Discuss The Last Metro
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The most unbelievable part of the movie actually happened
posted by rooprectSTAFFMOD on November 9, 2023 at 2:05 AM
Loved this movie, but one scene stood out as bizarre. It's when the actor Bernard starts a fight with Daxiat (collaborator with the Nazis) over an insulting review Daxiat wrote about the play. Sure, it makes sense in the movie and definitely fits Bernard's character as the impulsive idealist, but I kept thinking it was really stupid of him, no one would ever do that. As Marion points out afterward, by assaulting such a powerful figure he not only puts his own life in danger but he might get the entire theater scrapped.
Well as it turns out, this event actually happened! In the bonus interview Truffaut says most of this movie was taken from real life accounts during the Occupation, and that particular scene happened. The character "Bernard" was actor Jean Marais, and "Daxiat" was critic Alain Laubreaux who was a collaborator with the Nazis. Laubreaux wrote a scathing review about Cocteau's plays, slamming Cocteau over political ideology. Jean Marais (Cocteau's lover at the time) confronted Laubreaux at a restaurant in Paris on June 22, 1941 and punched him out.
Wow my respect for Jean Marais just jumped. I was already a fan of his from Orpheus and Beauty & the Beast, but to learn he was a man of principle brave enough to beat up a Nazi collaborator during the Occupation makes me admire the guy on a whole new level.
Also it's pretty cool knowing that the character Bernard (played by Gerard Depardieu) is Jean Marais and I suppose that would mean Marion (Catherine Deneuve) is Cocteau, at least for this subplot. Time to watch this movie again with that in mind. Great movie especially after you learn the historical context!
Reply by RockySullivan
on November 9, 2023 at 11:27 AM
Add on if you like....
Reply by rooprect
on November 9, 2023 at 11:39 AM
I totally agree, and tbh I avoid Nazi/Holocaust films for that reason. Not that they're bad, but it's usually exhausting. I didn't know what The Last Metro was about before I watched it, I avoided the description & trailer. I watched it simply because it's a Truffaut film.
Of the ones you listed I've only seen Life is Beautiful which, again, I didn't know was a Holocaust film. I really liked it. Maybe a lot of the exhausting 1st half syndrome can be avoided by not knowing it's coming. Like here in The Last Metro it came as a total surprise when it's revealed who's hiding in the basement, so my interest was actually piqued at that point.
For me this brings up a funny irony: although I avoid Nazi/Holocaust films, I end up really enjoying the ones I see by mistake. Movies like Europa Europa, To Be or Not To Be, and the play adaptation Good are some of my fave flicks, though I never would've watched them had I known what they were about. Same thing with "coming of age" films, the subject bores me so I avoid them, but when I see one by mistake I almost always love it. The moral of the story: going into a movie blind is almost always better than having expectations.
Reply by RockySullivan
on November 10, 2023 at 5:17 AM
Yeah, I tend to avoid the Holocaust films almost by habit myself, so I might shy away from Europa Europa, given that pointer. I do appreciate that, thanks.