Movie: La Bataille du Rail (1945)

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LA BATAILLE DU RAIL, the remarkable and courageous film from noted French director René Clément (Forbidden Games, Gervaise), finally makes its way to home video. During the Occupation of France by Nazi Germany, French railway workers bravely battled the Nazi cause on many fronts. From transporting forbidden mail to committing acts of sabotage, these unsung heroes of the war were an invaluable tool of the French Resistance. Their efforts aided the Allied invasion in June 1944 and contributed mightily to its success.Clément completed his film during the final months of World War II under extremely dangerous conditions, using of a cast of non-professionals. Legendary cameraman Henri Alekan (Beauty and the Beast, Roman Holiday), himself a resistance fighter who escaped Nazi POW camps, shot the film in a gritty, semi-documentary style. All of these elements have caused film historians to compare LA BATAILLE DU RAIL to Rossellini's groundbreaking neorealist film Open City.

B&W, Full Screen, 85 mins.