LE DERNIER MÉTRO (The Last Metro,1980) *** Occupied Paris was a place of constant and often inconsequential intrigue, a place where no one could be trusted, where careers were destroyed on the basis of biased analyses and whispered lies...it was, then, like a big corporate boardroom. More often fatal. Catherine Deneuve is a cauldron of sophisticated strength and resolve. In such a performance it would be wrong to point to the vomiting scene as definitive. Gerard Depardieu is also brilliant, of course, with the bizarre twist that his acting, in the play within the film, is so much more passionate than his portrayal in the narrative proper. So what that's saying, maybe, is that he's even lustier than that guy on stage. Best of all is probably Heinz Bennent, who seems almost less vital once he's released from social and artificial limitation. François Truffaut's script is every bit as impressive as his impeccable direction, with the interior play running intermittent counterpoint and commentary on the film. Just tremendous. Some of the peripherals are also great; Franck Pasquier, and Jean-Pierre Klein, described as a "terrorist" by the media of the day, for fighting Nazis. Klein says a lot with a few determined and furtive glances. I wonder if his performance had any influence at all on the members of Action Directe, who several years later would take up arms against what they considered the the legacy of the Nazis. I don't think that was one of them, but Truffaut sneaks in more social commentary than usual, on media manipulation, gender inequality, and the collateral damages of infidelity.
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