Search - The Last Metro (Criterion Collection) on DVD

A true classic

J. L. Diamond | Lynbrook, New York United States | 09/24/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"One of Truffaut's and Deneuve's best pictures. It has warmth, history, a sense of the absurd, excellent pacing, and a bit of suspense. It's also has more a linear storyline then many French films. All of the performances are excellent.
Two Warnings:
1. Avoid dubbed versions (Deneuve's sense of humor is in her voice, not on her face, resulting in a mirthless character when dubbed).
2. The new Fox version changed the sub-titles and wrecked some of the best lines."

Late Truffaut that gets better with every viewing.

darragh o'donoghue | 08/01/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Truffaut follows in the tradition of Jean-Pierre Melville by adapting a popular genre as a serious allegory for the darkest period in French history: the Nazi Occupation. Just as Melville used the gangster film to examine notions of legality, legitimacy, authority and criminality in a period when the Resistance were outlaws and the police were rounding up Jews for the death camps, so Truffaut takes the beloved putting-on-a-show warhorse, and uses it as a metaphor for the conditions of life in Occupied France: the need to act, adapt and continually discard roles. When Depardieu's character leaves to fight for the Resistance, he puns about exchanging his make-up (maquillage) for the maquis. What Truffaut is most interested in, as in all his films, is the effect this need for constant dissembling has on individual identity and relationships. This wonderful romantic comedy plays like a mature update of 'Casablanca', richly stylised, bravely open-ended, with Truffaut's moving camera wrenching spirit from claustrophobic confines."

Truffaut at his best

Nirankush Mukherjee | Stoneham, MA United States | 07/09/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I was first drawn to this film when I read a news article that this film had been considered by many French critics to be the best French film of the 80's. I couldn't have agreed more with that judgment when I saw it. Truffaut goes beyond telling a story of love and tragedy in Nazi-occupied France, it shows how intensely he feels about art and theater and how inseparable they are from human life. Theater is a big part in the lives of the central characters and hence a key ingredient of this film as well. Truffaut uses that fictional theater and interweaves that with real lives so seamlessly that it sometimes blows your mind away. I think in many ways it is an extension of 'Day for Night'. A terrific achievement, to say the least."

Peerless Dramatic Performance

J. L. Diamond | 04/19/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"During the nazi occupation of Paris, when missing the last metro meant a long and dangerous night on the streets, everyone must play a part. There are great sub-plots related to freedom and tyranny, but the star is Deneuve. This is her best role, and she has had many great ones. Here, she is an actress who cannot betray her love for the leading man, Depardieu, to her playwright husband in hiding who "directs" by what he hears. Great dramatic tension, great performances, and a great illustration (or a parable) of the realities that are created by drama. Maltin is obtuse when he says the movie, especially the finale, is pointless. The end is entirely fitting and pleasant, although startling. The war is won, the subterfuge can be abandoned, and the protagonists in the drama continue to create and order reality."