism) who was arrested in 1942 and transported to Auschwitz before she could finish her work. This novel remained hidden away for many many years before being discovered by her daughter.

Iréne’s descriptions of occupied France took our breath away for she evokes such simple every day things so vividly and in such detail that you’re right there beside her.

You could smell the suffering in the air,  in the silence. Even people who were normally calm and controlled were overwhelmed by anxiety and fear.

Suite française evokes a country on its knees, held captive by the Nazis but at the same time evokes a people: families, children….humans,  who refused to submit their spirits and instead held their head up high as history unfolded.

The horror of the time is evident but it’s the human side of the story which will have you in tears as humanity is explored in poignant detail

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and the Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

The spice of later life….

From France, we then travel to India for the colourful and often spice foray into the world of a luxury retirement home a group of stranger go out on what could be their last journey…

England to them is almost a foreign country – as people in their ‘golden years’ they feel invisible and forgotten and so they venture out there only to find….

India was a country of contrasts. Though baffling and frustrating, bogged down by bureaucracy and corruption, it was also a place where, if you spoke in the right ear, things magically happened.

Ah from the very first page, we laughed, cried and then laughed some more. It’s a mix of remembering days gone by whilst accepting and trying to improve the present. Such a mixed bag of English characters and the shock of meeting the people in India

And this book and film will so make you want to go to India – for the country is as beautiful as it was evoked in the book –

The Marigold was indeed a pleasant place, verandas on three sides, the compound shaded by flame trees.

Oh and the humour, the realisation that the famous Kama Sutra is an Indian invention and suddenly there’s another reason for visiting this ‘ strange hot country’

Two books to catch up with this week we reckon, what do you think of this movies and others that come from books?