La traversée de Paris

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Young Audience s Study Guide Wednesday, May 18, 2005 at 10:30am Dear Teachers, Welcome to the Florence Gould Hall at the French Institute Alliance Française!

1 Young Audience s Study Guide Wednesday, May 18, 2005 at 10:30am Dear Teachers, Welcome to the Florence Gould Hall at the French Institute Alliance Française! We are happy to present La traversée de Paris, a film by Claude Autant-Lara as part of our Young Audience Program at FIAF. We made this study guide to help you prepare your students to the film they are about to watch. From the cultural as well as from the social point of view, it is our goal to make this moment unique and enjoyable for all. BASIC RULES FOR THE GOOD AUDIENCE MEMBER We expect the students to behave politely. We kindly ask you to ask them: La traversée de Paris -NOT TO talk or whisper during the film -NOT TO move from their seat, nor move too much while seated -NOT TO chew gum, eat or drink in the theater -NOT TO wear headphones Florence Gould Hall at FIAF 55 East 59th Street, New York, NY (212) After the event, please contact us at youngaudience@fiaf.org. We will be happy to improve this program based on your feedback, and of course, will be pleased to hear your praise!

2 SYNOPSIS The time is World War II, and the place is occupied France. Martin (Bourvil) earns a living as a cab driver. But in Paris in 1943, the gas shortage makes that difficult. So he risks his life to earn gas, by clandestinely transporting goods for the black market, under the noses of the Nazi officials. After his usual partner is arrested, Martin finds another one: Grandgil, a painter. Jambier the grocer entrusts a whole pig to them, divided among four suitcases, that they have to smuggle to the other side of Paris. The crazy crossing of the city starts. While the film is not technically a comedy, there are several amusing moments as the mismatched Gabin and Bourvil make their way across the City of Light. Adapted from a novel by Marcel Ayme, Four Bags Full was originally released as La traversée de Paris. THE CAST Jean Gabin Grandgil Bourvil Marcel Martin Louis de Funes Jambier Myno Burney Mme Marchandot Anouk Ferjac la jeune fille Jean Dunot Patron du café Robert Arnoux Marchandot Directed by Claude Autant-Lara in FRANCE UNDER THE OCCUPATION When Marshal Henri-Philippe Pétain came to power in France he immediately began negotiations with Adolf Hitler and on June 22 nd he signed an armistice with Germany. The terms of the agreement divided France into occupied and unoccupied zones, with a rigid demarcation line between the two. The Germans would directly control three-fifths of the country, an area that included northern and western France and the entire Atlantic coast. The remaining section of the country would be administered by the French government at Vichy under Pétain. Other provisions of the armistice included the surrender of all Jews living in France to the Germans. The French Army was disbanded except for a force of 100,000 men to maintain domestic order. The 1.5 million French soldiers captured by the Germans were to remain prisoners of war. The French government also agreed to stop members of its armed forces from leaving the country and instructed its citizens not to fight against the Germans. Finally, France had to pay the occupation costs of the German troops. Some members of the French Army led by General Charles De Gaulle managed to escape to England. Soon after arriving he made a speech where he argued that "whatever happens, the flame of French Resistance must not and will not be extinguished." At first, humiliated by Germany's easy victory few French people sought to continue the war. There were scattered acts of sabotage

3 but these people were unorganized and in most cases were quickly arrested by the authorities. One of the first acts of public resistance to German occupation was a small public demonstration of secondary school students at the Arc de Triomphe on November 11, 1940, when they celebrated the Allied victory over Germany in the First World War. A group of scientists and lawyers working in Paris led by Boris Vilde began publishing a clandestine newspaper calling on the French people to resist the German occupation. This group, called the Musée de L'Homme, was infiltrated by a supporter of the Vichy government and as a result virtually all of the men and women involved with producing the newspaper were arrested and executed. It is claimed that one member of the group, Valentin Feldman, shouted at the moment of execution: "Imbeciles, it's for you, too, that I die." In occupied France the Gestapo began hunting down members of the Communist Party and Socialist Party. Most of them went into hiding. The obvious place to go was into the forests of the unoccupied zones. Escaped soldiers from the French Army also fled into these forests. These men and women gradually formed themselves into units based on political beliefs and geographical areas. Eventually these people joined together to form the Maquis. As the organization grew in strength it began to organize attacks on German forces. They also helped to get Allied airmen, whose aircraft had been shot down in France, to get back to Britain. Radical members of the Socialist Party, including Pierre Brossolette and Daniel Mayer, formed one of the first resistance groups in France when they established the Comité d'action Socialiste in January The Communist Party also became involved in the struggle against the German occupation. As they had been working in secret since 1939 they were ideally suited for clandestine activities. In its newspaper, L'Humanité, edited by Pierre Villon, the Communist Party called for a "National front for the independence of France." In May 1942, Villon established the resistance group, Front National. Some early supporters of Henri-Philippe Pétain and the Vichy government had become disillusioned and joined the resistance. Henry Frenay, who had initially worked for the Vichy administration, became active in the resistance in February He published underground newspapers such as Les Petities Ailes and Vérités, before forming Combat in November During this period, three important resistance leaders, Jean Moulin, Jean-Pierre Lévy and Emmanuel d'astier, emerged in France. At first Levy and d'astier concentrated on producing underground newspapers but eventually established the resistance groups Francs-Tireur and Liberation-sud. However, both of these groups only had a few thousand members. In the spring of 1942, communist militants, acting independently of the leadership of the French Communist Party, organized the first Maquis units in the Limousin and the Puy-de-Dôme. Marquis groups also were established in other regions of France. General Charles De Gaulle was keen to unite these different resistance groups under his leadership. Jean Moulin, who had spent time in London with De Gaulle, was sent back to France and was given the task of uniting the various groups into one organization. He arranged meetings with people such as Henry Frenay (Combat), Emmanuel d'astier (Libération-sud), Jean- Pierre Lévy (Francs-Tireurs), Pierre Villon (Front National), Daniel Mayer and Pierre Brossolette (Comité d'action Socialiste), and Charles Tillon and Pierre Fabien (Francs-Tireurs Partisans).

