The Last Metro

Director: François Truffaut
Year Released: 1980
Rating: 3.0

Lightweight but enthralling Truffaut picture set in occupied Paris where a Jewish theater owner and director (Heinz Bennent) has to hide in the basement (from the Gestapo) and covertly 'direct' the play via his actress wife (Catherine Deneuve); meanwhile, Deneuve's character develops feelings for a politically-radical young actor (Gérard Depardieu). It's true that Truffaut makes the Nazis seem like a mere nuisance instead of the horror they truly were, but it wasn't in his makeup to create truly 'dark' pictures about human atrocities - as a cineaste and a humanist, he appears more interested in making this a behind-the-scenes theatre piece like Stage Door or 42nd Street, which I believe he accomplishes. The performances are nice if not much of a stretch for anyone - Deneuve has a gift for appearing simultaneously composed and deeply worried.