Retour à la vie (1949)
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Directors
André Cayatte, Henri-Georges Clouzot, Jean Dréville, Georges Lampin
Cast
Bernard Blier, Jane Marken, François Périer, Patricia Roc, Louis Jouvet, Monette Dinay, Noël-Noël, Madeleine Gérôme, Serge Reggiani, Cécile Didier
Five postwar stories follow former prisoners and deportees as they struggle to rebuild their lives.
The story
This film follows five people attempting to return to ordinary life after wartime imprisonment or deportation. Aunt Emma comes back from Dachau to face her family’s greed. Antoine, a barman, regains his job, but the hotel is requisitioned by the Women’s Army Corps, bringing romantic complications. Jean Girard returns from Nazi penal camps to find a Gestapo torturer at his boarding house. René, a repatriated prisoner, struggles with his wife’s departure and an occupied apartment. In the final story, Louis’s marriage to a German woman provokes an uprising in his native village.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
A study of prisoners of war and deportees returning to normal life. Aunt Emma’s return: back from the Dachau camp, where she had been deported, Aunt Emma is confronted with her family’s greed. Antoine’s return: the barman, Antoine, gets his job back, but the hotel is requisitioned by the WACs (Women’s Army Corps), leading to romantic complications. Jean’s return: Jean Girard, back from the Nazi penal camps, finds a Gestapo torturer in the modest boarding house where he lives. He takes justice into his own hands. René’s return: René, who is supposed to be a repatriated prisoner, has difficulty readjusting. His wife has left him, and his apartment is occupied. He is forced to come to terms with the woman who has taken his place and adopt her children. Louis’s return: the village where Louis was born rises up when it learns that he has married a German woman, but suicide lies at the end of the road.
Genres
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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