Customer Reviews

Lucie Aubrac

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is an excellent French film about the French resistance in Paris in 1943. It is a well-told, suspenseful story, but what interests me most is what it would have been had it been in the hands of some Hollywood Spielbergian hack.

The plot is very simple. A Frenchman, one of the leaders of the resistance, is captured, released, then captured again and tortured. With the assistance of his faithful wife and others of the resistance, he escapes and is spirited to England.

In Hollywood, he would have been played by a boy, such as Tom Cruise or Brad Pitt. Or he would have been played by a rugged masculine type, scowling defiance at his enemies, such as Harrison Ford. In this film, he is simply a non-descript, middle-aged, tired man. Brave, but very fearful after his capture. The way it was I'm sure in real life.

The wife would have been played with fierce determination by some beautiful bimbo trying to establish her acting credentials. Julia Roberts with cleavage, for example, or Melanie Griffith with dark hair. In this film, the actress is beautiful, but her beauty is downplayed, except for those scenes in which she consciously uses it to advance the plot. We even get to see her disembark from a bicycle, wearing a frumpy skirt, and anklets.

In Hollywood, the German commander would have been a psychotic, sadistic lunatic, played with relish by a Kiefer Sutherland type, and the scenes of torture would have been gruesome and graphic. In this film, the actor was a very ordinary looking and acting man, and although the torture is not downplayed, it is not titillating either. There is even a German who performs a small kindness. In Hollywood this is not allowed. Germans are either vicious and sadistic, or automatons.

After the first attempt to release the protagonist fails, the Hollywood version would have had the plotters screaming at each other. "Why the &*^% did you do that, you stupid &^%$*(*&!" "What's the matter with you, you &*(^ %$#^!" They would have cried and screamed and thrown things to show how upset they were. In this film, they retire to a café, and quietly, but urgently, discuss what must be done next.

In short, this is a film about adults being forced to make difficult decisions during an extremely difficult time. It was created by adults with intelligence, and it requires a certain amount of intelligence from its viewers. This is a very fine movie. It is unfortunate that most American movies do not attempt to achieve any degree of intelligence whatsoever.

After watching Claude Berri's "Jean de Florette," and "Manon of the Spring," I became a true fan. "Lucie Aubrac" just confirms my belief in Monsieur Berri's talents as a major director, and a discerning producer, in cinema today.

Set in Lyon, during the French Resistance in World War II, "Lucie Aubrac," played brilliantly by Carole Bouquet, is a woman struggling to save her husband from the hands of the Gestapo. The film is based on a true story, and Madame Aubrac's memoir, "Outwitting The Gestapo."

Raymond Aubrac (Daniel Auteuil), is a Resistance fighter in occupied Lyon, and has participated in many acts of sabotage against the Nazis. When he is captured by the Gestapo, headed by the notorious Klaus Barbie ("The Butcher Of Lyon"), he and his companions are believed to be dealing in black market goods, and not sabotage. Lucie, five months pregnant, is terrified that she, their small son, and the new baby will never see Raymond again. With tremendous courage, she sets out, single handedly, to rescue her husband.

Claude Berri directs this thriller, love story, and historical drama with great skill. Part of the film's beauty lies in its simplicity. This is not the history of the French Resistance. It is the personal story of one woman's courage. Everyday life in Lyon, street scenes, people going about their business in wartime France, are juxtaposed with the mortally dangerous activities of Resistance fighters, and with Lucie plotting her husband's escape. The love between Lucie and her husband is palpable, and her determination and intelligence are extraordinary. The scenes where she meets with Gestapo Chief Barbie are tension-packed. And there are no words to describe the emotion evoked when Lucie meets her imprisoned husband and pretends she does not know him .

Carole Bouquet perfectly captures Lucie's fierce determination, patriotism, and passionate love, in an understated manner. Here is a woman with an all important task to accomplish, and she will do what needs to be done to perform the task successfully. There is no time, or energy, to spare on excessive displays of emotion. No room for dramatics. She is focused. Daniel Auteuil, as the exhausted, middle-aged Raymond, fighting to survive torture and imprisonment, expresses more with a look, than many can with pages of dialogue.

I highly recommend this moving film. I know that I will watch it again.

This is a real film about real people - and the original Aubracs were literally real people.

