La Traversée de Paris (1956) - film review

During the Nazi occupation of France, Marcel Martin earns a living by delivering black market products across Paris during the nighttime curfew.  He meets up with Grandgil, a man who appears to be in the same line of work, and suggests that he helps him in his latest job, to carry several suitcases stuffed with pig meat across the city.  With some show of reluctance, and having conned the meat supplier out of several thousand francs, Grandgil agrees and the two men begin their errand.  To Martin’s chagrin, things do not go according to plan.  They are constantly trailed by hordes of hungry dogs and Grandgil deals with a policeman by knocking him unconscious.  Then it turns out that Grandril is actually a famous and fairly well-off artist who agreed to help Martin only out of a morbid sense of curiosity.   Finally, the two men  run into a squad of German police and are taken back to their headquarters for interrogation. It appears that Martin’s luck – such as it was – has finally run out...

This popular wartime classic brings together two of France’s best-loved performers, Jean Gabin and Bourvil, who complement one another perfectly as a pair of unlikely blackmarket operators.  Gabin, who is better known as a straight actor, shows a surprising flair for comedy, although it is naturally Bourvil, arguably the most likeable actor in French cinema, who steals the film with his familiar avuncular portrayal of an ordinary man who gets in way out of his depth.  This formidable duo is joined by another star-in-the-making, Louis de Funès, who would ultimately eclipse Bourvil and become the most popular French comic actor of his time.  De Funès and Bourvil would form a legendary partnership in two of the most popular French films of all - Le Corniaud (1965) and La Grande vadrouille (1966).

At the time when La Traversée de Paris was made, the Occupation was still pretty much a taboo subject in France.  Needless to say, when this film was released in 1956, just over a decade years after the Liberation, it was widely reviled.  It presented a view of the Occupation that, whilst accurate in retrospect, had never before been seen in French cinema and which was simply too much for many to stomach.   Gabin’s character was a particular target for scorn, representing a cynical free-thinking attitude that could only be regarded as dangerous and anti-Republican.  The film tarnished further the reputation of its director, Claude Autant-Lara, who was already considered a provocateur, earning himself widespread condemnations for his somewhat cynical portrayal of the Church, the State and the military in his films.

© James Travers 2000

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