(aka "The Mayor's Dilemma" )
directed by Raymond Bernard
France 1939
Made on the eve of the Second World
War, and looking back to 1914, Les Otages (literally, The
Hostages) explores the crisis that arises when a French village is
overrun by the German army. Raymond Bernard mixes humour and an
unashamed propaganda message into a story of heroism in unexpected
places. As in his great masterpiece
Les Miserables (1933), Bernard uses
expressionistic techniques of dramatic lighting and slanting camera
angles to heighten the sense of danger and moral disorientation.
The screenplay, co-written by Jean Anouilh, caused problems for both
French and German censors, the one finding it too ironic in its
depiction of French patriotism, the other seeing too much weakness in
the portrayal of the German officers. The restored edition on this DVD
has been assembled from two differently-censored prints and is believed
to represent the complete film in its intended form.
"What I wanted to do with Les Otages was to place six typically French individuals in a typically French village. Show their petty lives, their petty worries, their petty hatreds, their petty ambitions. And then subject them to the great collective drama of war." Raymond Bernard
Poster
![]() |
Theatrical Release: April, 1939
Reviews More Reviews DVD Reviews
DVD Review: Les Documents Cinématographiques - Region 0 - PAL
DVD Box Cover |
|
CLICK to order from:
|
Distribution |
Les Documents Cinématographiques Region 0 - PAL |
|
Runtime | 1:41:27 (4% PAL speedup) | |
Video |
1.33:1 Original Aspect Ratio |
|
Audio | French and German (mono) | |
Subtitles | English, French, none | |
Features |
Release Information: Studio: Les Documents Cinématographiques Aspect Ratio:
Edition Details: Chapters 24 |
Comments: |
No complete print of Les Otages is known to exist. For this region-free progressive DVD edition, the film has been reconstructed from two censored copies, one French, the other Swiss-German. Fortunately for us, the censorship in each case was substantially different, allowing the restorers to piece together the complete film using Raymond Bernard's shooting script as a guide.
The French and Swiss elements each
show moderate levels of grain and damage, but are of comparable quality,
so the transitions are not too jarring. However, one unavoidable problem
is that the segments from the Swiss copy have German subtitles that are
ingrained on the image. When the player-generated optional English
subtitles are activated, a semi-opaque black box is used to dim the
German subtitles (if present) so that they do not distract the viewer.
See the final capture below for a sample of this. |
DVD Menus
|
|
|
|
Screen Captures
|
|
|
|
|
|
Example of
player-generated English subtitles overlaid on ingrained German
subtitles
|