George Benlian on movies, books and few other things

Rene Bousquet - A lucky criminal with a tragic end

Second blog within days apart having as subject the Second World War is pure coincidence. I watched tonight a french telemovie called "Rene Bousquet ou le grand arrangement" by veteran director Laurent Heynemann. Although i am known as someone preferring movies made for the cinema, recently i enjoyed very much watching French telemovies based on real characters. Last year i saw "De Gaulle" (Extremely good) and "Les amants de Flore" about the French litterary couple, Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone De Beauvoir and this year apart this telemovie, i am going to watch another one based on Francoise Sagan life.

Who was Rene Bousquet? As noted in my title, we could resume his existence as a lucky criminal who had a tragic end. His role in the deportation of Foreign Jews in France during the Vichy regime was kept well hidden until 1978. An article in the French magazine, "L'express" followed by accusations against one of his close collaborators brought the past into a harsh reality faced by this well respected personality who counted among his friends, the French President of France between 1981 and 1995, Francois Mitterand. Fifteen years later, in 1993, the gradual outcome on Bousquet's responsabilities for assisting the occupier in their mission of extermination of jews were taking this eighty four year old in front of the justice. Faith decided a different end with  Rene Bousquet assassination in June 1993 preventing a trial on a man accused for crime against Humanity.

De Gaulle was played by Bernard Farcy, a French actor specialised in small roles. Bousquet is played by another character actor, Daniel Prevost who is well known for playing cynical roles in popular comedies. Becoming Bousquet is a proof that those character actors have lots of talent and are entitled to be saluted and well appreciated.

There are numerous articles about Rene Bousquet (Most of them in French naturally). There is even a website prepared by his son (Claiming his total innocence naturally). The link of an interesting article in English published just after his assasination is shown below.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/1993/jun/09/france.paulwebster

Please note that i have this telemovie in English subtitles on DVD. Any friend in Sydney who may be interested to borrow it can do so by contacting me.

Amen by Costa Gavras

Political drama has always been Costa Gavras signature theme. "Z" and "L'aveu" from the late sixties and "Section Special" from mid seventies remain important and powerful political thrillers reflecting the era of cold war and the damage of communism in East Europe.

"Amen" is his first attempt with the Second World War. Made in 2002, this coproduction between Germany, Romania and France contains no scene of violence. However, through the journey of Chemist Kurt Gerstein, an SS officer who discovers with horror his developed Zyklon-B pellets are being used to kill thousands of jews cramped in the deportation camps, the audience becomes a witness of these atrocities.

Based on true events although slightly fictitious (Gerstein made suicide after the war has ended)"Amen" brings forward another distressing thesis; the role of the Catholic Church that was too slow to act. The movie has a second important character, an italian priest based in Germany that will try from his end and through his strong contacts to inform the Holy Father about the ignored daily tragedy.

Numerous movies are made about the Second World War. "Amen" brings however a different approach. From one side the main character is a sympathetic German SS officer utterly disgusted on what his own people are doing for the sake of a total extermination plan and on the other side the hierarchy of the Catholic Church and the lack of strong condemning position that still today remains a disturbing matter.

"Amen" is a confronting drama with an absolute honnest look on the darkest period of the last Century.