A tragic page in French history is examined in the film of 1974. We are taken to the Jewish quarter of Paris where the French policemen are going through the Marais, looking through the businesses and houses marked as belonging to Jews. The policemen, if one is to believe it, are not mean, but they have a mandate to get these citizens into buses that will take them to the area where they will be sent to concentration camps and to a sure death.Paul Lobier, a young student, decides to go through the area trying to get people to the left bank, where he and his friends will try to shelter them from the police. No one takes his offer seriously. Even when he meets Jeanne, the young Jewish woman on her way to work, is reluctant to even consider she will not join her family in their predicament. Like all her fellow Jews, Jeanne is made to wear the hideous yellow star that identifies her of being one. The film spends most of its time following Paul and Jeanne as they go through the Marais trying to get across the Seine to a possible safe place.Michel Mitrani was perhaps one of the first French filmmakers to tell the story of that hateful day in the history of his country. The film is based on a story by Roger Boussinot, adapted for the screen by the director and Albert Cossery. The strength of the film lies in the way Mr. Mitrani was able to recreate, with what appears to be great authenticity, that fatal day. Not having seen "Sarah's Key" yet, one wonders how it will tie in with this story of forty years ago, but one that shows the shame these innocent people were made to endure because of the hatred, prejudice of their fellow citizens that had no pity is collaborating into their extermination.Christian Rist and Christine Pascal are seen as Paul and Jeanne. Michail Auclair shows up in a small role almost at the end, as the pimp who was the only one that had the audacity of helping the couple.

Black Thursday:the French police are arresting all the Jews,putting them on buses and sending them to the velodrome d'hiver.From here,next stop will be the concentration camps.A young student,Paul decides to save some Jews.Having endured some refusals,he finally meets a young girl,Jeanne,(Christine Pascal) who reluctantly agrees to follow him.The depiction of the Jew community verges on caricature,focusing on commonplace and physical appearance:one critic wrote that Christine Pascal's nose seemed to have been reshaped in order "to look more Jewish".Everything happens in the space of one afternoon:the French people are sometimes hateful,most of the time indifferent.Only a pimp(!) -a Michel Auclair's cameo,professeur Floster in "funny face"!- intervenes on behalf of Paul and his protégée!Absolutely all the Jews are resigned to their fate,which may seem simplistic to some.This was the first fiction film to tackle this taboo subject,one of the darkest page of French history.But as far as cinema is concerned,you will be better off with Joseph Losey's "Mr Klein" (1976).