Author: Lindeperg, Sylvie

Source: Historical Reflections, Volume 35, Number 2, Summer 2009 , pp. 142-162(21)

Publisher: Berghahn Journals

Abstract:

Unanimously celebrated as an authentic representation of French railroad workers' resistance against the Germans during the Occupation, René Clément's La Bataille du rail (The Battle of the Rails, 1945) was a valuable piece of ideological capital in the wake of France's liberation. Through a close reading of the film's production and reception, this article shows that the film's heroic blueprinting of the Resistance was the result of mediation between two opposing points of view: that of the Marxist Left, which sought to portray the Resistance as belonging to the working class, and that of the Gaullists, who were intent on promoting the myth of an idealized "True France" without class or ideological divisions and united in its opposition to the Germans.

Keywords: RENE CLEMENT; FILM PROPAGANDA; FRENCH COMMUNIST PARTY; GAULLISM; LA BATAILLE DU RAIL (THE BATTLE OF THE RAILS); NAZI OCCUPATION OF FRANCE; RESISTANCE; WORLD WAR II

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3167/hrrh2009.350209

Publication date: 2009-06-01

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• Historical Reflections/Reflections Historiques has established a well-deserved reputation for publishing high quality articles of wide-ranging interest for over thirty years. The journal, which publishes articles in both English and French, is committed to exploring history in an interdisciplinary framework and with a comparative focus. Historical approaches to art, literature, and the social sciences; the history of mentalities and intellectual movements; the terrain where religion and history meet: these are the subjects to which Historical Reflections/Reflexions Historiques is devoted.
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