November Moon 1985 Movie Review

『A Forbidden Love and Silent Resistance Blooming Under the Moonlight Amid the Darkness of War』

🎥 Film Overview

🎬 Title: November Moon (Original Title: Novembermond, 1985)
🌍 Country: 🇩🇪🇫🇷 Germany / France
🎞️ Genre: Drama / War / Queer Romance
🗓️ Production & Release: 1985, German–French Co-production
🎬 Director: Alexandra von Grote
🖋️ Screenplay: Alexandra von Grote
📺 Platform: Available on select European streaming services and DVD release

👩‍💼 Cast: Gabriele Osburg – November Messing
Christiane Millet – Férial

🧩 Story Deep Dive (Spoilers)

🌑 Dual Pressures of War and Identity

November Moon is more than a simple war film or love story — it is a powerful exploration of how a historical era imposes crushing weight upon individual lives and love itself.

• Historical Threat: November Messing is a Jewish refugee who has fled Nazi Germany to Paris. Her identity — as a Jew, a German, and a lesbian — becomes a constant threat to her survival amid the war.

• Férial’s Sacrifice: Férial, a French woman, falls in love with November and takes on the immense responsibility of hiding and caring for her. To protect her, Férial ultimately takes a job at a pro–Nazi collaborationist newspaper — a morally painful yet necessary act of survival that will later cost her dearly in post-war France.

• Double Secrecy: The two women must conceal both November’s Jewish identity from the occupying forces and their same-sex relationship from a conservative society. This double concealment traps them in a constant state of anxiety and fear.

🌿 Devotion and Survival Amid Turmoil

The relationship between November and Férial is a blend of romantic serendipity and harsh realism born of survival.

• The Birth of Love: November meets Férial in Paris through Férial’s brother. Their romance blossoms swiftly and passionately in the tense days before the Nazi occupation. The looming war intensifies the urgency of their feelings, transforming affection into desperate attachment.

• A Story of Sacrifice: Férial’s choices to protect their love define the film’s emotional core. She risks her life to hide November in the countryside and later, upon their reunion in Paris, works tirelessly — even compromising her morals — to ensure their survival. Her collaborationist job illustrates how moral compromise can become the price of love in wartime.

• Emotional Realism: Unlike many queer romances of its era that romanticized forbidden love, this film grounds its story in economic struggle, fear, and survival, anchoring their relationship in painful authenticity.

💥 Liberation and Its Cost

The film’s conclusion unfolds during the liberation of Paris — yet instead of relief, it brings new anguish.

• Férial’s Arrest and Humiliation: Because of her work at a collaborationist newspaper — done to save November — Férial is publicly humiliated after the war, accused of collaboration. She endures the infamous punishment of head-shaving (“Tondeuses” or “Public Shaving”), a symbolic act of vengeance inflicted upon women accused of fraternizing with the enemy.

• The Price of Love: Though the war is over, social stigma remains an inescapable barrier. Férial’s humiliation underscores that their love story cannot simply end with “happily ever after.”

• Uncertain Future: The film closes without confirming whether the two women reunite, leaving audiences suspended between hope and harsh realism. This ambiguity reflects how freedom does not always equate to acceptance, making the ending both open and responsible.

🏳️‍🌈 The “Harsh” Truth of Lesbian Narratives

This ending aligns with how queer cinema of the 1980s often reflected brutal social realities rather than romantic wish fulfillment.

• Social Warning: Férial’s humiliation serves as a stark commentary on the punishment society imposes for nonconformity. Even though her collaboration was motivated by love and survival, she receives public degradation beyond just punishment. November’s silent despair magnifies the emotional weight of this cruelty.

Thus, the true strength of November Moon lies in showing how a love born under the most desperate conditions becomes crushed again — not by war itself, but by postwar moral vengeance and historical violence. November’s frozen expression in the final shot becomes one of the most haunting reminders that the end of war does not mean the end of suffering.

✨ Narrative Significance

• Restoring Queer Women in History: By placing a sincere, committed lesbian relationship in the midst of the Holocaust and Nazi oppression, the film reclaims the presence of queer women who were historically marginalized or erased from war narratives.

• A Woman’s Perspective: Director Alexandra von Grote centers her lens on women’s courage, endurance, and moral conflict rather than the traditional male-centered war heroism, creating a rare feminine narrative of wartime survival.

• A Classic Lesbian Romance: The film stands out as one of the early works where queer love is integrated naturally into the story — not as a source of sensationalism, but as part of human existence. It remains a classic of lesbian cinema that inspired many later queer romances.

November Moon is both a testament to love’s resilience under tyranny and a moving portrait of queer survival amid historical catastrophe. It reminds viewers that even in humanity’s darkest chapters, tenderness can exist — though not always without loss.

🎯 Personal Rating

💕 Love Scene Intensity: ♥♥♥
⭐ Rating: ★★★★★