When a movie pulls its punches it’s always a good idea to ask why. In the case of Moulin, a biopic of a national hero of France from the second world war, the obvious answer is because it was designed with younger audiences in mind. As a primer for who our heroes were, what they stood for and what they endured, it does cover all the bases, but the worst atrocities are only hinted at. Kids need to know about the abyss, and sometimes even glance in it, but letting them stare into it is rarely a great idea. On that level Moulin fills a need. But that discretion is not replaced here by insight, or exceptional performances, or anything particularly special. Moulin will keep the teens quiet during a few history classes and nothing more.
Everyone in this movie is so famous in France that very little backstory is supplied. But we begin as Jean Moulin (Gilles Lellouche) does a night parachute drop into the occupied territory of southern France (and wearing a suit and tie under his kit) in spring 1943. He is the head of the Resistance, personally organising a vast network of spies and saboteurs and trusting no one. His cover, under the name Max, is as an art dealer and decorator, working for a countess (Louise Bourgoin) who can afford to renovate her apartments in the middle of the war. But all the code names and secret identities are for naught when an emergency meeting is raided by the Gestapo. Moulin is left to rot in a jail cell shared with an allegedly apolitical young man named Martin (Félix Lefebvre) except when he is brought out for interrogation. These interrogations are done by a man who needs no introduction: Klaus Barbie (Lars Eidinger), the Butcher of Lyon.
If introduction is needed, a quick skim of Barbie’s Wikipedia page will give you a good idea of the evil that is only hinted at here. The major torture scene keeps a close focus on Moulin’s face as his eyes are pried open to force him to watch what the audience only hears. This discretion is especially appreciated because of how much Olivier Demangel’s screenplay has Moulin insist that he would not survive being tortured himself. Mr. Lellouche, who is too old for the part, plays Moulin as smart and decent, but nowhere near as calculating as he ought to be. There’s even one dreadful little scene where he begs another prisoner shaving him, under armed guard, to slit his throat ‘for France.’ Suicide might have been the smart play; Barbie is a skilled interrogator, expert at manipulating people and comfortable with disgusting violence. Eidinger is bone-chilling in the part and by far the best thing about the film. However considering that, in real life, Moulin was gruesomely tortured to death, portraying him with such a lack of honor makes little sense.
Except. Director László Nemes, who is Hungarian and also Jewish, won a major prize at Cannes in 2015 with his first film, Son of Saul, but has more recently been in the press spotlight for his ongoing commentary on the current Gaza war, starting with his public statement about Jonathan Glazer’s acceptance speech for his 2024 Oscar for The Zone of Interest. These remarks of Mr. Nemes’ have received so much attention because they are kind of surprising. There is no single correct way for a person to abide by their conscience and to say so is just as offensive as saying there’s a single correct way to follow your faith. For someone whose movies focus on collusion and survivor’s guilt in and after the second world war, Mr. Nemes’ talk on the current situation seems to show a less nuanced understanding. That means it’s hard not to wonder how this lack of insight shaped Moulin. The thing is it’s hard to understand why anyone would want to cut him down to size. Jean Moulin lived a hero and was horribly murdered for it. To downplay that courage and bravery is a very odd choice, and maybe someday Mr. Nemes will explain why his conscience guided him to do so. Instead we learn that his next film will be an adaption of a Cormac McCarthy novel about incest and infanticide. Perhaps right now the abyss is looking back at him.
Moulin recently played at the Cannes Film Festival.
Learn more about the film at the IMDB site for the title.
You might also like…
