A 1956 comedy shattered French taboos by portraying occupation life as cynical and messy.
In short: In 1942 Paris, two men attempt to smuggle pork across the city under the cover of night. This 1956 film, La Traversée de Paris, traded heroic resistance tropes for dark humor and moral ambiguity, sparking controversy while cementing the reputation of actor Bourvil as a serious dramatic force.
Directed by Claude Autant-Lara, the film follows Marcel Martin, an unemployed taxi driver, and his unlikely accomplice, Grandgil, as they navigate the perils of occupied Paris. Based loosely on a short story by Marcel Aymé, the narrative centers on their dangerous mission to deliver four suitcases of black-market meat. The journey is marked by chaos, including a bar brawl and a tense encounter with a German patrol, only to reveal that Grandgil is actually a world-famous painter participating for his own amusement.
Upon its 1956 release, the film was deeply unconventional. While previous cinema had largely depicted the French Resistance as a unified, heroic effort, this production introduced a cynical, gritty perspective. It portrayed collaborators as ordinary citizens and avoided the trope of the innocent victim, a choice that initially drew significant controversy in France. Critics like François Truffaut, however, praised the film for its ferocity and verve, noting that its tendency toward exaggeration elevated the story to an epic scale.
The film was a massive commercial and critical success, recording nearly 4.9 million admissions in France and ranking as the fourth most-watched film of 1956. Bourvil’s performance earned him the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the 17th Venice International Film Festival, a win that established him as a major actor. Today, it is recognized for offering a far more nuanced and complex depiction of the occupation era than the conventional dramas that preceded it.
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- Summary by Intellect · source: La Traversée de Paris (film)
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