---
title: "The Last Metro"
year: 1980
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-last-metro"
fi1m_id: "the-last-metro"
imdb_id: "tt0080610"
tmdb_id: 1716
wikidata_id: "Q1049604"
fi1m_score: 75
critics_score: 66
critics_reviews: 8
published: "2026-09-26T00:42:08.361218+00:00"
updated: "2026-09-26T00:42:08.853056+00:00"
region: "HK"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# The Last Metro (1980)

Directed by François Truffaut · 2h 11m · Drama, Romance, War

## Identity

The Last Metro

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/the-last-metro
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** the-last-metro
- **IMDb ID:** tt0080610
- **TMDB ID:** 1716
- **Wikidata ID:** Q1049604
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080610/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/1716, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1049604

**Fi1m score: 75** · Critics 66 from 8 reviews

*In a sentence:* The husband is in the cellar, the collaborator is in the stalls, and the play goes on

> Truffaut’s Occupation film is warm, handsome and well acted, and it keeps the war at the far end of the street. Deneuve holds it together; the fear never quite gets into the building. Good company for an evening, and never frightening.

## Synopsis

Paris, 1942. The city is occupied, the curfew is fixed and the audience must catch the last metro. At the Théâtre Montmartre, Marion Steiner (Catherine Deneuve) runs her husband’s company. Lucas Steiner (Heinz Bennent), the Jewish director, is said to have fled abroad. He has not: he is in the cellar, and only Marion knows. Upstairs she must open a new play with Jean-Loup Cottins (Jean Poiret) directing in Lucas’s place, a new leading man, Bernard Granger (Gérard Depardieu), hired from the Grand Guignol, and Daxiat (Jean-Louis Richard), the collaborationist critic, sitting in the stalls. Bernard flirts with the designer, Arlette Guillaume (Andréa Ferréol), and slips out on errands he does not explain. Marion has to keep the theatre open, the play on and the cellar door shut.

## Review

François Truffaut sets his one film about the German Occupation inside a Paris theatre, and that decision tells you most of what you need to know. *The Last Metro* is about the war as it reached the people who kept working through it: a company putting on a new play in 1942 while the curfew empties the streets and the critic who could close them sits in the front row. It is warm, handsome and well acted. It is also gentle to a fault. We liked it a good deal, and we were never once afraid for anyone in it, and in a film about this subject the second fact has to count against the first.

Jean-Pierre Kohut-Svelko’s Théâtre Montmartre is the film’s real subject and its best set: a shabby, handsome house of red plush and bare corridors, with a cellar underneath where the heating pipes run up through the floor of the stage. Néstor Almendros lights the whole thing in browns and ambers, as though the city were running on a ration of lamplight and nobody could spare a second bulb. The stage is the only bright place in Paris; the wings, the street and the cellar are dimmer versions of the same colour. Liselle Roos puts Catherine Deneuve in a succession of hats and belted coats that make Marion look like the one person in the building with somewhere to be, and Georges Delerue’s score stays small and slightly sad, a few bars at a time.

Deneuve plays Marion as a woman who has decided not to be frightened, and you can watch the deciding. Her face gives little away, which is exactly what the film needs, because everyone else in the theatre is looking at her to know how worried to be. Gérard Depardieu’s Bernard is big, restless and never quite still, a man who cannot pass a woman without trying his luck and cannot stand in a doorway without checking the street. Jean Poiret’s Jean-Loup is smooth and kind and on friendly terms with people he should not be, and Poiret lets us see that he knows it.

The best scenes are in the cellar. Heinz Bennent’s Lucas, the director who is supposed to have left the country, sits in the dark and listens to his own play through the heating pipe, mouthing the lines and writing notes for his wife to carry upstairs as if they were her own. We found this more moving than we expected to, and it is the plainest thing in the film: a man directing a play he cannot see, through the one person who is allowed to see him. When Marion comes down after a performance and tells him how it went, the film has a tenderness it does not manage anywhere else.

The trouble is Daxiat. Jean-Louis Richard plays the collaborationist critic as a sweating, sneering menace, and Truffaut, who was a critic before he was anything else, has plainly enjoyed writing him. But he is the only real threat in the film and he is a cartoon, so the danger the whole story hangs on never quite convinces. The Germans are barely seen. The round-ups happen somewhere else. A soldier ruffles a small boy’s hair in the street and his mother marches him straight home to wash it, and that is about as close as the menace comes to the audience. Martine Barraqué cuts everything at the same even, unhurried pace, and a search that ought to stop the breath is over before we had time to hold it.

