La Traversée de Paris (film)

La Traversée de Paris

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Claude Autant-Lara
Produced by Henry Deutschmeister
Screenplay by Jean Aurenche
Pierre Bost
Based on "La Traversée de Paris" by Marcel Aymé
Starring Jean Gabin
Bourvil
Louis de Funès
Music by René Cloërec
Cinematography Jacques Natteau
Edited by Madeleine Gug
Production
company
Franco-London Film
Continentale Produzione
Distributed by S.N.A Gaumont
Release dates
 26 October 1956 (France)
Running time
 80 minutes
Country France
Italy
Language French
Box office $18,297 (US re-release)[1]

La Traversée de Paris ("the trip across Paris") is a 1956 French comedy-drama directed by Claude Autant-Lara, starring Jean Gabin, Bourvil and Louis de Funès. The film is known under the titles: "Four Bags Full" (USA), "Pig Across Paris" (UK), "The Trip Across Paris" (International English title).[2] It is set in occupied Paris in 1942 and tells the story of two men who defy the curfew to deliver pork for the black market. The film is based on the short story "La traversée de Paris" by Marcel Aymé.

The film competed at the 17th Venice International Film Festival, where Bourvil won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor. The cynical portrayal of the occupation era was unconventional and made the film controversial upon the original release.

Plot

Action takes place in Paris during WWII in 1942. Unemployed Taxi-Driver, Marcel Martin makes his living delivering parcels on the black market. One day, he must carry by foot, to the other side of the capital, four suitcases containing pork meat. He goes to the basement of a grocer named Jambier and plays the accordion while the animal is butchered.

Martin then goes with his wife Mariette to the restaurant where he must find his accomplice. He learns that he has been arrested by the police. A stranger then enters the restaurant and on a misunderstanding, Martin invited him to share his meal and to work with him replacing his former accomplice.

This decision is quickly turning out as calamitous as this new character, named Grandgil, isn't very compliant. He first asks for a drastic increase in salary terrorizing the unfortunate grocer Jambier. Then he almost damages the bar, where the two accomplices are hiding from the police, and calls the patrons "poor cowards".

Grandgil then almost knocks-off a policeman in Martin's neighborhood. And later when escaping a German patrol, they end up taking refuge in the apartment of Grandgil, where Martin is stunned to discover that Grandgil is in fact a famous painter of some renown who has agreed to follow along mainly for his own entertainment.

Nevertheless continuing their path, they finally arrive at the delivery but find the door locked. Then they make such a racket that a German patrol arrives. In the Kommandantur where they are taken, a German officer recognizes the famous painter Grandgil ; and he is about to release both of them when an announcement of the assassination of a German colonel changes the situation allowing him only to save in extremis Grandgil, while Martin is sent to Germany for Compulsory Work Service (STO).

The years pass. War is over, and we find Grandgil on a platform in Paris station Gare de Lyon followed by a carrier bag. Then on top of the window of the car, suddenly Grandgil recognizes Martin, as always carrying other people's suitcases.

Cast

Production

The film is based on Marcel Aymé's short story "La traversée de Paris", featured in the 1947 collection Le vin de Paris. The production was led by France's Franco-London-Film in collaboration with Italy's Continentale Produzione. Photography took place from 7 April to 9 June 1956. The film was shot entirely in studio, at Franstudio's facilities in Saint-Maurice, Val-de-Marne.[3]

Release

The premiere took place at the 17th Venice International Film Festival where the film played in the main competition. It was released in France on 26 October the same year, distributed by Gaumont.[3] It had 4,895,769 admissions in France.[4]

Reception

Critical response

François Truffaut wrote in 1956: "I admire, without any real reservations, La Traversée de Paris. I think it's a complete success because Autant-Lara has finally found the subject he's been waiting for—a plot that is made in his own image, a story that his truculence, tendency toward exaggeration, roughness, vulgarity, and outrage, far from serving badly, elevates to an epic. ... A verve much like Céline's and an insistent ferocity dominate the movie, but it is saved from meanness by a few emotional notes that overwhelm us, particularly those in the final scenes."[5]

Accolades

Bourvil received the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival.[6] The French Syndicate of Cinema Critics gave the film its award for best French film of the year.[3] Gabin was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actor.[7]

Legacy

The film was initially controversial in France as it broke several taboos in its depiction of the occupation. Earlier depictions had been heroic dramas and made the French Resistance appear as almost unanimously supported by the public. La Traversée de Paris broke new ground with its use of dark humour, its depiction of cynical black-market trade, its portrayal of collaborators as ordinary people and by refraining from portraying any part as innocent victims. Later critics have noted that this picture of the era is far more nuanced than the conventional ones. The film was also important for Bourvil's career and established him as a major actor.[6]

References

  1. ↑ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=main&id=apigacrossparis.htm
  2. ↑ La Traversée de Paris at the Internet Movie Database
  3. 1 2 3 "La traversée de Paris". cinema.encyclopedie.films.bifi.fr (in French). Cinémathèque Française. Retrieved 2015-07-25.
  4. ↑ "La Traversée de Paris". AlloCiné (in French). Tiger Global. Retrieved 2015-07-25.
  5. ↑ Truffaut, François (2014) [1978]. The Films in My Life. New York City: Diversion Books. ISBN 978-1-62681-396-0.
  6. 1 2 Fournier Lanzoni, Rémi (2002). French Cinema: From Its Beginnings to the Present. New York City: Continuum. pp. 168–170. ISBN 0-8264-1399-4.
  7. ↑ "Foreign Actor in 1958". awards.bafta.org. British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Retrieved 2015-07-25.

External links

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