Jean Moulin (2002) (TV)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

Yves Boisset

Writers:

Dan Franck (scenario and dialogue)
Pierre Péan (after his works)

Release Date:

19 June 2003 (Germany)

Genre:

Biography | History

Plot Keywords:

German Occupation | Marseille | Resistance | Courage | French Resistance

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Charles Berling	...	Jean Moulin
Elsa Zylberstein	...	Antoinette
Émilie Dequenne	...	Lili
Christine Boisson	...	Gilberte
Christophe Malavoy	...	Commandant Manhes
Jérémie Renier	...	Didot
Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu	...	Charvet
Brigitte Catillon	...	Laure Moulin
Thierry Frémont	...	Legret
Hanns Zischler	...	Le major von Gutlingen
Pierre-Loup Rajot	...	Barres
Daniel Martin	...	Durieux
Yann Babilée	...	Poclain (as Yann Babilée Keoch)
Philippe Morier-Genoud	...	Violette
Anny Romand	...	Victoria

Runtime:

192 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Color

Company:

France 2 (FR2)

Soundtrack:

Le chant des partisans

Waterboarding for Heroes

Jean Moulin was one of the men responsible for the re-emergence of France as a world power after WWII, but he had to die to do it. This excellently researched film is not even mentioned in the Film Review books I own, but it is well worth seeking out for anyone interested in how a country that has capitulated to fascism begins to work itself out of the iron-glove of tyranny and the capitulation of its' cowards (i.e., the Vichy regime).

You will find out that the problems within the French Resistance led to Moulin's death, that there was as much dissent among the various resistance groups, as there was between the Vichy collaborationists and the French Resistors. And to think that Roosevelt recognized the Vichy Government, thereby aiding the deaths of GIs and our OSS folks within France makes me recoil in horror!!! If you're looking for the relationship between the French Resistance and the French Jews/Deportees, you won't find it here. Even though Moulin's girlfriend is Jewish, it really max nichts.

The suspense is horrible, because you know the outcome going in but what you don't know is 'Who'? There are so many potential betrayors that when you finally see the one who 'done it', and then read the credits and what happened to the survivors (who were also consultants on this movie), you wonder if you still got the truth.

Sometimes, as we know about Martin Luther King's assassination, the actual assassin was set up to perform the act by the atmosphere of hatred within the opposition's ranks. And in seeing the opportunists among some of the Resistors, you can't help but wonder. And the movie itself hints at that. Who indeed was essentially responsible for his death? As for the waterboarding, Moulin was tortured to death and this was but one of the many ways he was broken but the movie shows you in gory, suffocating detail just how this is done. The lines in this movie come from history, and DeGaulle is shown just as egotistical as he probably HAD to be in order to pull this nation of divided opinionated people together.

See and then go out and read 'Resistance and Betrayal', the biography of this brave martyr. There are lessons for us here in the U.S. to learn, as our nation spirals down toward fascism.