Classic World Cinema by Courtyard Gallery will present The Last Metro on Friday, Sept. 8, at 8 p.m. at Flood Gallery Fine Art Center, 2160 U.S. 70, Swannanoa.
The Last Metro
Movie Information
In Brief: Late-period Truffaut is decidedly hit-or-miss, and The Last Metro (1980) sits squarely on the fence in my estimation. This story of a theater troupe in Nazi-occupied France is unobjectionable enough, but that may be part of its problem — there's nothing to object to, but there's also nothing to truly applaud either. The cast is uniformly great, with Catherine Deneuve and Gérard Depardieu ably leading the way, but the film's meandering evocation of influences ranging from To Be or Not To Be to Les Enfants du Paradis leaves the narrative lacking a strong central through line. While this sort of aimless homage-ism was revolutionary in Truffaut's early films, here it feels lazy rather than transgressive. It's certainly not a bad film, and Truffaut completists may well argue its virtues more effectively than I, but I doubt any would place The Last Metro among the director's greatest accomplishments.
| Score: | |
| Genre: | Drama |
| Director: | François Truffaut |
| Starring: | Catherine Deneuve, Gérard Depardieu, Heinz Bennent, Jean Poiret, Andréa Ferréol, Sabine Haudepin, and Maurice Risch |
| Rated: | PG |
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