Against Truffaut’s own work this is the comfortable one. *Day for Night* (1973) put a film crew through the same kind of backstage muddle and had more mess and more spite in it. Here everyone but Daxiat is forgiven, in the Renoir manner Truffaut loved, and the result is that the one man the film condemns is the one it made too easy to condemn. The last ten minutes pull a trick we will not describe; it is a piece of theatre in the plainest sense, and we admired the nerve of it more than we believed a word.

Watch it at home on a winter evening, with the lights low to match Almendros. It runs 131 minutes and carries a PG. Nothing in it would trouble a child. In a film about Paris in 1942, that is the problem.

*Fi1m score 75, published 26 September 2026.*

## What the critics say

Most critics are fond of The Last Metro, though the affection stops short of a rave. The praise gathers around Truffaut’s restraint: the danger of Occupied Paris is kept at the edges of the frame rather than shouted, and several reviews find the film’s warmth and humanity its chief strength. Catherine Deneuve’s Marion is singled out repeatedly, and Variety picks out her scenes with Heinz Bennent and Gérard Depardieu in particular. The theatre company’s stubborn commitment to putting on a play is admired as much as the plot around it.

The reservations cluster on the same restraint seen from the other side. Slant finds the portrait of the Occupation tasteful to the point of sanitised, and The New Yorker notes a plot that leans on coincidence and narrow escapes. Eye for Film calls the romance too muted and the theatricality a drag on tension. The spread is wide: Time Out goes furthest, arguing that Truffaut’s crowd-pleasing instinct threatens to swallow his talent.

## Straight answers

**Is The Last Metro worth watching?**

*The Last Metro* is worth watching for anyone who wants a warm, handsome, well-acted drama about a Paris theatre keeping a play on under the Occupation, and we scored it 75. Catherine Deneuve holds it together and the cellar scenes with Heinz Bennent are the plainest and most moving thing in it. Anyone expecting the fear of wartime Paris will find the war kept at the far end of the street.

**How long is The Last Metro, and what is it rated?**

*The Last Metro* runs 2h 11m. It is a drama and romance film.

**Where can I watch The Last Metro in Hong Kong?**

*The Last Metro* is not on any streaming or rental service in Hong Kong at the moment. It is available in 5 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily.

**How violent or frightening is The Last Metro, and is it suitable for children?**

*The Last Metro* is a PG and is not violent or frightening at all; nothing in it would trouble a child. The Germans are barely seen, the round-ups happen elsewhere, and the one search that ought to stop the breath is over almost before it begins. The subject is the Occupation, so younger children may need it explained, but there is nothing on screen to upset them.

**How does The Last Metro compare to To Be or Not to Be?**

*The Last Metro* is the gentler and more forgiving of the two, and Lubitsch's [*To Be or Not to Be*](https://film.one/film/to-be-or-not-to-be) is the sharper. Both put a theatre company up against the Nazis, but Lubitsch plays it for laughs with real unease underneath, while Truffaut keeps the menace to a single cartoonish critic. Choose Truffaut for warmth and Deneuve; choose Lubitsch for wit and nerve.

