The Last Metro (1980) - The Criterion Collection

Synopsis

Gérard Depardieu and Catherine Deneuve star as members of a French theater company living under the German occupation during World War II in François Truffaut’s gripping, humanist character study. Against all odds—a Jewish theater manager in hiding; a leading man who’s in the Resistance; increasingly restrictive Nazi oversight—the troupe believes the show must go on. Equal parts romance, historical tragedy, and even comedy, The Last Metro (Le dernier métro) is Truffaut’s ultimate tribute to art overcoming adversity.

Cast

Marion Steiner	Catherine Deneuve
Bernard Granger	Gérard Depardieu
Jean-Loup Cottins	Jean Poiret
Arlette Guillaume	Andréa Ferréol
Germaine Fabre	Paulette Dubost
Daxiat	Jean-Louis Richard
Nadine Marsac	Sabine Haudepin
Raymond	Maurice Risch
Lucas Steiner	Heinz Bennent
Bernard’s replacement	Christian Baltauss
Valentin	René Dupré

Credits

Director	François Truffaut
Screenplay	François Truffaut and Suzanne Schiffman
Dialogue	François Truffaut, Suzanne Schiffman and Jean-Claude Grumberg
Cinematography	Nestor Almendros
Music	Georges Delerue
Editing	Martine Barraqué
Production Design	Jean-Pierre Kohut-Svelko
Sound	Michel Laurent and Michel Mellier
Costume design	Lisele Roos

Disc Features

AVAILABLE IN BOTH DOUBLE-DVD AND BLU-RAY EDITIONS:

New, restored high-definition digital transfer (uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
Two audio commentaries: one featuring Annette Insdorf, author of François Truffaut, and one with actor Gérard Depardieu, historian Jean-Pierre Azéma, and Truffat biographer Serge Toubiana
Deleted scene
French television excerpts of interviews with Truffaut, and actors Catherine Deneuve, Depardieu, and Jean Poiret
New video interviews with actresses Andréa Ferréol, Sabine Haudepin, and Paulette Dubost, assistant director Alain Tasma, and camera assistants Florent Bazin and Tessa Racine
A video interview with the celebrated cinematographer Nestor Almendros, detailing his collaborations with Truffaut
Une histoire d’eau, Truffaut’s 1958 short film co-directed by Jean-Luc Godard
Theatrical trailer
New and improved English subtitle translation
PLUS: A new essay by Armond White

From the Current

The Last Metro

by François Truffaut Apr 2, 2009

Writing the screenplay for The Last Metro with Suzanne Schiffman, I intended to do for the theater what I had done for the cinema in Day for Night:

Press Notes: Super Troupe

Apr 1, 2009

The phrase “the show must go on” gets a dark twist in François Truffaut’s 1980 Oscar-nominated The Last Metro, starring Catherine Deneuve and Gérard Depardieu as theater folk who keep working despite the Nazi occupation. “Standing in opposition to that threat,” writes Keith Phipps in . . .

Truffaut’s Changing Times:
The Last Metro

by Armond White Mar 23, 2009

The Last Metro was the most crowd-pleasing film of François Truffaut’s latter career, sweeping an armload of prizes at France’s Oscar equivalent, the César . . .