LA RAFLE (THE ROUNDUP)

France, 2010, 115 minutes. Colour.
Jean Reno, Melanie Laurent, Gad Elmaleh, Raphaelle Agogue, Hugo Leverdez, Mathieu Di Concerto, Romain Di Concerto, Sylvie Testud, Anne Brochet.
Directed by Rose Bosch.

Most audiences will find this a very sad, even harrowing film to watch. It is the story of the rounding-up of French Jews in Paris in the summer of 1942. The Nazis had occupied Paris (seen in news footage during the credits) and Marshall Petain, hero of World War I, was governing in Vichy, an anti-Semitic authority, pleasing the Third Reich.

The film focuses on a particular quarter of Paris and three families living there. While we can identify with these characters, they serve as showing us the range of people who were rounded up – although many Parisians sheltered the Jews and helped them escape so that the quota promised to Berlin was never fulfilled. The sequences showing the authorities and the Petain government are chilling and are interspersed throughout the film as are enactments of Hitler, both his rantings and discussions with Himmler and his relaxing with Eva Braun and being filmed on his holidays in the mountains, a stark contrast with what was happening in Paris.

The round-up featured recently in the moving Sarah’s Key although that film took the action beyond 1942 into the present (including the featuring of President Chirac’s acknowledgement of France’s shame for the events and the suffering). As with Sarah’s Key, the handheld cameras immerse the audience in the confusion and struggles of the round-up, in the homes with the brutal behaviour of police and military (along with some sexual menace) and in the streets where they were ‘following orders’.

The overwhelming section of the film is that where thousands of men, women and children, are hurried into the Paris Velodrome, with two days clothing and rations, and put into squalid and filthy situations (which the film does not spare us). The uncertainty is frightening as well as the dire prospects (which are what happens). There is a powerful sequence in the Velodrome, where people are trying to cope, some reading, some playing cards, the children being rowdy, old men praying, where the firemen come in and their commander is appalled and defies strict underlings in allowing his men to produce the hoses and provide water for the people – and advises them on how they can safely post the many messages handed to them.

While the three families that we have met in the quarter and identified with, the Weismanns, the Zygler’s (the mother is pregnant) and the Traubes , are in the Velodrome, our attention is drawn to the Jewish doctor who is trying to cope with the ordinary illnesses, the children with measles and chickenpocks, the dehydrated. He is played with a quiet devotion by Jean Reno. He is assisted by very few nurses. One devout Protestant nurse, Annette (Melanie Laurent) is assigned and exhausts herself with the constant work and care. The film shows respect to Christian help for the Jews with Annette, a priest who wears a Star of David and helps some to escape and nuns who bring food to the camps.

When the crowds are transferred from the Velodrome, they go to camps in the country and then comes the harrowing separation of men and women, the isolation of the children and the trains to the East – with the saddening final information of how very few (very few) adults and children ever returned.

The film does end with some hope and some reunions but they are desperately few. However, we experience a terrible story of extraordinary 20th century inhumanity which is both tear and anger inducing.

1. A film based on actual events? French history and awareness of this episode? French shame? The films about the roundup?

2. Audience response, emotionally through stories, intellectually in the perceptions of evil and inhumanity? Hitler and the Third Reich? Marechal Petain? The French police and military?

3. The re-creation of Paris, the neighbourhoods, costumes and décor, cars? Atmosphere of realism? The Velodrome and its interiors, the crowds, the galleries? The action? The countryside, the paths, the concentration camps, the railway stations and trains? The musical score?

4. The title, the focus?

5. The particular stories, highlighting the overall episode? The Weismann family? The Zygler family and the children? The Traubes? The doctor, Annette? Focused on particular individuals and families but encompassing all?

6. The impact of the inserts about Hitler, his ranting, relaxing, with Eva Braun, with the children, filming? With Himmler? His moods, decisions, anti-Semitism? The opening and the newsreel of his surveying Paris? The effect of intercutting these sequences with the action of the roundup?

7. The scenes with Marechal Petain, World War One and his heroism, his discussions, the Vichy government, anti-Semitic, agreeing to the roundup? The letter of Cardinal Suhard, its not being made public so therefore it being considered as non-existant? The French officials, the planning, the failure to get the numbers, the characters of these officials?

8. The opening, Paris as a city, Hitler and the Nazi presence, the reality of Paris and its reputation? The effect of its being occupied?

9. The quarter, the homes, the children at school, ballet training, the teacher and his sympathy at school, wearing the Stars of David, the reactions? The grocer and his wife and their bigotry? The details of ordinary life? Many not anticipating the roundup? The women sitting and knitting and discussions?

10. The Weismanns, the father and the Trotskyist background communism, the wife and her religious attitudes, keeping Shabat, with her children? Jo as the focus? His age, life, playing, friends from school, Simon and Nono? Their mother and her pregnancy? Her being taken, her death – and withholding this knowledge from the children, especially Nono? The Traubes, their life, well off? The ironing and laundry? Audiences identifying with these characters?

11. The plans, the designated numbers, the role of the police, orders?

12. The filming of the roundup, the camerawork, audiences immersed in the confusion, the fear, brutality, sexual menace, the suicides? The taking of rations, clothes? The transport to the Velodrome

13. The Velodrome, the crowds, the film not shirking the mundane details of sanitation, food and water, clothing? Issues of food? The water and the firemen and the officer turning on the hoses for the drinking water? Illnesses, the doctor, the nurses, not enough to treat all the people? Children’s illnesses, chicken pox and measles, the Down Syndrome child? The pregnant women? The numbers, occupying the space? The children playing, reading comics, the cards, the prayers? The shouting at the police?

14. The character of the doctor, his dedication, his work, personality? His working with the nurses? The affection for Annette?

15. The nurses, the training and the presentation of the Jewish nurses, the advice to help them escape, the graduation? Annette and her being assigned to the Velodrome, the audience seeing the Velodrome through her eyes? Her hard work, relating with the children, Nono and his affection, not telling him of his mother’s death, her fatigue, the Traube girl, helping her to escape as the wife of the cleaner? The officer and his remarking that was well played – and the threats to her, sexual menace, her shrewdness in eluding the police, trying to warn her father, her being captured?

16. The soldiers and the police, following orders, those with sympathy for the Jews, the firemen, the water, taking all the messages and posting them? The authorities and the failed numbers? Petain and the discussions? The liaison officer and his reporting to the government group?

17. Transporting the people to the camp, walking along the country path, the concentration camp look, the huts and the bunks? The children, the meagre soup, Annette taking on the diet, her collapsing, letters to the mayor, going to see him, collapsing, the relief with the supply of food? The doctor and his continued work? The Traube girl coming to the fence and giving the message to her parents?

18. The separation of men and women, the children? The Weismanns, their separation, their daughter and her anguish, Jo taken apart, his mother urging him to survive?

19. The trains, Annette ill, riding the bike, not reaching the train in time, the doctor being transported, Nono? Jo and his work with the boy, the escape, the children causing the rumpus to distract the authorities? Their being on the train tracks, seeing the train going east?

20. The background of the Protestant Annette and her dedication, the priest and his helping people escape, the nuns bringing food to the camp? The respect for other religions?

21. The reunions, Jo and his arrival, meeting Annette? Nono being brought to Annette, the reunion? The people gathering, the photos, the meetings, the regrets?

22. The figures given about the disappearances, the adults and the concentration camps? The children? The portrait of suffering? The inhumanity against the Jews? The Third Reich? The French officials? To what purpose?