La Traversée de Paris
1956 Comedy / War / Drama
|
Credits
|
|
|
Summary
At the time of the Nazi occupation of France, Marcel Martin earns a living by transporting
black market products across Paris during the night curfew. He meets up with Grandgil,
a man who appears to be in the same line of work, and suggests that he helps him in his
latest job, to carry several suitcases stuffed with pig meat across the city. With
some show of reluctance, and having conned the meat supplier out of several thousand francs,
Grandgil agrees and the two men begin their errand. To Martin’s chagrin, things
do not go according to plan. They are constantly trailed by hordes of hungry dogs
and Grandgil deals with a policeman by knocking him unconscious. Then it turns out
that Grandril is actually a famous and fairly well-off artist who agreed to help Martin
only out of a morbid sense of curiosity. Finally, the two men run into
a squad of German police and are taken back to their headquarters for interrogation. It
appears that Martin’s luck - such as it was - has finally run out...
Review
The bringing together of two great comic actors of the calibre of Jean Gabin and Bourvil
could not fail to be great success, but this film surpasses the audience’s expectations
by several hundred kilometres. For both actors, this is a real tour de force.
Bourvil is the hapless stooge to Gabin’s outrageously forceful character, and the
double act is unbelievably funny. One can’t help but have pity for the poor
unemployed Parisian as his night-time trudge across Paris is turned into his worst nightmare.
Whilst much of the humour is in the performance of its two stars (joined by Louis de Funès in that amazing cellar scene near the start of the film), the script is well-written and genuinely funny in places. The menace is there all the same, and this is heightened by the darkened sets representing a deserted Paris, resounding with the distant tread of the German patrols. The last twenty minutes of the film is a distinct contrast to what preceded it, and the humour appears to fade very quickly into drama. Luckily, our heroes emerge unscathed, but the threat of what might have been substantially changes one’s view of the film. Needless to say, when this film was released in 1956, scarcely 10 years after the end of the Second World War, it was widely reviled. It presented a view of the occupation that, whilst honest and accurate in retrospect, had never before been seen in French cinema and which was simply too much for many to stomach. Gabin’s character was a particular target for scorn, representing a cynical free-thinking attitude that could only be regarded as dangerous and anti-Republican. The film’s director, Claude Autant-Lara, should be credited with immense courage in presenting to the French people his perception of the war, unadulterated by the constraints of convention. That he should achieve this through one of the funniest of French films is a great achievement.© James Travers 2000 Write a review for this film... |
|
