Directed by Claude Autant-Lara
Written by Jean Aurenche and Pierre Bost and it was based very loosely, on the short story "La traversée de Paris" by Marcel Aymé.
The Cinematography was by Jacques Natteau, The Music by René Cloërec. Sets by Franstudio, Saint-Maurice, Val-de-Marne, France
The film stars Jean Gabin (an Original French Noir vet) as Grandgil, the painter, Bourvil (a standup comedian, radio personality, and actor - La grosse caisse, The Longest Day, Le Cercle rouge) as Marcel Martin, an unemployed taxi driver.
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| Jean Gabin as Grandgil |
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| Bourvil as Marcel Martin |
Louis de Funès as Jambier, the grocer, and Jeannette Batti as Mariette Martin, wife of Marcel. Jacques Marin as the owner of the restaurant, Saint Martin.
Story
The credits run over establishing shots using World War II newsreel and archival footage of a German military parade down the Champs-Élysées in Paris and various shots of life under the occupation.
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This segues to a Metro entrance where a blind violinist sits at the top of the stair. He's playing La Marseillaise the French national anthem.
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Out of the subway we see Marcel Martin and his wife Mariette and they split apart to let the officer past them. Mariette remarks that the violinist is brave and chastises Marcel, that he wouldn't do it.
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They head to a wine and groceries store. There's a line of folks waiting to get in. However the wife of the proprietor comes out and announces that she has nothing left to sell.
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Under German occupation in WWII, Parisians survived on a strict system of vouchers. Bread, various meats, cheeses, fats (butter, oil, lard), sugar, milk, eggs, chocolate, and flour were rationed. So Parisians faced severe malnutrition, because a lot of the agricultural output was requisitioned to feed the occupying German army. These rations provided barely the basics and many turned to foraging and also to the thriving black market to survive. This is a story of Paris and the black market.
Mariette and Martin walk past the line and stop at a side door to an alleyway. Here, Mariette informs Marcel that she'll meet him later at the restaurant.
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| Jeannette Batti as Mariette Martin |
Marcel enters the shadowy alley and knocks upon the side door to the store.
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In the basement, Marcel takes out his accordion, and the store proprietor Jambier and his father remove a hog from a wicker basket. While Marcel plays fast and loudly the others grab the squealing hog wrestle it to a board tie it down and cut its throat.
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| Jacques Marin owner of the restaurant, Saint Martin. |
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| Lampe Pigeons above center |
This, is also the first instance, where we get discussions and encounters that illustrate the various ways folks coped during the occupation.
"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." (French Cinema: From Its Beginnings to the Present - Fournier Lanzoni, Rémi (2002))
These encounters are repeatedly sprinkled throughout the film with various positions expressed on various subjects.
Mariette, is just announcing aloud to all in the restaurant that the secret police are the worst, "They're cops, cops."
About this time when Mariette says "They're cops cops," the outside door opens and a stranger walks in through the opening attracting the attention of all. He's stocky and wearing a pre-war style English sport coat with suede elbow patches over a dark shirt and and an ascot.
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Not your typical clientele. His mane is Grandgil. Two of the patrons at the bar beside Mariette and Marcel get up and immediately leave.
Grandgil: Good evening all. [looks around and sees the Lampe Pigeons] No lights?
Bartender: Its not 7 o'clock yet.
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| No Alcohol |
Grandgil: I'll have a calvados* in the dark. (*apple and pear brandy)
Bartender: No alcohol
Grandgil: No lights, no alcohol, can I at least wash my hands, no?
Bartender: Down there [nods towards the lavatory].
Grandgil walks towards the loo, and once he passes Marcel he looks at the Bartender who shrugs. Is he a cop? Then Grandgil calls out.
Grandgil: Hey patron, you don't have any soap?
Bartender [to Gandgil]: I don't sell any soap.{to Marcel and Mariette] That's not going to work twice.
