Film Review
Coming not long after Spielberg's
Schindler's
List (1993), Sébastien Grall's
Les Milles offers a similarly
moving account of one man's solo stand against Hitler's Final Solution,
although being a more modest French production it attracted far less
attention and was soon forgotten. Like Oskar Schindler, Charles
Perrochon deserves the film that records for posterity his noble act of
humanity. A veteran of the First World War and a milliner by
trade, Perrochon suffered from a severe respiratory condition that made
him an unlikely choice to take charge of a French refugee camp at the
start of WWII. Little is known about Perrochon, and the motive
behind his decision to defy his superiors and save his internees rather
than hand them over to the Nazis is a matter of conjecture. In
Grall's film, Perrochon's ordinariness is emphasised by Jean-Pierre
Marielle's tacitly true-to-life portrayal, and it appears that an old
fashioned notion of honour, rather than simply compassion for one's
fellow man, was what led Perrochon to do what he did. Perrochon
both prefigures and epitomises the spirit of the Resistance movement
that would become active in France throughout the Occupation. How
strange that Perrochon and his remarkable act of subordination should
be so little known about.
The main virtue of
Les Milles
is that it preserves the memory of Perrochon whilst reminding us that
France's surrender to Germany in June 1940 was not a case of universal
and instant submission. As a piece of cinema, it is not without
its shortcomings, however. On the plus side, the film shows a
remarkable attention to period detail and gives an authentic taste not
only of life in an internment camp (later to become a transit camp for
Jews en route for Auschwitz) but also the mood in France during those
chaotic weeks preceding the signing of the armistice. Perhaps too
wary of the weight of the subject matter, Grall and his screenwriter
Jean-Claude Grumberg deal with it in a fairly light vein, albeit
without the comic excesses of Radu Mihaileanu's subsequent and
similarly themed
Train de vie (1998). The
downside is that all of the characters other than Perrochon lack depth
and veer towards lazy caricature (Philippe Noiret's spineless officer,
the moral counterpoint of Perrochon, being a case in point), and the
sense of peril is downplayed to the point that there is a dearth of
dramatic tension, something that is painfully evident in the more
action-oriented second half. Visually striking though the film
is, it comes across as a lightweight made-for-television movie that is
too scared of dwelling on the horrors of the Holocaust, although it
certainly deserves some recognition for tackling what was, at the time
(and to some extent still is), one of the most sensitive episodes in
French history. The final caption stating how far the Vichy
régime was prepared to go to appease its Nazi overlords in
Berlin cannot fail to bring a lump to the throat.
It is easy to fault the script and Grall's mostly uninspired direction,
which both betray a reluctance to get too close to the subject, but
Jean-Pierre Marielle's central performance is beyond reproach and gives
the film the iron backbone it so badly needs. With a versatility
that makes him appear equally at home in comedy and drama, Marielle is
one of France's most accomplished screen actors, and here he lives up
to this reputation with what is possibly the best character portrayal
of his career. His Charles Perrochon is not a hero in the
conventional sense, but a principled man whose sense of duty was bound
up with the values of the French Republic rather than compliance with
the grubby business of realpolitik. At the start of the film,
Perrochon does not see his camp's internees as individuals; he regards
them only as part of a logistical problem that he has to deal with to
the best of his abilities. Their welfare becomes his
responsibility, and when the French government does its shameless
volte-face, agreeing to ship its refugees to the Nazi concentration
camps, he remains true to the trust that has been conferred on
him. There are moments when Perrochon reveals his humanity (most
vividly in a few scenes with a feisty American journalist played by a
young Kristin Scott Thomas), but what we see for the most part is a man
of honour who acts as he does so as not to disgrace his country.
Perrochon's morality is founded on an idea of patriotism of which,
ironically, Maréchal Pétain would have approved.
© James Travers 2015
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Film Synopsis
Early in June 1940, Commandant Charles Perrochon is placed in charge of
an interment camp built on the site of a disused tile factory in Les
Milles, a small town in the south of France. The prisoners
include Jewish and political refugees from Germany, Poland and Austria
who fled to France to escape Nazi persecution at the start of
WWII. Among them are many world leaders in the fields of science
and literature, even two Nobel Prize winners. A consummate
professional, Perrochon discharges his duties with dispassionate
rigour. As far as he is concerned, the camp's internees are not
prisoners but displaced persons placed under his care, and he can
foresee no circumstance under which France would return them to Nazi
Germany. But on 22nd June, France signs an armistice with Germany
with an undertaking to hand over all refugees to the Nazis.
Perrochon not only defies this commitment, he organises a train to take
the most vulnerable men in his camp to Bayonne, where they will be able
to take a boat to Morocco to live out the war in safety. As the
train departs, laden with refugees half-suspecting they have been
duped, Perrochon anxiously awaits the outcome, satisfied that he has
done his duty.
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.