La traversée de Paris (1956)

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Director:

Claude Autant-Lara

Writers:

Marcel Aymé (short story) and
Jean Aurenche (dialogue)

Release Date:

26 October 1956 (France)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

Two men, a painter and a poor guy have to cross over Paris by night during world war II and nazi occupation to delivery black market meat...

Plot Keywords:

Nazi | Black Market | Pork | Nazi Uniform | Nazi Soldier

Awards:

Nominated for BAFTA Film Award. Another 2 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Jean Gabin	...	Grandgil
Bourvil	...	Marcel Martin
Jeannette Batti	...	Mariette Martin
Georgette Anys	...	Lucienne Couronne, la patronne du cafe Belotte
Robert Arnoux	...	Marchandot
Laurence Badie	...	La serveuse du restaurant
Myno Burney	...	Angèle Marchandot
Germaine Delbat	...	Une cliente du restaurant
Monette Dinay	...	Madame Jambier
Jean Dunot	...	Alfred Couronne, le patron du cafe Belotte
Bernard La Jarrige	...	Un agent de police (as Bernard Lajarrige)
Jacques Marin	...	Le patron du restaurant Saint Martin
Hubert de Lapparent	...	L'otage nerveux
Hans Verner	...	Le motard (as Jean Verner)
Hugues Wanner	...	Le père de Dédé (as Hugues Waner)

Also Known As:

Four Bags Full (USA)
La traversata di Parigi (Italy)
Pig Across Paris (UK)
Pigs Across Paris (UK)
The Trip Across Paris (International: English title) (literal title)

Runtime:

80 min

Country:

France | Italy

Language:

French | German

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Finland:K-12 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Franstudio, Saint-Maurice, Val-de-Marne, France

Company:

Continental Produzione

Trivia:

Filmed in color but processed in black and white.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Une époque formidable... (1991)

Soundtrack:

La Marseillaise

gimme some skin, pig

Gabin a great comic? That's not the image that springs to my mind when I think of Gabin, but then neither do I think of Bourvil as a dramatic actor - until I stick 'Le Circle Rouge' in the machine for the nnnth time. Whatever, the two were teamed brilliantly in this post-war nod to the Black Market in Paris during the occupation. The 80 minute running time is just about right for this romp that obliges regular Black Marketeer Bourvil to work with a dep, Gabin, and transport valises stuffed with pork from arondissment to arondissment under the eyes of the Germans. The movie is kick-started via a cameo from all-time great French comic Louis de Funes and it seldom lets up. Although the soundtrack is replete with Parisian underwold slang the thing is so visual that even non French speakers could follow the story in the original, non-subtitled version. The denoument, such as it is, that Gabin is really a celebrity (artist) and is doing the gig for kicks rather than money, is fairly irrelevant, and the last scene, with Bourvil, now a railway porter, toting Gabin's bags is neither here nor there. Even today, half a century after the events, the French are still sensitive to anything apertaining to the Second World War and the French movies that address those feelings, whether sentimental, frivolous, or dramatic, are among the best movies of any country. This is no exception. Five stars in anyone's solar system.