The German occupation is still a subject that the French have not come to terms with, judging by the timidity with which this film tells the story of Resistance heroine Lucie Aubrac. They say that it was only after liberation that the ranks of the resistance swelled, and in this depiction of the occupation, the nation’s selective memory loss seems to have escaped largely unscathed.

A brief resume: Daniel Auteuil (why are male French stars always so ugly?) gets picked up by the nazis and sentenced to death on suspicion of being a member of the resistance. In fact, he is one of the movement’s leading lights, so a rescue bid is mounted, which involves his wife chatting up various Gestapo officers and then taking part in a daring and bloody ambush.

His screen wife, Carole Bouquet (why are female French stars always so beautiful?) underplays the part of Lucie Aubrach so much as to be virtually inscrutable, although her approach does occasionally pay dividends, it has to be said. But overall, in the eyes of a British viewer at least, a potentially explosive storyline is squandered as the film’s events tiptoe around ugly realities which are still taboo in modern France.

There is no serious attempt to face up to the moral compromises and collaboration that most French people were forced to endure in living with the hated invaders. And the horrific punishments that were meted out on the population as punishment for the Resistance’s cavalier attacks didn’t feature either. Maybe it would have unnecessarily complicated the love story which director Claude Berri concentrates his energies on - and actually pulls off rather well, in common with most French movies. And that is perhaps why, for all that Lucie Aubrac resembles a cop-out, it is still a movie worth watching.