| During World War II the Germans occupied France and ruled through a puppet government. Some French collaborated with the Germans; others resisted. A dramatic episode of the French Resistance in 1943 is brought to the screen in the 1997 French film Lucie Aubrac, which opened in the Los Angeles area during fall 1999. The plot, based on Lucie Aubrac’s autobiography Ils partiront dans l’ivresse (Outwitting the Gestapo in English) and directed by Claude Berri, portrays the heroism of the Resistance. Raymond Aubrac (played by Daniel Auteuil) and his fellow Resistance buddies in Lyon blow up a bridge to destroy a convoy of German munitions as the film begins. When one of their leaders in Paris is arrested, the Lyon Resistance cadre arranges to meet to redesign the organizational structure but is betrayed by an infiltrator codenamed Hardy (played by Pascal Greggory). Raymond Aubrac is arrested along with the others at the meeting, and most are tortured and executed on orders from Klaus Barbie (played by Heino Ferch), the “butcher of Lyon.” His wife Lucie (played by Carole Bouquet) seeks to release her husband. First, she threatens a French magistrate with death if he is not released, and she succeeds. But he is picked up again, so a more elaborate scheme involving the remaining Resistance cadre is planned and carried out smoothly. The subtext of the film, however, is that Hardy and other collaborators were never brought to justice, though Klaus Barbie was. Although the film is more about Raymond than Lucie Aubrac, the film is dedicated to her for having the courage to write the book and thereby expose an injustice that obviously is one among. MH |