Although most Europeans see everything as political, François Truffaut is best known for his more personal films--the ones filmed at his favorite Parisian locales dealing with relationships and matters of the heart. In making a film about occupied France, he stays close to known territory by choosing a story set within his beloved Montmarte artistic community and strives to show how everyday life went on during the German occupation. Inevitably The Last Metro (Le Dernier Métro) is often seen as his most political film, but Truffaut deliberately avoids ideology and heroism to paint his picture of Parisian theater during the Occupation. The film plays much like a fictional account of Marcel Ophuls' The Sorrow and the Pity, which Truffaut considered the "first film to show this period in French history as a'nonlegendary story.'"

Truffaut actually drew from a variety of source materials in creating the screenplay, delving into documents from the period, journalistic pieces, old posters, memoirs, Jean Renoir's play Carola, and a novel with a character that turns into his protagonist--a beautiful actress who carries on her work in the presence of German officers while her Jewish husband hides in the theater basement. Truffaut also read accounts of actors and theater people to gather details on backstage life and incorporated his own remembrances of the period to put together the screenplay, along with Suzanne Schiffman and Jean-Claude Grumberg.

Truffaut uses maps and narration to show how France was split up during WWII and goes on to explain how Parisians continued to go to the theaters for both entertainment and temporary shelter. Not that the theater provided a refuge--the Germans love culture, but they despise Jews so much that they can neither direct, act in, or even attend a play (curfew laws applied with extreme discrimination). Representing Nazi extremism is journalist/theater critic Daxiat (Jean-Louis Richard), who must be sucked up to in order for a theater to gain a permit--precisely the position in which the Théâtre Montmartre finds itself.

Jewish theater owner/director Lucas Steiner (Heinz Bennent) must hide in the cellar to avoid one way passage to a concentration camp, so his Aryan wife/leading actress Marion (Catherine Deneuve) takes over the business portion by day, sneaking conjugal visits by night while maintaining a suite at the Hotel Neuf. As far as the Nazis know, Steiner has escaped France; only his wife knows his true whereabout--in Occupied France no one can be trusted with such secrets, not when informers can be rewarded.

Marion hires Grand Guigol actor Bernard Granger (Gérard Depardieu) for the lead in the next production, Disappearance, which will be guided largely by Lucas' handwritten notes. A well-established ladies man, Granger likewise has a secret: He is a member of the Resistance, so it is no surprise that he and Marion will eventually be drawn together. Both hate the Nazis, but Marion favors keeping a low profile so she can keep the theater running, while Bernard terrorizes them with explosive devices. Don't expect a lot of fireworks on the screen sparked from Marion's love affair with Bernard--it's greatly underplayed, and it takes Marion's husband to first point out to her that Bernard has fallen for her.

Deneuve naturally carries the film, as we'd expect from an actress of her stature. Truffaut always had her in mind for the character, thinking that she would be ideal to play the energetic but aloof woman upon which the entire film depends. She delivers well as the central figure wedged between her steadfast loyalty and her new love interest, and shows her conflict without melodrama. Deneuve is so restrained with her body language that we discover she has a growing fondness for Depardieu's character only by observing the small gestures. That is in keeping with Truffaut's own nature, as he was quietly and privately a lover of most of his leading ladies(Deneuve included).

Since his interview book, Truffaut had been associated with Alfred Hitchcock, and the French director incorporates Hitchcockian elements in his film. Touches of dry humor energize the moderate pacing, such as Granger's standard pick up lines that are soon learned by the women in the theater, and Granger's discovery of why Arlette Guillaume (Andréa Ferréol) continually refuses his advances. The character-driven story also contains its share of suspense, most notably when the German Gestapo agents decide that they need to check the basement. Ironically, Hitchcock died just days after Truffaut finished shooting The Last Metro, making subsequent visits to Hollywood far less pleasurable for Truffaut, but the Master's influence can be seen in this film.

The Last Metro proved to be a much larger commercial success in France than expected, causing critics to take note. Truffaut's film won ten Césars™--including best film, best director, best actress (Deneuve), best actor (Depardieu), best screenplay, best cinematography, best sound, best editing, and best set. It did receive an Academy Award™ nomination in the United States for Best Foreign Language Film, but lost out to the far more currently obscure Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears.

Why the popularity in France? Consider the fads that American audiences have in certain historical events--surely you remember the Titanic craze of 1997. By 1980 the French people apparently became keenly interested in examining the German Occupation more honestly, and Truffaut's film stuck a chord. Although it doesn't strike close to the heart like The 400 Blows or Jules and Jim, The Last Metro provides a mesmerizing and realistic view of life under German Occupation and ranks as the best of Truffaut's later films.