|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Paris, March, 1942.
The victorious German occupying power
demands that France pay a colossal financial contribution - 400 million francs a day - to the German war effort.
'Continental Films', a German controlled production company founded in 1940 in Paris by Albert Greven, is a snare similar to the one into which the French nation has already fallen. Should French technicians agree to work for Continental? |
|
|
Is it a hiding place 'in between the wolf's fangs, where it cannot bite you', or is it equivalent to collaborating with the enemy? Drawing on their real-life experiences, 'LAISSEZ-PASSER' is the story of two men whose lives converge and interweave.
Jean Devaivre (JACQUES GAMBLIN), is an assistant director, who joins Continental as the best possible cover for his Resistance activities. He is a man of action, rash, impulsive and daring. Jean Aurenche (DENIS PODALYDÈS), a scriptwriter and poet, uses every possible excuse to turn down any offers of work from the Germans. He is watchful, insatiable, curious and torn between his three mistresses. Above all, he is an observer who resists when he takes up his pen and writes. Their professional and personal circles include dozens of other people, some resigned to their country’s fate, others who carry on the struggle. There are fighters and collaborators, but in German-occupied France, they all have to combat hunger, cold and petty restrictions simply to survive.
This film is dedicated to those who lived through this time.
|
|
|
