During 1942, there were shortages of food, heat, and happiness in Nazi occupied Paris. Sophie Vasseur (Romane Bohringer) lives with her poverty-stricken mother. Then her life is transformed when she takes a prestigious job as the accompanist for Madame Irene Brice (Elena Safonova), a famous opera singer who lives in opulence with her husband Charles (Richard Bohringer), a French collaborator.
Sophie is accepted as a member of their family, but she also serves as a maid to the imperious Irene, who is used to having everyone awed by her beauty and talent. In the presence of this angelic being, Sophie feels like an ugly duckling.
The action heats up when Sophie realizes Irene is having an affair with a young man active in the Resistance. Eventually Charles realizes that his entrepreneurial success has run its course and that it is time for them all to leave France.
Claude Miller directs this fascinating drama adapted from a novel by Nina Berberova. As a psychological drama, The Accompanist shines — especially in its portrait of the shadow side of beauty. It can save, heal, and uplift the soul, but used as a force to dominate others, beauty has its dangerous sides as well. All too often, those with low self-esteem give all their gold to those who are beautiful and both parties lose in the exchange.