“Le Faux Soir” sources its high concept — hijacking state media propaganda’s fake news to tell the truth — from Second World War history. In 1943, disgruntled anarchist and poet Marc Aubrion (Arieh Worthalter) is recruited by the Belgian Resistance, which publishes its own underground newspaper. Marc’s brainwave is to reach outside the bubble of their already-captured readership by printing a fake edition of “Le Soir” — a once-venerable newspaper publishing Nazi propaganda under direct Gestapo supervision — to reach citizens the Resistance otherwise never would. A stolid two-plus hours directed with some surface frills by Michaël R. Roskam (“Bullhead,” “The Drop”), “Le Faux Soir” will appeal to elderly audiences hungry for low-impact prestige period fare with a reassuring message.
Looking like Jon Hamm in full “Mad Men” hangover mode, Worthalter draws on the surly, unceasingly confrontational energy he brought to 2023’s “The Goldman Case,” once again an outraged citizen revolting against an unjust state. Under the Gestapo’s occupying eye, Worthalter has limited his protest activities to writing scatalogically insulting poetry against them, then distributing it surreptitiously by tucking it into randomly pulled volumes from library stacks. His clumsily administered provocations draw the attention of a more organized Resistance coalition, who want to make use not of his poetry but his skills as a printer.
