Volker Schlöndorff’s stagey rendering of Cyril Gély’s 2011 play Diplomatie places a German general (Niels Arestrup) and a Swedish diplomat (André Dussollier) in a Paris hotel room on the eve of the Allied liberation in 1944, arguing about instructions from Berlin to devastate the city. The performances are excellent, the direction unobtrusive, and the subject matter undeniably gripping. But there’s not enough cinematic invention to make this electrify on screen as it evidently did on stage. The result is intriguing and intelligent, but ultimately uninspired.
