Colonel Chabert (1943)
The story of a French officer who is assumed dead during the Napoleonic Wars, but returns ten years later to a very different France, both on a political and personal level. The film is based on the novel Colonel Chabert by Honoré de Balzac.
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I will pay money to whoever can link me a version of this with English subtitles.

The first film I ever put on my watchlist. Probably the reason I set up an account letterboxd to begin with.

I saw this without subtitles, but, having seen the 1994 adaption first, I already had good understanding of the plot and various scenes.

Brilliant cinematography here as well. A true masterpiece of Vichy-French cinema.

I’ll almost certainly raise my review when someone directs me to a subtitled version of this so I can actually understand the dialogue.