### Reviews we read (8)

- **The AV Club**, Keith Phipps (A-): Phipps praises the film’s warmth and humanity amid the peril of wartime occupation. He singles out Truffaut’s restrained depiction of danger and the theater company’s artistic commitment. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/the-last-metro-1798205892)
- **Variety**, Variety Staff (85/100, inferred): The review calls the film richly satisfying, romantic, and uplifting while also finding it a fascinating portrait of life under occupation. It singles out the restrained direction and praises Catherine Deneuve’s performance, especially in her scenes with Heinz Bennent and Gérard Depardieu. [Read](https://variety.com/1979/film/reviews/le-dernier-metro-1200424718/)
- **Empire**, David Parkinson (70/100, inferred): Parkinson presents the film as a humanist, personal take on Occupation-era Paris, while noting its nostalgic portrait drew criticism. He singles out Truffaut’s belief that everyone has their reasons as the film’s central strength. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/last-metro-review/)
- **The New Yorker** (70/100, inferred): The capsule presents the film as a vivid, historically grounded memory piece, though its plot balances on coincidences and narrow escapes. It praises Truffaut’s evocation of wartime Paris through firsthand details of the city and its pervasive antisemitism. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/movies/the-last-metro)
- **The New York Times** (64/100, inferred): The URL identifies a New York Times article titled “The Last Metro: A Melodrama of Sorts.” The page returned only an access prompt, so the critic’s verdict and specific praise or complaint could not be verified. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1980/10/12/arts/the-last-metroa-melodrama-of-sorts.html)
- **Slant Magazine**, Fernando F. Croce (2.5/4): Croce finds the film charming and crowd-pleasing, but limited by fuzzy-centered nostalgia. He praises its warm performances and deft cinematography while faulting its tasteful, sanitized portrayal of Occupied Paris. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/the-last-metro/)
- **Time Out**, TM (35/100, inferred): The available description suggests a critical verdict on Truffaut’s move toward crowd-pleasing. It singles out that tendency as threatening to overwhelm his talent, though the full review is unavailable. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-last-metro)
- **Eye for Film**, Amber Wilkinson (45/100, inferred): Wilkinson finds the film’s many strands oddly muted, with its romance too restrained and its theatricality undercutting tension. She praises the performances, especially Catherine Deneuve’s beguiling portrayal of Marion. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/the-last-metro-1980-film-review-by-amber-wilkinson)

## Details

- **Director:** François Truffaut
- **Director:** François Truffaut
- **Screenplay:** François Truffaut, Suzanne Schiffman
- **Cinematography:** Néstor Almendros
- **Editor:** Martine Barraqué
- **Music:** Georges Delerue
- **Production design:** Jean-Pierre Kohut-Svelko
- **Costume design:** Liselle Roos
- **Producer:** François Truffaut
- **Cast:** Catherine Deneuve as Marion Steiner; Gérard Depardieu as Bernard Granger; Jean Poiret as Jean-Loup Cottins; Andréa Ferréol as Arlette Guillaume; Paulette Dubost as Germaine Fabre; Jean-Louis Richard as Daxiat; Maurice Risch as Raymond Boursier; Heinz Bennent as Lucas Steiner
- **Runtime:** 2h 11m
- **First release (France):** 17 September 1980
- **Genres:** Drama, Romance, War

## Where to watch in Hong Kong

Not streaming, renting or buying in Hong Kong at the last check.

Also available in: BE, DE, FR, GB, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## Awards

- Academy Awards 1981: Best International Feature Film (nominated)
- César Award for Best Actor 1981: César Award for Best Actor (won)
- César Award for Best Actress 1981: César Award for Best Actress (won)
- César Award for Best Cinematography 1981: César Award for Best Cinematography (won)
- César Award for Best Director 1981: César Award for Best Director (won)
- César Award for Best Editing 1981: César Award for Best Editing (won)
- César Award for Best Film 1981: César Award for Best Film (won)
- César Award for Best Music Written for a Film 1981: César Award for Best Music Written for a Film (won)
- César Award for Best Original Screenplay or Adaptation 1981: César Award for Best Original Screenplay or Adaptation (won)
- César Award for Best Production Design 1981: César Award for Best Production Design (won)
- César Award for Best Sound 1981: César Award for Best Sound (won)
- César Award for Best Supporting Actor 1981: César Award for Best Supporting Actor (nominated)
- César Award for Best Supporting Actress 1981: César Award for Best Supporting Actress (nominated)
- David di Donatello for Best Foreign Actress 1981: David di Donatello for Best Foreign Actress (won)
- International Submission to the Academy Awards 1981: International Submission to the Academy Awards (nominated)
- Golden Globes 1980: Best Non-English Language Film (nominated)

## If you liked this

- *To Be or Not to Be* (1942), Fi1m 87: Lubitsch’s Warsaw actors outwit the Nazis; the same idea played for laughs, and sharper. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/to-be-or-not-to-be.md)
- *Children of Paradise* (1945): Made under the Occupation itself, about a Paris theatre; the thing Truffaut is remembering.
- *Army of Shadows* (1969): Melville’s Resistance film, where the fear is real and nobody catches the last metro.
- *Lacombe, Lucien* (1974): Malle on a boy who joins the collaborators; the film Truffaut is too kind to make.
- *Mephisto* (1981): A German actor thrives under the Nazis; ambition on stage with the lights left on.

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/the-last-metro