Monsieur Batignole: A Wonderful Film About the Holocaust, Where Hope Has the Last Word
In France, you’d say all films are independent films. Low-budget, original stories with impeccable acting and uncanny scripts. French cinema is well known to us for portraying vivid, uncommon characters dressed up in the most conventional stereotypes. A good example? AmÃ?©lie, who took the world by storm, and made Audrey Tautou a bona fide actress.
Edmond Batignole is no exception to this rule.
The film opens with a heart-breaking scene. A Jewish family, the Bernsteins, are about to escape France with the aid of a fellow doctor and neighbor. The father is instructing the wife and the children how they will go about leaving France for Switzerland. They have packed the strictly necessary and hid a few valuables, in hope of a safe return.
In the same building lives a man they all know as Monsieur Batignole, a butcher who own a shop and a modest apartment which he shares with his wife, his daughter and his insufferable future son-in-law.
The year is 1942, France has been ransacked by the army of the Third Reich. French people are still adjusting to their new lives. Jewish families know well that they must try to escape while they still can. Others have decided that in order to survive the best way to go is to become a collaborator and become a spy for the SS officers.
Monsieur Batignole (masterfully portrayed by GÃ?©rard Jugnot) seems to be keeping his distance. He doesn’t get involved in politics. He says it himself, “I am a business man.” His priority is to have his shop doing well, especially during a time where food is scarce. However, Batignole’s life is turned upside down the moment he sees himself, without any knowledge, involved in a plot which endangers the life of his neighbor, Monsieur Bernstein. Next thing he knows his business is flourishing and, wait a minute, he has a high-tanking SS officer dining in his home.
How did this happen?
In a most exquisite fashion, we are introduced to the different characters of the story, and we see the life of an ordinary man turned into a tale of wonders.
We meet Madame Batignole, Edmond’s wife, a woman who has decided to make the best of the situation. She is not an evil woman, but, she does have ambition and she wishes her husband had some to. Marriage is less than perfect, but it’s all she knows. The Batignoles have raised a daughter who is been taught to behave properly, though in her heart she’s wild and rebellious. Finally, we are introduced to Pierre-Jean (CÃ?©sar-winning actor Jean-Paul Rouve), Edmond’s future son-in-law. Pierre Jean dreams of being a screenwriter, but is too mediocre for words-literally. Pierre-Jean gets turned on with clever phrases he hears randomly from one person or another. He feels he has a million one-million franc ideas, but never quite hits a high note in his failing career.
Let me add too that Pierre Jean is a Nazi collaborator. Being a Nazi spy had its perks as the Batignoles soon find out. Madame is ecstatic, mademoiselle is suddenly frequenting the Nazi jet-set gatherings, Pierre Jean is being dined and wined by high ranking officers, and, yes, the Batignoles suddenly acquire a nicely decorated apartment which, Mon Dieu!, used to belong to a nice Jewish family. Edmond is now catering soirees he never dreamed existed and so, one night, his life gets saved by the bell! Someone’s knocking at the door! Who could it be? Adolf himself? Nope, it’s Simon Bernstein (new comer Jules Sitruk), the one and only survivor of his neighbor’s family, the same one who owns the apartment where there is now a display of the swastika.
What will simple-minded Edmond do now? The movie is about to begin!
Edmond Batignole has found a most clever, adventurous and heart-warming crusade as he decides to help Simon and two other children to escape to Switzerland. Jugnot (recently acclaimed for his portrayal in Les Choristes) also directs the film. He keeps his lines simple, clean, and still manages to make us laugh. It’s a sad story, but we are never led to a road of hopelessness. On the contrary, we meet ordinary folks with extraordinary hearts, and, an absolutely refreshing and unexpected ending.
A standing ovation must be given to the child. Sitruk delivers a most fascinating performance, which is never too cute, never too dull. It’s fun, exciting and takes the viewer’s mind by storm!
Yes, it’s yet another film about the Holocaust, but this is a good story. It’s a story of victory. A victory not won by bloodshed, but by the kindness of a man like any other, except he is a hero, like few ever dared to be.
