The Battle of the Rails
Directed byRené Clément
Written byRené Clément
Colette Audry
Produced byPierre Lévy-Corti
StarringMarcel Barnault
Jacques Desagneaux
Jean Clarieux
CinematographyHenri Alekan
Edited byJacques Desagneaux
Music byYves Baudrier
Production
company
Coopérative Générale du Cinéma Français
Distributed byUnion Française de Production Cinématographique
Release date
27 February 1946
Running time
85 minutes
CountryFrance
LanguageFrench

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

  1. ↑ 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.
  2. ↑ Williams p.303
  3. ↑ Williams p.303

Bibliography

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