4 After much discussion Jean Moulin persuaded the eight major resistance groups to form the Conseil National de la Resistance (CNR) and the first joint meeting under Moulin's chairmanship took place in Paris on May 27, On June 7, 1943, René Hardy, an important member of the resistance in France, was arrested and tortured by Klaus Barbie and the Gestapo. They eventually obtained enough information to arrest Jean Moulin, Pierre Brossolette and Charles Delestraint. Moulin and Brossolette both died while being tortured and Delestraint was sent to Dachau where he was killed near the end of the war. In December 1943, Joseph Darnard, a fanatical anti-communist, became chief of secret police in Vichy. Called the Milice, its 35,000 members, many of them fascists, played an important role in investigating the French resistance. Like the Gestapo, the miliciens were willing to use torture to gain information. On 15th March, 1944, the Conseil National de la Resistance published a charter that demanded a series of social and economic reforms should be implemented after the liberation of France. This included the establishment of universal suffrage and the equality of all citizens. The charter claimed that to ensure true equality it would be necessary to nationalize the large industrial and financial companies. It also called for a minimum wage, independent trade unions, comprehensive social security, worker participation in management, educational equality, and the extension of political, social and economic rights to colonial citizens. strike fear into the population and change their opinion by showing them that the evils they were suffering were the direct consequence of the existence of the marquis and that they had made the mistake of tolerating them." On June 5, 1944, General Dwight D. Eisenhower asked the BBC to send out coded messages to the resistance asking them to carry out acts of resistance during the D-day landings in order to help Allied forces establish a beachhead on the Normandy coast. This included attacks on the occupied garrisons in the towns of Tulle and Gueret. In revenge for the French attack on the German garrison, 120 men were hanged in Tulle on June 9. Later that day another 67 were murdered in Argenton. These armed resistance groups were able to slow down the attempt by the 2nd SS Panzer Division to get to the Normandy beaches. The Gestapo decided to carry out a revenge attack that would frighten the French people into submission. On June 10, a group of soldiers led by Major Otto Dickmann, entered Oradoursur-Glane, a village in the Haute-Vienne region of France. He ordered the execution of more than 600 men, women and children before setting fire to the village. Despite these atrocities the French Resistance continued to take up arms against the German Army. After the war General Eisenhower wrote: "Throughout France the Resistance had been of inestimable value in the campaign. Without their great assistance the liberation of France would have consumed a much longer time and meant greater losses to ourselves." Later that month the German Army began a campaign of repression throughout France. This included a policy of reprisals against civilians living in towns and villages close to the scene of attacks carried out by members of the French Resistance. As one official wrote on April 15, 1944 that the authorities "wanted to

5 THE BLACK MARKET Why did the black market arise in France? The basic reason for any black market, in France or in any country at war, is that there is a great shortage of certain goods, which people need. Why were there great shortages in France? Largely because during the four years of occupation, the Germans stripped France bare. (In Marseille, the food depot for the whole south of France, the Germans took 60% of the food that was being shipped in.) And when the Germans left they took along everything they could lay their hands on. There was another important reason for the black market: During four years of occupation, thousands of French men and women who were fugitives from the Gestapo or members of the resistance, had no identification cards and no ration cards. They could only live through false papers. Meaning, they could only live illegally, by getting food and supplies from the black market. So the black market took on a quality which we never had in the United States: it became patriotic for many people to patronize the black market. It was one way of continuing to fight German rule, one way of getting supplies with which to carry on resistance. It was a weapon against the Germans. average consumption in the United States is 3,367 calories daily. Our army ration provides 4,000 to 5,000 calories a day.) Even with black market purchases, most Frenchmen did not have enough to eat for four years. Hence the story of two Frenchmen discussing the black market: One said "Would you be willing to stop buying anything on the black market for a week?"; "Certainly not," was the reply, "Do you want my children to go hungry?" The black market in France disappeared when there was enough food and supplies in the ordinary stores, in sufficient quantity to be sold at reasonable prices. When the French had more transportation to bring the crops into the cities, the black market did less business. The Germans, incidentally, were notorious traders on the black market for personal profit. The German authorities did not try to stamp out the black market because they knew it would increase the bitterness of the French people toward their government and leaders. The Germans used every trick in the bag to disrupt the French economy and demoralize French people. Lastly, where did the French black market get American cigarettes, soap, candy, chocolate, razor blades, and shoes? From American soldiers, who sold them on the black market! The black market in France was not, as it was in America, a market for relative luxuries (gasoline, whiskey, steaks, butter.) In France, no city family could get enough food from the rations doled out by the Germans. From 1941 to the liberation of Paris in 1944, the Parisians were getting between 1,067 and 1,325 calories of food per day; 2,400 calories a day is considered the necessary minimum for adults not engaged in heavy work. (The

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