The Last Metro (Le Dernier Métro)

• 4/16/26 (Thurs)

Truffaut’s 1980 film is set in Paris during the occupation years, which he himself experienced as a child. Marion (Catherine Deneuve), a noted film actress, is rehearsing a stage play, ironically titled The Vanishing Woman (La disparue, translated elsewhere more broadly as Disappeared), that was supposed to be directed by her Jewish husband Lucas (Jean Poiret). As being Jewish was hazardous to one’s health in Vichy France, she has made it known that he has fled to South America, and another director has taken the helm.

We learn, however, that she is in fact keeping Lucas hidden in the cellar, where he can hear the rehearsals taking place. He gives notes on the show to Marion, who manages to incorporate his vision into the work. Her lover in the play is being performed by a handsome and randy young actor Bernard (Gérard Depardieu), whose horniness was established earlier when he was seen trying to pick up a random woman on the street. (When he learns that she is part of the play’s crew, he continues to pursue her until discovering she’s lesbian, an interesting development for the times even for the French.) It also turns out that Bernard was a member of the Resistance, putting him in danger as well if his identity is revealed. Lucas, listening carefully to the dialogue, does not sense sufficient passion from the stage lovers and encourages his reluctant wife to put more emotion into it, unwillingly setting off flames between the actors.