The Last Metro

The last film I'll be discussing in my series on Francois Truffaut is 1980's The Last Metro, which was not his last film, but the last that is available on DVD. It is to theater what Day for Night was to film; a backstage romance that has the added element of being set during the Nazi occupation of Paris.

Catherine Deneuve is an actress of major accomplishment who is running her husband's theater after he flees the country. But quickly we discover he has not fled--he's hiding in the theater's basement. He is able to listen to rehearsals through a heating event, and gives notes to Deneuve who shares with them with the unknowing cast. As with Truffaut having his director character deaf in Day for Night, this is an interesting commentary on the limited power of the director.

The lead male in the play is Gerard Depardieu, who at first balks at taking the part, since the theater will not hire Jews. It is explained to him that they have no choice, or will they not receive permission from an unctuous arts commissioner. Depardieu and Deneuve are respectful to each other, but over the course of the film will fall in love, even while Depardieu secretly works for the resistance and Deneuve dutifully attends to her husband.

There are other subplots involving other members of the cast, including a lesbian designer, a gay director, and a stagehand who works wonders but dates a girl who ends up being a thief. The look of the picture is old-fashioned and luscious, evoking a period of time in which people went to the theater to stay warm, as they didn't have enough coal to heat their own homes. After the show, they had to make sure to catch the last train, or metro, home, so as not to defy the curfew.

When I saw this film the first time, back in college, I was knocked out by it, especially by the tricky ending. This time I found it more perfunctory. Maybe it's because I've seen a lot more "hiding from Nazi" pictures. Deneuve's husband (Heinz Bennent) really is no danger--the one time the Nazis come to look they easily hide him--instead this movie is really just a series of anecdotes that just happens to be set during 1942. It's hard to pinpoint the exact spine of the picture.

The film did receive an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film, and swept the Cesar Awards. It was one of Truffaut's most successful films.