The Battle of the Rails

The Battle of the Rails
Directed by	René Clément
Written by	René Clément Colette Audry
Produced by	Pierre Lévy-Corti
Starring	Marcel Barnault Jacques Desagneaux Jean Clarieux
Cinematography	Henri Alekan
Edited by	Jacques Desagneaux
Music by	Yves Baudrier
Production company	Coopérative Générale du Cinéma Français
Distributed by	Union Française de Production Cinématographique
Release date	27 February 1946 (1946-02-27)
Running time	85 minutes
Country	France
Language	French

The Battle of the Rails (French: La Bataille du rail) is a 1946 French war film directed by René Clément. It depicts the efforts by railway workers in the French Resistance to sabotage German military transport trains during the Second World War, particularly during the Invasion of Normandy by Allies. Many of the cast were genuine railway workers. While critics have often historically treated it as similar to Italian neorealism, it is closer to the traditional documentaries on which the director had worked on.

The film was shown at the 1946 Cannes Film Festival where it won the Prix international du jury and Clément won the Best Director Award. The film also won the inaugural Prix Méliès. In 1949 the film was distributed in America by Arthur Mayer and Joseph Burstyn.

Cast

• Charles Boyer as Narrator
• Jean Clarieux as Lampin
• Jean Daurand as Cheminot
• Jacques Desagneaux as Athos
• François Joux as Cheminot
• Pierre Latour as Cheminot
• Tony Laurent as Camargue
• Robert Le Ray as Chef de gare
• Pierre Lozach as Cheminot
• Pierre Mindaist as Cheminot
• Léon Pauléon as Chef de gare St-André
• Fernand Rauzéna as Cheminot
• Redon as Mecanicien
• Michel Salina as Allemand

See also

• Battle for the railways

Bibliography

• Williams, Alan. Republic of Images: A History of French Filmmaking. Harvard University Press, 1992.

External links

• Border Crossings: Placing René Clément’s La Bataille du rail
• La Bataille du rail at IMDb