La Ligne de démarcation (1966)
Directed by Claude Chabrol

Film Review

La Ligne de démarcation is an atypical film for Claude Chabrol, the only war film he directed, although he did subsequently make a documentary on Pétainist propaganda, L'Oeil de Vichy (1993), and two other films - Le Sang des autres (1984) and Une affaire de femmes (1988) - are also set in Nazi Occupied France.  Based on the memoirs of Gilbert Renault (alias Colonel Rémy), an agent in the Free French Forces, the film gives an authentic and gripping account of resistance activities during the Second World War.  It may look like a conventional WWII drama but the film broke new ground by suggesting that only a small fraction of the French population were actively involved in the resistance.  Previous films merely promulgated the de Gaulle myth that France had been a nation of résistants.  Three years before the seismic shock that was Marcel Ophüls's Le Chagrin et la pitié (1969), Chabrol's film had already begun to chisel away at the foundations of this monumental deception.

If Chabrol had had more of a free hand, if he had been less concerned about a public backlash that might result in yet another box office flop, the chance is this would have been an even more subversive and revelatory film.  The fact of the matter is that, owing to a string of commercial failures, Chabrol was not in a position to take such a risk and all he could do was restate what Gilbert Renault had said in his book. It was Renault who was in the driving seat on this one, not Chabrol.  The characters are too well delineated, some bordering on outright caricature, and the impression given is that, whilst resistance fighters were in a minority, these brave few could count on the support of the whole nation, apart from a few nasty profiteers and collaborators.  None of it quite rings true but, despite this, Chabrol still manages to turn out a superior wartime drama - one that is tense, compelling and almost relentlessly bleak.

The only character that has any real substance is the French officer Pierre, played with characteristic charm and subtlety by Maurice Ronet.  Pierre's philosophy of grudging tolerance towards the occupying Nazis most closely reflects the 'attentiste' attitude of the vast majority of the French nation at the time.  For Pierre, the war is already over and he sees no point in further bloodshed for ideas that ultimately mean nothing.  By contrast his wife Mary (a far from convincing Jean Seberg) is much less defeatist and puts her life on the line in the service of the resistance.  It is only when Mary has been arrested that Pierre realises that there is something worth fighting for, that Nazism cannot be allowed to succeed.

Alas, Pierre is in the minority.  Every other major player in the drama looks and behaves exactly as we expect them to.  The resistance supporters are so easy to spot it defies belief that they have not already been rounded up and shot (implying the occupying Germans are either stupid or lazy).  The Gestapo agents are the usual charmless, leather-coat wearing thugs, as offensively pantomimesque as the chorus of profiteers and informers whose villainous intent is so visibly etched on their unattractive faces.  The line of demarcation between the good guys and the outright scoundrels is more noticeable than that which separates the region of occupation from the supposedly Free Zone, and it is this crowd-pleasing simplification which ultimately undermines the film, weakening its dramatic impact through fear of causing offence.

There are some impressive performances on offer (Noël Roquevert, Reinhard Kolldehoff and Daniel Gélin are all excellent) but, as far as character depth is concerned, La Ligne de démarcation is only just a few short steps away from outright farce, in the manner of the British sitcom 'Allo, 'Allo!  The ambiguity of character that is so much a part of Chabrol's oeuvre, his mantra that people are never quite what they seem and that good deeds are often a cover for purely selfish intent, is singularly lacking here.  Like President de Gaulle, Chabrol pretends to see things in black and white, for motives that are not entirely honourable.  The line of demarcation is a totally fictional construct, a device employed by those who cannot accept that there is good and evil in us all.

Film Synopsis

During the Second World War, a small village in the Jura is split in two by the river Loue, which marks the line of demarcation between Nazi occupied France and the Free Zone.  A French prisoner-of-war, Pierre, is released to find his chateau converted into a German command centre. Whilst he is obliged to co-operate with the enemy, his wife Mary secretly plays a hand in supporting the French resistance.  Tensions are heightened when Gestapo officers arrive in the village in ruthless pursuit of a pair of Free France agents.  After Mary is arrested, Pierre decides to switch his allegiance...