The Last Metro
| The Last Metro | |
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| Directed by | François Truffaut |
| Produced by | François Truffaut |
| Written by | François Truffaut Suzanne Schiffman |
| Starring | Catherine Deneuve Gérard Depardieu Jean Poiret Heinz Bennent Andréa Ferréol |
| Music by | Georges Delerue |
| Cinematography | Néstor Almendros |
| Distributed by | United Artists Classics |
| Release date(s) |  17 Sept. 1980 12 Oct. 1980(N.Y. Film Festival) |
| Running time | 131 min. |
| Language | French |
| Box office | $3,007,436[1] |
The Last Metro (original French title: Le Dernier Métro) is a 1980 film made by Les Films du Carrosse, written and directed by the French filmmaker François Truffaut, and starring Catherine Deneuve and Gérard Depardieu.[2]
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.[2][3] It received Best Foreign Film nominations in the Academy Awards[4] and Golden Globes.[5]
This film was one installment—dealing with theatre—of a trilogy on the entertainment world that Truffaut had planned.[6] The installment that dealt with the film world was 1973's La Nuit Américaine (Day for Night),[6] 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.[6] 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. The film one of the directors most successful efforts grossing $3,007,436 in the United States. As well as in France where it had 3,384,045 admissions making it one of his most successful films in his native country. [7]
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[edit] Plot
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.[2]
The title The Last Métro refers 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.[2]
[edit] Main cast
- Catherine Deneuve as Marion Steiner
- Gérard Depardieu as Bernard Granger
- Heinz Bennent as Lucas Steiner
- Jean Poiret as Jean-Loup Cottins
- Andréa Ferréol as Arlette Guillaume, the costume designer
- Paulette Dubost as Germaine Fabre, the older woman employed by the theatre
- Sabine Haudepin as Nadine Marsac, the young actress
- Jean-Louis Richard as Daxiat
- Maurice Risch as Raymond Boursier, the technician of the theatre
- Richard Bohringer as a Gestapo Officer
- László Szabó as Lieutenant Bergen
- Jean-Pierre Klein as Christian Leglise, a resistant
- Christian Baltauss as the actor replacing Bernard
- Rénata as Greta Borg, a singer in a club
[edit] Awards and nominations
- Academy Awards (USA)
- Nominated: Best Foreign Language Film
- Boston Film Critics (USA)
- Won: Best Foreign Language Film
- César Awards (France)
- Won: Best Actor – Leading Role (Gérard Depardieu)
- Won: Best Actress – Leading Role (Catherine Deneuve)
- Won: Best Cinematography (Néstor Almendros)
- Won: Best Director (François Truffaut)
- Won: Best Editing (Martine Barraqué)
- Won: Best Film
- Won: Best Music (Georges Delerue)
- Won: Best Production Design (Jean-Pierre Kohut-Svelko)
- Won: Best Sound (Michel Laurent)
- Won: Best Writing (Suzanne Schiffman and François Truffaut)
- Nominated: Best Actor – Supporting Role (Heinz Bennent)
- Nominated: Best Actress – Supporting Role (Andréa Ferréol)
- David di Donatello Awards (Italy)
- Won: Best Foreign Actress (Catherine Deneuve)
- Golden Globe Awards (USA)
- Nominated: Best Foreign Film
[edit] References
- ^ http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=lastmetro.htm
- ^ a b c d Lanzoni, Rémi Fournier (2002). French Cinema: From Its Beginnings to the Present. Continuum. pp. 314–315. ISBN 9780826416001. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Nkyr7ARHY6sC&pg=PA314.
- ^ "Palmares". Académie des César. http://www.lescesarducinema.com/#palmares. Retrieved 19 November 2008.
- ^ "Foreign Language Film (1980)". Academy Awards Database. http://awardsdatabase.oscars.org/ampas_awards/DisplayMain.jsp?curTime=1227066353099. Retrieved 19 November.
- ^ "Golden Globes, USA: 1981". IMDB. http://www.imdb.com/Sections/Awards/Golden_Globes_USA/1981. Retrieved 19 November 2008.
- ^ a b c Higgins, Lynn A. (1998). New Novel, New Wave, New Politics. University of Nebraska Press. p. 150. ISBN 9780803273092. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ses-4mfh93AC&pg=PA150.
- ^ http://www.jpbox-office.com/fichfilm.php?id=7427
[edit] External links
| Awards | ||
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| Preceded by Tess |
César Award for Best Film 1981 |
Succeeded by Quest for Fire |
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