The Last Metro

For the earlier film, see The Last Metro (1945 film).
The Last Metro
Film poster
Directed byFrançois Truffaut
Written byFrançois Truffaut
Suzanne Schiffman
Jean-Claude Grumberg
Produced byFrançois Truffaut
Jean-José Richer
StarringCatherine Deneuve
Gérard Depardieu
Jean Poiret
CinematographyNéstor Almendros
Edited byMartine Barraqué
Music byGeorges Delerue
Production
companies
Les Films du Carrosse
Andrea Films
SEDIF
SFP
TF1 Films Production
Distributed byGaumont
Release date
  • 17 September 1980 (1980-09-17)
Running time
131 minutes
CountryFrance
LanguageFrench
Box office$23.3 million[1][2]
3,393,694 admissions (France)[3]

The Last Metro (French: Le Dernier Métro) is a 1980 historical drama film, written and directed by François Truffaut, that stars Catherine Deneuve and Gérard Depardieu.[4]

Opening in 1942, during the Nazi Military Administration in France, the film follows the fortunes of a small theatre in the Montmartre quarter of Paris which keeps up passive resistance by maintaining its cultural integrity, despite censorship, antisemitism and material shortages, to emerge triumphant at the war's end.[5] The title evokes two salient facts of city life under the Germans: fuel shortages led people to spend their evenings in theatres and other places of entertainment, but the curfew meant they had to catch the last Métro train home.

In 1981, the film won 10 Césars for: best film, best actor (Depardieu), best actress (Deneuve), best cinematography, best director (Truffaut), best editing, best music, best production design, best sound and best writing.[4][6] It received Best Foreign Film nominations in the Academy Awards[7] and Golden Globe Awards.[8]

The Last Metro was one of Truffaut's more successful productions, grossing $3,007,436 in the United States; this was also true in France, where it had 3,384,045 admissions, making it one of his more successful films in his native country.[1]

  1. ^ a b JP. "Le Dernier métro (1980)- JPBox-Office". Retrieved 28 October 2016.
  2. ^ "The Last Metro (1981) - Box Office Mojo". Retrieved 28 October 2016.
  3. ^ Box Office information for Francois Truffaut films at Box Office Story
  4. ^ a b Lanzoni, Rémi Fournier (2002). French Cinema: From Its Beginnings to the Present. Continuum. pp. 314–315. ISBN 978-0-8264-1600-1.
  5. ^ Holmes, Diana; Ingram, Robert (1998). François Truffaut. Manchester: Manchester university press. p. 18. ISBN 0-7190-4554-1.
  6. ^ "Palmares". Académie des César. Retrieved 19 November 2008.
  7. ^ "The 53rd Academy Awards (1981) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 2013-06-08.
  8. ^ "Golden Globes, USA: 1981". IMDB. Retrieved 19 November 2008.