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| That's not going to work twice |
About that time two uniform cops come in and order two soups. Mariette overhears that they are looking for someone who stole coal from a barge. Mariette heads to the kitchen dropping off a pakage of pork kidneys asking the cook the grill them. Then she goes to find Grandgil and gives him the bar of soap to wash his hands telling him the police are looking for a guy with coal dust on his hands.
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About that time two uniform cops come in and order two soups. Mariette overhears that they are looking for someone who stole coal from a barge. Mariette heads to the kitchen dropping off a pakage of pork kidneys asking the cook the grill them.
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Then she goes to find Grandgil and gives him the bar of soap to wash his hands telling him the police are looking for a guy with coal dust on his hands.
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She wipes some soot off his face with her handkerchief. About this time Marcel comes looking for Mariette and sees her with Grandgil. Acting a bit jealous, he escorts Mariette back to the bar mentioning that he wants to catch a movie tonight because without Letambot he can't carry 100 kilos across Paris by himself.
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Mariette tells him has other plans, which increases Marcels insecurity. Marcel continues to press Mariette about her plans.
Grandgil comes back to the bar. Walks around Marcel and Mariette and leans on the bar next to a policeman. He makes small talk with them as they finish their soups and walk back out side.
The bar owner places a coffee in front of Grandgil. Marcel walks over and asks Grandgil for the bar of soap back, he explains to Grandgil that everything that's hers is mine. Grandgil hands over the soap and thanks Mariette. She puts it in her purse, circles around Marcel and is heading for the door. Marcel runs after her.
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Marcel catches her right as she is opening the door.
Marcel: That enough Mariette.
He tells her that another man would have smacked her already. He threatens that if she goes through that door, she won't see him again.
Mariette: That sounds to good to be true.
Marcel squeezes her arm and she squeals. and he argues that he takes her to the movies when he can, and she eats every day and when it comes to feelings you couldn't find a better man. That sets mariette off.
Mariette: What are you thinking, that I can't find a passionate man? I have plenty to choose from.
Marcel: And choose them in the bathroom? Do you think I didn't see you two? [slaps her]
Mariette cries out and stomps out of the restaurant.
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Our view cuts back and everyone has been watching the dustup. Marcel turns around everyone is looking at him. He struts back into the restaurant like John Wayne, makes a formal washing of his hands declaring, "That settles that!"
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He then pauses for a sec yells Mariette and then runs back out into the darkness of the street. He yells her name again she's out of sight.
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Marcel: wait a minute, I want to talk with you.
Grandgil; I'm listening.
Marcel: Its rather confidential, would you like a drink?
Grandgil; Yes
They sit at a table, Marcel asks if he'd like a white wine. He orders two. Then sits and asks Grandgil, if he's doing anything tonight? He asks Grandgil if he's strong. Grandgil shrugs. He tells him he has a job that pays 300 francs. Grandgil looks impressed. Marcel cautions him that there's some risk involved.
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Marcel asks him if he wants dinner and they dine on the grilled kidneys and drink red wine with their diner. Marcel informs Grandgil that he invited him to dinner, because he thought he was meeting Mariette.
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Grandgil tells him Mariette is not his type, don't worry. Lastly, Marcel explains that he could be arrested and he doesn't know if he'll rat on him. Marcel then states that you don't even know my name, to which Grandgil replies "Martin."
Here we cut to Marcel and Grandgil walking the blackout streets of Paris. Grandgil asks where are we going, Marcel tells him he doesn't need to know.
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They come to the alley entrance that leads to the side door of the wine and grocery shop. Marcel gets Grandgil in by explaining the grocer that they have worked together before.
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The grocer takes them back down to the basement and begins to wrap the various cuts in muslin, while Marcel stuffs the pieces into the suitcases. When Marcel finds out that they have to carry the pig from Rue Poliveau to Rue Lepic about 6-7 kilometers, with cops and Germans everywhere, he demands more money.
Grocer Jambier: I'll give you a break, 450 francs, 900 for the two of you.
