A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries

A film set in Paris and in America. Bill Willis is an American writer. He served in the war and settled in Paris. He has two children with his wife Marcella. One of them is adopted. Channe is their daughter. The narrative is largely from her view. One day a boy comes to the house. Benoît is a French orphan and the family adopts him. He does not speak. For a long time he goes near nobody. From there the film proceeds inside the family. School, games, neighbours and holidays. Benoît's name is changed. He is Billy now. The two children become brother and sister. The family is comfortable in Paris. Bill writes, the house is full, and his friends come. Then a health problem appears. His heart is not good. They go back to America. The narrative moves to a second part here. Channe is an adolescent now. A new school, a new country, and she can settle into nothing. As a girl raised in France she is a foreigner in an American high school. She finds a friend. Francis is interested in theatre and is shut out at school. What the narrative is interested in is not growing up but a father: its idea is that Bill built a world for his children and that the world ends with him. He is ill and the narrative does not stretch it out. The last section is in a hospital. The sentence in the title is something the father says to his daughter and the narrative reverses it at the end. The source is Kaylie Jones's autobiographical novel; she is James Jones's daughter and the character of Bill comes from her father. James Ivory's method is evident. Calm cutting, period detail, and scenes built on talk. The film is divided into three parts, each with a title. Kris Kristofferson, Barbara Hershey, Leelee Sobieski, Jesse Bradford and Anthony Roth Costanzo are in the cast. Who it is for: anyone who likes quiet family drama and period film. Who it is not for: anyone looking for pace; the narrative moves in sections and the second half sits apart from the first.