I was thinking about that too but I think it would be smarter to netflick it before you buy it.
Harley – if you pretty much love every other Truffaut you’ve seen, I’d think this is a very safe bet for a blind buy. I really like this film – it feels big and lavish; it really evokes the time in which it was set; Deneuve & Depardieu are both very good in it. I think it’s a bit better than The Woman Next Door, which followed, and way better than his final film, Finally, Sunday.
I like THE LAST METRO very much. A lovely and moving film. The acting is beyond reproach, the production values are excellent, the cinematography is gorgeous. A really terrific movie all around. I’m very glad that Criterion is releasing this.
One of Truffaut’s bigest hits, I didn’t care for it all that much when it was first relased. I prefer the less-showy Truffaut of “The Green Room.” But I’ve been thinking about his work a lot and it may well be due for reconsideration. Deneuve is really great in it.
Thanks guys, I’ll see if I can watch it sometime in the next few days, but I’m thinking I’ll probably order it either way.
I have not seen the film either, but I really enjoy Truffaut’s film oeuvre. So I am excited about renting and/or buying this film in March!
It’s been years since I’ve seen this film, which I wasn’t too fond for at time I watched it on HBO in the early 1980s. Since then, I’ve seen and appreciated Truffaut’s output since and am willing to give this another go. Be prepared to review this DVD after it comes out.
i obsessively collect dvds, and i never rent, i always buy. but i usually read up on the movies first. i’ve got a couple hundred movies this way, and i’ve only been disappointed two or three times.
I think this is an attenuated Truffaut film. There is little emotional indication of the foreboding of the situation—hiding a Jew during the Nazi occupation. I love Catherine Deneuve but she gives a “great lady” performance here.
A great backstage movie, even more of a paean to actors and the art of acting than “La Nuit Americaine,” and suffused with Truffaut’s deep and deeply moving humanity, which embraces even the story’s “villain.” Now how about a Criterion edition of “Les Deux Anglaises et le Continent?”
I agree that Criterion needs to release “Les Deux Anglaises et le Continent.” Indeed I would like to see an Eclipse set, “The Late Films of Truffaut” that contained The Green Room, The Woman Next Door, Such a Gorgeous Girl Like Me, and Confidentially Yours since all these films are rather difficult to find in good prints.
SUCH A GORGEOUS KID LIKE ME (made in 72) is hardly late Truffaut.
In fact, late Truffaut is pretty awful stuff, and I, for one, am in no rush to watch it again. CONFIDENTIALLY YOURS, THE WOMAN NEXT DOOR, THE MAN WHO LOVED WOMEN, LOVE ON THE RUN; Truffaut, sadly, died at the low point of his career.
It seems like a lot of posters have not seen the film so be warned: despite its commercial success, THE LAST METRO is possibly his most overrated film. His talent seemed to come in short bursts: LES MISTONS, THE 400 BLOWS, SHOOT THE PIANO PLAYER, JULES AND JIM, and a brief high point with STOLEN KISSES (but remember, in between were THE BRIDE WORE BLACK, FAHRENHEIT 451, and THE SOFT SKIN, followed by MISSISSIPPI MERMAID); L’ENFANT SAUVAGE in 1970, then a dry spell until he made three excellent films in a row, DAY FOR NIGHT, THE STORY OF ADELE H., and SMALL CHANGE.
After that, he entered into his longest down period. Everything from THE MAN WHO LOVED WOMEN on is really unwatchable. I felt embarrassed for Truffaut when I saw those late films.
THE LAST METRO is very overdone (imagine Lubitsch’s TO BE OR NOT TO BE played in all sincerity). At this point Truffaut had become the figurehead of the French film industry and worked with budgets that were too big for him (not that these were exceptionally expensive films, but Truffaut seemed to flourish with very small budgets and limited resources. It seems whenever he got a larger budget, he would become enamored of “moviemaking” and mimic the worst of classical cinema forms (THE WOMAN NEXT DOOR and THE LAST METRO are excellent examples of this)).
Truffaut did not have the good fortune to be one of the great directors who was capable of making bad films that were interesting (like Welles for instance (THE STRANGER is a good example)).
Criterion is fortunate to have a customer base that is willing to pay high prices for things they haven’t seen.
I’m not so sure I agree with you, Rich Uncle. The Green Room is late Truffaut and I think it is one of his finest. And while I’d put this film, The Last Metro, maybe on second-tier, it is nevertheless quite good. I always considered it to be his attempt at “grand” cinema from that period, ala Bergman and Fanny and Alexander. I don’t see that as a fault.
Bergman didn’t relish moviemaking throwbacks at all in the same way as Truffaut. FANNY AND ALEXANDER isn’t really an attempt at “grand” cinema, it is just the restrained, classical style Bergman needed for a film of that size and scope (Bergman had already made films that anyone would call “grand” cinema before he started working with smaller budgets).
As far as Truffaut, emphasis on “attempt.” Truffaut believed in making movies for as broad an audience as possible, often to the detriment of his work (his feeling that each film needed suspense is the most obvious, look at all the contrived “hitchcockian” moments in Truffaut’s movies; they add no suspense and are hardly “hitchcockian,” they stick out, don’t mesh with the rest of the film, and disrupt the viewer (and not in that good nouvelle vague way).
My point is, there is too much MEET PAMELA! in Truffaut’s later work.
after watching this film it proves that life is a stage.
I have the blu-ray version at home just waiting for me to watch it. I wish I didn’t have to work so much so I could check it out :(
I’m hoping to watch it later this week. I’ll check back on what you all had to say about it then.
i just watched it. i have to say, i was unimpessed. but i’m also not a huge Truffaut fan—i did LOVE Jules et Jim, but other than that and the 400 Blows, i don’t think i’ve seen his other films.
as a film, this one was good, but definately not great. if he wasn’t the director, i wonder how much people would talk about it today. although i must say i did enjoy how it looked at the occupation from the daily, working-French prespective. a clever idea that ultimately wasn’t played out as well as it could’ve been. worth seeing, but i’d rent it rather than purchase it.
Finally finished this movie last night. I was quite surprised by how good it was! I thought Truffaut knocked it out of the park. The movie went by quick for me and was just all round good: great lighting, colors, acting. It was great to see a WW2 Nazi occupation film take a different route, to show a different angle than what you are used to. The 2 leads stood out to me as well, they are both great actors. This movie has me intrigued to check out Truffaut’s later works.
Harley Small
This is one of the very few Truffaut films I haven’t seen, and since the criterion release comes out in april I’m thinking of just flat out buying it. For those of you who’ve seen it, just wondering how it ranks with Truffauts other films, because I pretty much love everything he’s done. I mostly just want opinions before I make up my mind for sure.
Thanks