morrison-dylan-fan Looking for details on Jean-Paul Rappeneau's unexpectedly sweet 1966 Occupation Comedy A Matter of Resistance,I stumbled on a title by auteur film maker Claude Chabrol from the same year about the Occupation. Since the stylish bourgeoisie murder-mystery A Double Tour gave me a chance to see a Chabrol movie for the first time a few weeks ago,I decided that it was the perfect time to cross the line of Demarcation.The plot-Nazi-Occupied France:1941-Living by the divided line between Nazi Occupied and free France,the residence of a town try to go about their daily lives,as Nazis are sent in to take over the local government,and a growing black market for people to be taken over to free France starts to build. Freed from Nazi cells on condition that he collaborates with them,WWI vet Pierre is shocked to discover that his wife Mary has secretly become a Resistance fighter.Whilst Pierre learns of Mary's activates, Doctor Jacques Lafaye tries to keep the Nazis from tracking down a British radio operator,as Pierre has to decide which side of Demarcation he is on.View on the film:Claiming to have spent the entire shoot drunk,writer/director Claude Chabrol (who was advised to take the project by Anthony Mann) displays a magnificent confidence in the story,with Chabrol and cinematographer Jean Rabier boiling down the French New Wave flashes,for a tense,brooding Film Noir atmosphere.Following a frosty river over the Demarcation line,Chabrol and Rabier pull open the lines of collaboration that the towns people fear,as elegantly held extreme close-ups get up close to the suspicions and paranoia gripping the town.Keeping Pierre Jansen's minimalist score lingering in the background,Chabrol displays a sharp eye for "space",with stilted shots showing the town in its starkest form,surrounded by icy Film Noir shadows and a crushing mood of defeat.Inspired by French Resistance secret agent Gilbert Renault book,the screenplay by Chabrol places the horrors from WWI against the backdrop of the unfolding WWII,with Pierre wounded memories of WWI leading to a grudging tolerance of Nazi rule.Cutting down the belief at the time that (almost) all the people in Occupied France were Resistance figures,Chabrol strikes a Film Noir vein,by making Mary and Jacques Lafaye's acts of rebellion be exceptions to the complicit nature and acceptance of collaboration occupying the town.Soon to become a collaborator with Chabrol,the graceful Jean Seberg gives a fiery performance as Mary,whose rebellious streak Seberg lights up,as Mary finds herself alone against the Nazis and the memories of WWI holding Pierre back from fighting in the new war.Joined by a wonderfully considerate Daniel Gélin as Doctor Jacques Lafaye, Maurice Ronet gives an excellent performance as Pierre,thanks to Ronet brilliantly chipping away at Pierre's burnt state,via Pierre being a witness to Mary's brave acts of rebellion,which leads to Pierre deciding that it is time to cross the complacent line of Demarcation.

JasparLamarCrabb Claude Chabrol's study of a Nazi occupied French village that is right on the border of the free zone. It's a situation that brings out the best and, in some cases, the worst in the villagers. Count Maurice Ronet & his wife Jean Seberg have had their manor home commandeered by the Germans and are relegated to living in their carriage house. Doctor Daniel Gélin fights with the resistance, while René Havard serves as a toadie for the Nazis, acting as their "interpreter" and supplying a lot more than just his translating talents. Each character in this film is fully fleshed out with idiosyncrasies exposed in short order. Ronet & Seberg are exceptional. Ronet gives a standout performance as an army veteran with a ravaged leg who turns out to be one of the village's gutsiest citizens. The music is by Pierre Jansen and the cinematography is by Jean Rabier, who shot many of Chabrol's films.

Charlot47 In a French village in the winter of 1941, the river forms the line of demarcation between the German-occupied zone and the Vichy zone. Over the bridge comes a released prisoner of war, Count de Damville, who is physically wounded and mentally defeated. His château has become the headquarters of Major von Pritsch and he accepts German rule. His English wife the Countess (Jean Seberg. looking more attractive than in any other film of hers I can think of) has meanwhile joined the Resistance and is helping downed Allied airmen escape over the river.We meet many other inhabitants of the village, mostly patriotic, altruistic and brave but some selfish, cowardly and traitorous. We meet various people they are smuggling over the river, including an unfortunate Jewish family. We meet Resistance fighters, ready to take on the Germans with guns and grenades. And we meet many of the Germans, with von Pritsch and his soldiers doing their job relatively honestly while the Gestapo go about their sordid business with characteristic ruthlessness. Chabrol's black and white camera repeatedly scans the deserted car-free streets and shuttered houses of this bleak wartime winter. Human warmth, where people show love and support for each other, relieves the gloom but human treachery and brutality intensifies it. No laughs and little joy in the film, but that was true of much of Europe at that unhappy time. Overall well worth seeing for the mounting tension, the wide range of vivid characters, the depiction of a small community under huge stress and the ultimate, admittedly muted, optimism that the suffering and sacrifices of the villagers will prove worthwhile.

dbdumonteil "La ligne de demarcation" is arguably the most successful Chabrol movie of his transitional period -roughly from "l'oeil du malin" (1963) to "la route de Corinthe (1967).Although there are many characters ,this is a well-constructed script ,adapted from the Colonel Remy's book.The film is dedicated to French men and women who became smugglers and helped soldiers and Jews to cross the demarcation line which divided France into two parts:occupied and unoccupied zone during WW2.Among many characters the couple Maurice Ronet/Jean Seberg stands out:he is a defeated officer,his war is over ,and he cannot get over the 1940 debacle.On the contrary her war has only begun .she's involved in resistance and he thinks at the beginning of the movie that finally what happened was fair cause the Germans are the strongest.Seberg's beauty illuminates the movie:her face when she hears the coded message "It's a long way to Gibraltar" is one of the rare moments of happiness in a somber movie.French are not all depicted as heroes.Some are hateful cowards ,who pretend they help the Jews and gives them away to the gestapo.In its way,"la ligne de démarcation" foreshadows several aspects of Chabrol future heyday.Two of his favorite actors ,Stephane Audran and Jean Yanne are already here ("le boucher").The entomological depiction of the villages like in the aforementioned movie is here too.And in some scenes (the attic,the burial, the forest where the patrol is on the prowl) Chabrol displays his skills of master of suspense .Good cast.