The people under the war before the "Last Subway" , the love under the war, and the ordinary life under the war. In the days full of wars, you can imagine how brave the soldiers on the front line resisted the enemy. But perhaps what is often overlooked is the ordinary life of citizens in the war years. Although the smoke of war is in the air of life, everyone's life is still going on unhurriedly, with laughter, sorrow, bitterness, and surprise. What's different from the past is that there was a layer of ambiguity in life during that period of war.
In September 1942, the German army occupied most of the northern part of France. In such an urban area full of Nazi flags, the people of Paris still used their most petty bourgeoisie to wash away the effects of the war. In this context, the Montmartre Theatre still rehearses the Norwegian writer's "Missing Woman". However, due to the influence of the war, Steiner, as the owner of the theater, had to hide in the cellar of the theater all day because of his Jewish identity to assist his beautiful wife Marion to complete the rehearsal. But his wife Marion fell in love with the romantic actor Bernard in this way. On the one hand, she returned to her husband at night and performed the duties of a wife, listening to her husband's views on the daytime rehearsal; on the other hand, she tried her best to conceal her true love for the actor Bernard. In the days of war, Bernard chose to leave after a successful performance. Until the end of the war, the theater owner Steiner walked out of the dark cellar, Bernard returned to the theater, and finally after the performance of the new play, Marion held the hands of the two people ambiguously.
As one of the founders of French "New Wave" movies, FRANCOIS TRUFFAUT brought us such a film in his later years, with the background of World War II, telling the joys and sorrows of the little people under the war. The excellent film "Dernier métro, Le" ("Dernier métro, Le"), the film premiered in 1980, won ten awards at the French Film Caesar Award and also won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Nominate. Can be described as well deserved. Although this film is slightly hypocritical and low-key compared to Truffaut's early works, such as "Four Hundred Strikes", it still quietly left a mark in the history of French cinema with an undercurrent.
Although it was the war years, the director abandoned the pure description of war that everyone was keen on, and instead focused on the living conditions of the citizens of Paris under the war. Indeed, despite the war, everyone’s lives are still going on in an orderly manner. The people still have the mind to go to nightclubs to enjoy, they still line up to buy tickets to the theater to watch performances, and they still stand in the streets and talk about gossip news...but don’t think that everyone has forgotten. The existence of war, on the contrary, everyone is silently expressing their anger towards the Nazis in their most accustomed way: a mother angrily said "go back and wash her hair" after a Nazi officer touched her son's head; Bernard was in a nightclub When storing the hat, when I saw that I was going to put it together with the Nazi military hat, I left angrily...It can be said that the film shows us a real picture of the life of the citizens in the context of war. It can be said that Truffaut's goal has been achieved in order to shoot a calm art film.
Women in love, especially married women. This is a type of genre that Truffau likes to pay attention to very much. For Truffau, who has read a lot of literary books since childhood and was deeply influenced by the great writer Balzac, it has become a way to depict the emotional changes in women's hearts with delicate shooting techniques. A major feature of his film. In this "Last Train", Marion, who is also a temporary theater owner and actress, is one of the female characters successfully portrayed by it. Marion in the movie is strong, courageous, and wise, yet showing feminine tenderness and grace everywhere. She dedicated herself to running the war-time theater for her husband, resisting the criticism of the vulgar Nazi running dog, and risking to see her husband every night. But at the same time, she was also dealing with the ambiguous relationship between her and the actor Bernard. She was trying to hide her feelings for Bernard. She tried her best to ask for this kind of love that shouldn't appear, but the more she escaped, the stronger her desire. During the rehearsal. The classic line "I am not qualified to love or be loved" is the best portrayal of her inner feelings. Truffaut also used a very ambiguous shooting technique. The red set and red dress were filled with ambiguous red, and he still fell out of suspense. In the first hour of the film, he just arranged Marion like a dragonfly. Several ambiguous glances at Bernard. The final real climax was the kiss from Marion after the curtain call for the first performance. Their feelings have indeed been sublimated here, but it also means that it ends instantly like a firework. This is a dramatic scene, just like the final play in the film, Marion takes the hands of her husband and the man she once loved so much.
Many critics accused this film of not continuing the previous Truffaut style. But I think, just like the meaningful curtain call at the end of the film, Truffau may be just like he is in his old age, and he also hopes to pursue an ambiguous lifestyle that belongs to him.
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