Main Cast: Catherine Deneuve, Gérard Depardieu, Jean Poiret, Heinz Bennent, Andréa Ferréol
Release Year: 1980
Country: FR
Run Time: 135 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
The Last Metro is set virtually in its entirety in a crumbling French theatre. During the Nazi occupation, Jewish director Lucas Steiner (Heinz Bennent) hides in the basement of the theatre, while his wife Marion (Catherine Deneuve) stars in its latest production. Marion is enamored of leading man Bernard Granger (Gerard Depardieu), and he with her, but they resist temptation out of respect to her husband. When she is given a choice between loyalty to her husband and to her countrymen, her dilemma offers two logical solutions--both of which are acted out on stage during the play. This Pirandellian ending aside, The Last Metro is one of the few films to accurately capture the feeling of what it was like to live in Paris under the thumb of the Nazis. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
One of France's greatest and most popular filmmakers, François Truffaut was never as overtly political as his contemporary Jean-Luc Godard. Truffaut was the subject of some criticism for his apolitical stance, particularly amidst the social upheaval of the 1960s; his response to the idea that art should have an expressly political purpose did not come until the end of his career, with 1980's Le Dernier Métro (The Last Metro). The story of a working theater and its players during the Nazi occupation of Paris, the film examines the nature of art and how it interacts with political commitment. The film is the director's final notable work before his death in 1984, and unlike Louis Malle and his occupation-era movie Au Revoir Les Enfants, Truffaut never goes for a straight-out emotional punch; he's more self-conscious. The film was a significant hit at the time -- no wonder, considering the collection of talent involved in its making. In front of the camera were two of France's most respected stars, Catherine Deneuve (Belle de Jour, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg) and Gérard Depardieu (Cyrano de Bergerac), and film was shot by the extraordinary Nestor Almendros (My Night at Maud's, Days of Heaven). ~ Brendon Hanley, All Movie Guide
In 1981, the film won ten Césars for: best film, best actor (Depardieu), best actress (Deneuve), best cinematography, best director (Truffaut), best editing, best music, best production design, best sound and best writing.[1][2] It received Best Foreign Film nominations in the Academy Awards[3] and Golden Globes.[4]
This film was one installment—dealing with theatre—of a trilogy on the entertainment world that Truffaut had planned.[5] The installment that dealt with the film world was 1973's La Nuit Américaine (Day for Night),[5] which had been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Truffaut completed the screenplay for the third installment, L'Agence Magique, which would have dealt with the world of music hall.[5] In the late 1970s he was close to beginning filming, but the failure of his film The Green Room forced him to look to a more commercial project, and he filmed Love on the Run instead.
Set during the German occupation of Paris during the Second World War, it tells the story of Lucas Steiner, a Jewish theatre director and his Gentile wife, Marion Steiner, who struggles to keep him concealed from the Nazis in their theatre cellar while she performs his former job both as an actress and directing the company.[1]
The title The Last Métro (the last underground train) is a referral to the fact that during the occupation it was imperative that Parisians catch the last train (Métro) home. This was to avoid breaking the strict curfew imposed by the Nazis. During the winter months of occupied Paris, there was no way to obtain coal and the only manner in which people could keep warm was attending plays in theatres which ended just before the last train left.
As in Truffaut's earlier film Jules et Jim, there is a love triangle between the three principal characters: Marion Steiner (Deneuve), her husband Lucas (Heinz Bennent) and Bernard Granger (Depardieu), an actor in the theatre's latest production.[1]
