The Elusive Corporal

This was a very fine swan song for Jean Renoir's directorial career. It is both serious and humorous at the same time. The film contains a great deal of original news footage relating to the Second World War and the Occupation of Paris, much or all of which seems not to have been made public elsewhere. In order to blend in seamlessly with the news footage, Renoir chose to make the film itself in black and white. The original title of the film is LE CAPORAL ÉPINGLÉ, and the English title is a translation of that. Young and little known at the time, Jean-Pierre Cassel was cast as the corporal, and that worked perfectly. The story starts with the surrender of the French to the Nazis, and we see the surrender documents being signed in the very same railway carriage which was used for the Germans to sign their surrender at the end of World War I. Then we see the Nazis marching into Paris and from an oncoming sea of German soldiers Renoir cuts to an oncoming sea of bedraggled French soldiers. Despite the fact that France has surrendered, the French soldiers are being imprisoned in camps and treated as prisoners of war. The story starts there. Cassell becomes a serial escaper, escaping over and over again in ingenious ways, but is always recaptured. It is funny but also tragic, because all the imprisoned French are wasting away with insufficient food and brutal punishments. The film is historically informative and has particular value for that. But the human relationships and interactions are fascinating and the film is absorbing and enjoyable. The daring and imagination shown in the escape attempts is often astonishing. The story is based upon a novel by Jacques Perret, and that in turn was based upon real people and events. Certainly this film fills in a gap in our knowledge of the French experience of defeat. And Renoir has made a testament to human resilience and ingenuity.