La linea di demarcazione

As is well documented Claude Chabrol made some pretty awful films in the 1960's before hitting the jackpot with 'Les Biches'. The film under review however is decidedly one of the better ones from that 'fallow' period. Based upon the memoirs of Colonel Remy, one of the many pseudonyms of famed resistance operator Gilbert Regnault and filmed in black and white by Jean Rabier, it deals with life in a French village under the Nazis. The capitulation of France in 1940 and the 'behaviour' of its citizens under the occupation has always been highly emotive and opinions are sharply divided. People are people of course and were our country to have been occupied I have no doubt that some would have resisted and some collaborated while most would have simply looked on from the sidelines.

This is a gripping, visceral piece with excellent work from Maurice Ronet, Jean Seberg, Daniel Gélin and Stéphane Audran. Miss Seberg is especially touching in her role and the final sequence involving Ronet packs a punch. There is also a strong performance from Noel Roquevert as the innkeeper and a chilling turn by Jean-Louis Maury as a Gestapo agent.

Marcel Ophuls' damning documentary about life in occupied France, 'The Sorrow and the Pity', came out three years later which compelled director Jean-Pierre Melville to attempt to redress the balance by making the brilliant 'Army in the Shadows'. Although Chabrol's film cannot begin to match the power of Melville's masterpiece, there are scenes and characters that will stay with you. Chabrol came full circle in 1993 with the excellent 'L'Oeil de Vichy'.