Diplomacy is the kind of movie you might expect to find in the film schedule of one of those
invaluable government-funded cultural organizations like the Alliance Française
or the Goethe Institut that foster international education programs, promoting tolerance,
peace and intercultural dialogue. A Franco-German co-production dedicated to
the memory of American diplomat Richard Holbrooke, also a friend and former
collaborator of the director, Volker Schlöndorff's latest is amongst other
things a celebration of humanitarianism and transnational cooperation over belligerence and blind obedience. The film ‒ whose original
title itself is cross-boundary, "Diplomatie" being both a French and
a German word ‒ is a fictionalized account of how the destruction of Paris
ordered by Hitler in 1944 was warded off thanks to intensive negotiations
conducted over the course of a single night by the Nazi-appointed military governor
of Paris Dietrich von Choltitz (played by Niels Arestrup) and the Swedish
consul-general Raoul Nordling (André Dussolier).
