The Battle of the Rails
1946 film
- 27 February 1946 (1946-02-27)
Running time
The Battle of the Rails (French: La Bataille du rail) is a 1946 French war film directed by René Clément. It depicts the efforts by railway workers in the French Resistance to sabotage German military transport trains during the Second World War, particularly during the Invasion of Normandy by Allies.[1] Many of the cast were genuine railway workers.[2] While critics have often historically treated it as similar to Italian neorealism, it is closer to the traditional documentaries on which the director had worked on.[3]
The film was shown at the 1946 Cannes Film Festival where it won the Prix international du jury and Clément won the Best Director Award. The film also won the inaugural Prix Méliès. In 1949 the film was distributed in America by Arthur Mayer and Joseph Burstyn.
Cast
- Charles Boyer as Narrator
- Jean Clarieux as Lampin
- Jean Daurand as Cheminot
- Jacques Desagneaux as Athos
- François Joux as Cheminot
- Pierre Latour as Cheminot
- Tony Laurent as Camargue
- Robert Le Ray as Chef de gare
- Pierre Lozach as Cheminot
- Pierre Mindaist as Cheminot
- Léon Pauléon as Chef de gare St-André
- Fernand Rauzéna as Cheminot
- Redon as Mecanicien
- Michel Salina as Allemand
See also
References
- ^ Zaretsky, Robert (4 April 2018). "Macron's Been Working on the Railroad". Foreign Policy.
René Clément's classic 1946 film The Battle of the Rails suggests wartime life expectancy of cheminots was even lower – at least among those who sought to sabotage the Nazi war machine in France.
- ^ Williams p.303
- ^ Williams p.303
Bibliography
- Williams, Alan. Republic of Images: A History of French Filmmaking. Harvard University Press, 1992.
External links
- Border Crossings: Placing René Clément’s La Bataille du rail
- La Bataille du rail at IMDb
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Films directed by René Clément
- The Battle of the Rails (1946)
- Mr. Orchid (1946)
- The Damned (1947)
- The Walls of Malapaga (1949)
- The Glass Castle (1950)
- Forbidden Games (1952)
- Knave of Hearts (1954)
- Gervaise (1956)
- This Angry Age (1958)
- Purple Noon (1960)
- The Joy of Living (1961)
- The Day and the Hour (1963)
- Joy House (1964)
- Is Paris Burning? (1966)
- Rider on the Rain (1969)
- The Deadly Trap (1971)
- And Hope to Die (1972)
- Wanted: Babysitter (1975)
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