Grandgil [to grocer]: Tell me, this is number 45, isn't it?
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Grocer Jambier: Why do you ask?
Grandgil : For no reason, I already know, Mr. Jambier, 45 Rue Poliveau. 5th Arrondissement of Paris.
Marcel [to Grandgil: Quiet! [to grocer] We are talking seriously. [to grocer]
Grandgil [louder]: For Mr. Jambier 45 Rue Poliveau, me I'll take 1000 francs.
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Marcel : Ignore him give me 900 francs and I'll arrange it with him.
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Grandgil once again repeats Jambier, 45 Rue Poliveau and announces the price is now 2000 francs. Grandgil cuts open a sack of beans that spill out o the floor. Then Grandgil goes over to a Christmas ham and starts slicing on it. The grocer gives in giving Grandgil the 2000.
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As Marcel and Grandgil begin to climb out of the cellar, Grandgil yells out drops the suitcases he's carrying and tells Jambier that they are heavier than he thought and he wants 2000 more francs. Jambier refuses and Grandgil starts yelling Jambier, louder and louder until Mrs Jamier pokes her head down into the cellar and tells them to be quite they can hear you everywhere.
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| Louis de Funès as Jambier |
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Jambier peels more bills off his wad and gives them to Grandgil.
They take off into Noirsville Paris.
Noirsville
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Claude Autant-Lara crafted an interesting Noir that explored the dark side of the occupation that was a more realistic telling of how the populace coped with rationing and blackouts rather than those that came before.
The original short story had quite a different ending, a real Noir denouement. So, from watching the film you wonder if Autant-Lara was originally playing it straight, and going for that.
Without reading the short story, you get the idea that maybe the Mariette / Grandgil subplot, and the scene where Grandgil, is overheard by Mariette suspiciously speaking German on the phone to someone, and then relaying that info to Marcel was originally going to be a leadup to the short story's deadly confrontation at Grandgil's apartment. (BTW that phone call was to a German friend of Grandgil who he was curiously asking who the author of the German poem he recited earlier was).
Gabin and Bourvil are great together, and there are a lot of the studio sets used that give us a surreal, expressionist, representation of Paris for most of the film. The archival establishing shots of the occupation and the closing shots of the liberation along with the epilog at Gare de Lyon, Paris were obviously filmed on location. 7.5-8/10
From IMDb -
8/10
Marché noir.
I can think of no other director at the time with the exception perhaps of Julien Duvivier, who would have dared to make this film other than the 'bourgeois anarchiste' Claude Autant-Lara.
The subject of black market profiteering during the Occupation together with the suggestion that French resistance was anything but unified was strictly taboo but its hard-hitting honesty struck a chord with Gallic audiences and the film was a huge success. Even the arrogant young critic of Cahiers du Cinéma, Francois Truffaut, one of this director's staunchest detractors, was surprisingly full of praise, citing the film's 'insistent ferocity.'
The black market is matched by the black humour of the screenplay by Pierre Bost and Jean Aurenche, adapted from Marcel Aymé's story. Even Autant-Lara could only go so far however and the original story's grim ending has been changed to one that is far happier.
The popularity of the film must surely lie in Autant-Lara's casting of the two protagonists Jean Gabin and Bourvil. This was their only film together and the pairing is inspired. Bourvil's innate naiveté contrasts with Gabin's world-weary cynicism and their artistry is superlative.
The film is also of great interest technically as the pair's eight kilometre curfew-defying odyssey across Paris carrying four cases stuffed full of black market pork, is filmed almost entirely in the studio but this works courtesy of Max Douy's sets and Jacques Nattier's 'noirish' lighting. Indeed the lighting of the scene where Martin and Grangil are arrested reminds one very much of German Expressionism.
There are no heroes here, just fallible human beings with all their vices and virtues, trying to survive as best they can. Everyone has to eat after all and as George Bernard Shaw observed: "There is no love more sincere than the love of food'.
brogmiller
Mar 1, 2022
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