''The Battle of the Rails'' (French: ''La Bataille du rail'') is a 1946 French
war film
War film is a film genre concerned with warfare, typically about navy, naval, air force, air, or army, land battles, with combat scenes central to the drama. It has been strongly associated with the 20th century. The fateful nature of battle s ...
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
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
, particularly during the
Invasion of Normandy by
Allied forces. Many of the cast were genuine railway workers. While critics have often historically treated it as similar to
Italian neorealism
Italian neorealism ( it, Neorealismo), also known as the Golden Age, is a national film movement characterized by stories set amongst the poor and the working class. They are filmed on location, frequently with non-professional actors. They pri ...
, it is closer to the traditional
documentaries
A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in term ...
which the director had previously worked on.
[Williams p.303]
The film was shown at the
1946 Cannes Film Festival
The 1st annual Cannes Film Festival was held from 20 September to 5 October 1946. Twenty-one countries presented their films at the "First Cannes International Film Festival", which took place at the former Casino of Cannes. Only one year after t ...
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
Joseph Burstyn (born Jossel Lejba Bursztyn; December 15, 1899 – November 29, 1953) was a Polish-American film distributor who specialized in the commercial release of foreign-language and American independent film productions.
Life and career
B ...
.
Cast
*
Charles Boyer as Narrator
*
Jean Clarieux
Jean Clarieux (April 3, 1911 – February 11, 1970) was a French film and television actor. Generally a supporting actor appearing in smaller parts, he played a more substantial role in René Clément's 1946 resistance film '' The Battle of the Ra ...
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
*
Battle for the railways
References
Bibliography
* Williams, Alan. ''Republic of Images: A History of French Filmmaking''.
Harvard University Press
Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retir ...
, 1992.
External links
Border Crossings: Placing René Clément’s La Bataille du rail*
1946 films
1946 war films
French war films
Films about the French Resistance
Rail transport films
History of rail transport in France
Films directed by René Clément
French black-and-white films
French World War II films
1940s French-language films
1940s French films
{{1940s-France-film-stub