Ditto to everything Paul said. I would just like to add a few details in the hope of increasing people's awareness of what this French warrior goddess actually achieved. (I honoured Lucie with a significant mention in my first book.)

The film is wonderful, but in some ways it is a simplified version of the actual events - especially the ending.

Lucie Aubrac was five months pregnant when she planned and led a successful raid on the Nazi convoy that was taking her husband to his place of execution.

After the rescue, the Aubracs were hidden by loyal comrades for three months until an RAF covert operations aircraft could be sent to retrieve them.

On the night of their escape, the plane, which I believe was a Lockheed Hudson, became stuck in the mud of the landing field, with dawn and the Nazi patrols only a few hours away.

FIFTY local villagers risked their own lives to come to the aid of their beloved Resistance friends and soon the plane was pushed free.

Lucie's daughter was born only a few days after their safe arrival at a British airbase. Her courage and leadership drew praise from battle-hardened Resistance soldiers and RAF aircrews of the elite Moon Squadron.

This film is about true French spirit. About a people who would never surrender, never stop fighting, who helped countless Allied airmen escape back to England, and who eventually liberated Paris even without Allied help. That my friends, is what the real French are like.

A magnificent film.

When we think romance in film...we think of the classics (Greta Garbo, Vivian Leigh, etc). This story of passion between a man and a woman is entirely different. The female heroine simply won't accept the Nazi's execution order for her husband (who was captured in a sting against the French resistance). Therefore, she takes every step imaginable to free him...and succeeds. Now that's love!

Daniel Auteuil has a hidden sexiness that bursts out in this film! This is based on a true story of a French women that helps her husband escape from a Nazi death sentence so that they can keep a promise they made to each other, to make love to each other every year on their anniverary.

It is a powerful drama that not even Hollywood could make. The French are progressive filmmakers that far surpasses the formulaic fluff that is generated by the Hollywood studios. The Hollywood moguls think that American movie-goers cannot think for themselves in the theater.

Great film that all should see. It should not be remade but seen in this version!!!!

I liked this movie. Beautifully done and a good peek into
the French resistance. Kept me interested and a moving 'true' story.

I received Lucie Aubrac VHS version from Westy-1 - there was a glitch (it may have been my VHS Player)- anyway, everything is resolved and Westy-1 I would like to give a five star referral to for their understanding and actions.
The film is, of course, a French classic and a true story which is uplifting and inspiring.
I hope you enjoy it as much as we do.
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I stumbled on this film just after it was released, attracted, as I was, by the two stars, Daniel Auteuil and Carole Bouquet. It tells the story of the French Resistance during the German occupation and focuses on the efforts of Lucie Aubrac, who actually authorized its filming in 1997, a school teacher in Lyon who outwitted the Nazis in her attempts to release her husband from a notorious prison after he had been accused of a lead role in the Resistance. Among the true-to-life characters in the film is Klaus Barbie, the "Butcher of Lyon," played by a fearsome actor who accurately portrays the thuggishness of the top Nazi in Lyon. Also portrayed is Jean Moulin, the leader of the Resistance, who was tortured and then killed by the Nazis (many streets, town squares, schools and other public buildings are named after him). I show this film to my French 2 classes every spring around D-Day (6th of June) and the kids are enthralled by it as well as by the history involved. It is not available in the U.S. in DVD format, but the VHS product is very clear (French, with English sub-titles).

Lucie Aubrac is a delirious, absorbing and engaging drama in the middle of the bloody WW2. this was a true story of Lucie and Raymond Aubrac, when at the outbreak of the War, this couple decides to join the French Resistance. Raymond is Jewish, and is captured by the nazis and condemned to death. But she will risk her life to make a smart plan to liberate him.

Carole Boucquet and Daniel Auteil make a solid and effective team in a tour de force and towering performance, that, supported by this driving force director- Claude Beeri (Germinal, Jean de Florette) make a worthy to collect movie.

In spite of this being a very serious movie about a serious time in history, it is not without some light moments...one of which I am still surprised got left in the final version! Like, when they have just made Love a few minutes before and she says "let's do it again and this time leave IT in me!"

Everything the other people have said is true and my advice is to watch it & judge for yourself! You won't be disaapointed.