All the Light We Cannot See: Peach Dump Cake Recipe 🥁 🥁 🥁 🥁 🥁
/Year Released: 2023
Directed by: Shawn Levy
Starring: Aria Mia Loberti, Louis Hofmann, Mark Ruffalo, Hugh Laurie
(T-MA: 4 Episodes approx. 1 hour each)
Genre: WW II Drama
“The most important light is the light you cannot see.” –the Professor
In the bleak shadows of 2023 streaming, a new film is a lamp onto our feet. One of the few new offerings that is uniformly excellent.
A blind French girl and a young German soldier’s paths collide in WWII occupied France.
Based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel, All the Light We Cannot See tells the story of Marie-Laure Leblanc (Aria Mia Loberti), a blind French girl taking refuge with her father and reclusive uncle in St. Malo, France and Werner (Louis Hofmann), a brilliant teenager enlisted by hitler’s regime with an expertise in radio repair. Together they share a secret connection that will become a beacon of light that leads them through the harrowing backdrop of WWII.
One of reasons this new film is so good is right there above. All the Light We Cannot See is based on a prize-winning novel, not a screenplay sprouting from the juvenile dreams of a punk 24-year-old.
Another key is the acting, with special kudos going to both the young Marie (Nell Sutton) and the older version (Aria Mia Loberti), both of whom are blind in real life. Yes, Audrey Hepburn, you were great as Suzy Hendrix in Wait Until Dark, but here we have complete authenticity.
Mark Ruffalo, as a curator at the Museum of Natural History in Paris, is tender and strong as her loving father, both “caring and clever” as director Shawn Levy observes. “He’s determined to give his blind daughter Marie-Laure as much independence as he can while also protecting her — and the secret gem they carry — from the Nazis.”
Hugh Laurie, almost unrecognizable for those of us who remember him form the TV series House, is superb at playing Etienne, another damaged character here. But he does not mask it as well as Dr. House did. Shell-shocked is what they called it in WWI; today we recognize Etienne’s condition as PTSD. He copes by holing himself in the house he shares with his sister, his attic studio a sanctuary from the world he no longer wants to let in.
Another broken character is Werner (Louis Hofmann) “a brilliant German teenager who gets swept up in the brutality of war when he’s enlisted by Hitler’s regime to track down illegal radio broadcasts.” Hofmann seems to share his character’s talent, learning “how to build a 1940s style radio in 56 seconds for the role. ”
Ettiene’s sister Madame Manec (Marion Bailey) keeps the home fires burning, even teaching her blind great niece how to cook. But there is something of a Miss Marple about her, too. She and her fellow old ladies, like our unassuming Miss Marple, seem to pose no threats. So they can observe all the ships and aircraft at their shoreline while pretending to gossip among themselves as they stroll on the footpaths.
The mysterious connections among these characters, unknown even to themselves at first, add another dimension as well. Its redemptive power is salvation, according to director Shawn Levy.
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To Different Drummer, however the key to the entire film is that one voice can change the world. While the world crumbles around her in St. Malo, France, Marie sits in a lonely attic sending a voice of hope over the airwaves via her shortwave radio
“In this time of darkness, of invading cities, I am trying to remember that light lasts forever. Darkness not even for one second.” –Marie-Laure
And none of us should be afraid to speak the truth in our hearts. We must never allow our voices to be silenced.
Unafraid, Marie broadcasts her courage:
“I know that broadcasting could get me executed, but I will not be silenced.” Marie-Laure
Right now darkness or at least its shadow seems to invading our cities again. What part of “Never Forget” have we forgotten as human depravity is apologized away because of assumed victimhood?
All the Light We Cannot See, as well many other heart wrenching films about the Holocaust, seeks to remedy that situation.
Not to miss.
Here are a few more excellent films about the brave men, women, and children from that tragic era:
Army of Shadows (French Onion Soup)
Fugitive Pieces (Greek Spinach Pie)
The Counterfeiters (Beef Stronganoff)
Before the Fall (Baked Sauerdraut with Apples)
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (German Potato Soup)
Black Book (Dutch Fish with Edam Cheese)
The Darkest Hour (Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding)
Casablanca (Rick’s Champagne Cocktail)
Charlotte Gray ( Soupe au Pistou)
Gloomy Sunday (Hungarian Beef Roll)
Inglorious Basterds (Rote Grutze: Raspberry Dessert)
The Zookeeper’s Wife (Kielbasa and Cabbage)
–Kathy Borich
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Trailers
Film-Loving Foodie
As the days in her lonely attic drag on, fresh food and water gone, Marie gets by on the scarce remaining canned food she has left. At one point she is reduced to drinking the liquid from some tinned peaches. Later, she shares that with a surprising comrade.
Maybe you want a more elaborate French meal, one concocted to go with the novel of the same name. Filled with recipes from better times, here is a fabulous French feast, a full brown All the Light We Cannot See Luncheon from Pits and Pins.Com
It includes Bacon and Triple Cheese Quiche, Fruit, French salad, and another special cake.
For those looking for something less elaborate, we have this delicious Peach Dump Cake. It fits a smaller celebration for those exhausted residents of St. Malmo who are still alive to welcome their Americans liberators.
Peach dump Cake
Ingredients
1 29 ounce can sliced Peaches in heavy syrup, undrained
1 box yellow cake mis, 15.25 ounce size
¾ cup butter, sliced into 24 cuts
Ingredients
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Spread peaches, with liquid, into a 9×13 baking dish.
Sprinkle cake mix evenly over peaches.
Place butter evenly over the cake mix.
Bake for 40-45 minutes, until golden and bubbly. Serve warm or at room temperature.
