• REVIEWS • Robert Enrico's Au nom de tous les miens

For those who lived through the real Holocaust, watching the 1979 television miniseries Holocaust was nonetheless traumatic. In once-occupied countries like France, the showing of the series became a subject for furious debate, vociferous denials that had ever taken place and a resurgence of anti-Semitism. Some film producers felt there was a need for more films about the terrible wartime martyrdom of the Jews of Europe, and began cast­ ing about for stories. The France- coproduction Au nom de tous les miens, which recently had its world.premiere in Montreal, is one of these films. Martin Gray IMajcek Grayewski) is a 58-year-old Warsavian, and a survivor of the Ghetto, the Treblinka death camp, the Polish underground, the Soviet Red Army, and various business endeavors in the U.S. and France. In 1970, while living in the south of France, Gray's wife and family were killed in a forest fire, and Gray, after contempla­ ting suicide, turned instead to writing. His 1971 autobiography, "Au nom de tous les miens" ghostwritten by French novelist and presidential cultural advisor Max Gallo, would sell 35 million copies worldwide and be translated into 19 languages. Gray held onto the

film rights for 10 years, until Frenchl producers Andre Djaoui and Jacques­ • Descent into the Nazi inferno: Au nom de tous les miens' Michael York and Macha Meril arriving in the Eric Strauss and Franco-Italian film director Robert Enrico persuaded him actor, 24-year-old Jacques Penot, who can be played with Canada's not espe­ film home, so to speak, to recoup some they could make a film that would be plays the young Martin Gray, struggles cially am using official coproductions of the $2 million Canadian that went faithful to the book's message of life. valiantly to carry a very big part that's (another kind of game played by pro­ into the making of Au nom de tous les Au nom de tous les miens thus faith­ almost beyond him. Through no fault of ducers and bureaucrats in tall buil­ miens. fully Gray's story, beginning with his his own, for the biggest mystery of the dings) is called Guess What's Canadian family's forced move into the Warsaw film (and the book) is that Gray himself In This Officially Canadian Film. In this Michael Dorland • Ghetto, his adolescent discovery of is little more than someone who some­ round, the clue is that Au nom de tous black-marketeering and his descent how survived through terrible expe­ les miens had 20% Canadian participa­ into the inferno, in a chronicle of hor­ riences. It's never clear, either, why it tion, so you shouldn't set your expecta­ rors that would not cease until Gray's was important to survive or how he was tions too high. AU NOM DE TOUS LES MIENS d . able to. He just did and lived to tell the If Robert Enrico exec. p. Andre Djaoui (Fr.I, Pierre desertion from the Red Army in its vic­ Time's up. you answered "Not David (Cdal p. Jacques·Eric Strauss (Fr.I, Claude torious rampage across Germany. While story. bloody much", you're right. Of Canada Heroux (Cdal sc. Robert Enrico, Tony Sheer, based the postwar years would find Gray If Gray's message boils down to life at in this two-hour film one finds a three­ on the bood by Martin Gray and Max Gallo mus. living a more or less normal life, that any price, that seems like pretty thread­ minute interior sequence set in a Mont­ compo Maurice Jarre a.d. Stephane Loison (Fr.l, bare optimism. The film appears less Altila Monos !Hungaryl, John Fretz (Cdal, Angelo normality would be shattered by the real apartment that's actually supposed Pastore (Fr.1. Frank Ruszczynski (Cdal, Jerome Enrico second holocaust that consumed his concerned with overtly making a state­ to be in New York, as well as the odd (Fr.1 coach Louise Vincent cont. Monique Cham­ immediate family - his grandmother, ment other than to show, perhaps, that brief exterior also masquerading as the pagne (edal cam. op. Franc;:ois Catonne focus parents and younger brothers having when many people are swept up by good, old US of A. Informed sources Bernard Noisette cam. assts. Michel Sourioux, cataclysmic events, some do make it Pascal Rabaud, Pascal Ridao, Yvan Brunet (Cdal, died in the first. The film concludes report that there's hope a little more Jonathan Goodwill (Cdal sd. Claude Hazanavicius with its beginning, where a shattered through. Canada (where two months of shooting (C dal, Harrik Maury sd. stage Jean Neny, Jacques Martin Gray (played by Michael York Given the origins of the film and took place) may yet appear on the six­ Thomas-Gerard ed. Patricia Neny sd. ed. Michele strongly resembling Gray himself) Martin Gray's own dedication to the hour miniseries slated to hit the box this Neny assts. sd. Aurore Camp, Michel Klochendler cause of public awareness of what the dubbing Daniel Couteau art d . Jean-Louis Poveda resolves to tell the story of'those I loved', spring. . p. des. Franc;:ois de Lucy (Cdal asst. art d . Jean­ the film's English title. Holocaust meant, Au nom de tous les Happily, there's another side to the Pierre Lemoine, Tivadar Bertalan !Hung.I , Jeffrey The book is a very slick commercial miens leaves something to be desired. coin. While there may not be much of Goodman (Cdal res. Naciba Sator props. Marcel product: a page-turner, propelled along But if you assume a public that knows Canada on-screen, Canadians behind Laude cost. des Corinne Jorry dresse .... Christine nothing about what transpired in Euro­ the camera and behind the desks have Guegan, Michele Ric her stillsmen Egon Endrenyi by ceaseless action. The film, while not !Hung.I, Piroska Mihalka (C da l, Yves Mirkine make­ quite as slick, is nevertheless on a res­ pe during the years 1939-1945, then the done more than their 20% worth to bring up Phuong Maittret, Michele Dion (Cda l, Sandor pectable par with television's standards film is at least a point of departure. this film to a theatre near you. Remark­ Matrai (Hung.1 hairConstantNatale (Cdal key grip of big-screen fare: lots of sound and When considered from the vast Ame­ ably sharp eyesight is required to read Andre Atellian, Marc d e Ernsted (Cdal gaffers Jean­ rican know-nothingness, such lingering' the miniscule print at the bottom of the Claude Le Bras, Don Caulfie ld (Cdal, Ferenc Katai fury, tolerable amounts of blood and (Hung.1 firearms Bela Gajdos(Hung Istunts Pierre gore; feats of courage; in short, the traces of an educational purpose do made-in-France presskit, but it does in­ Rosse assoc. p. Maurice Genoyer, Denise Di Novi Cecil B. De Mille version of history. Only nonetheless manage to reflect favorably form one that the film's Canadian execu­ (Cdal p. man. Francis Peltier, Peter Ivanov !Hung.I, the scenes involving Treblinka (elabora­ on Canada's participation in the making tive producer was Los Angeles' own Pier­ Roger Herou x (Cdal p. admin. Andre Mennecier. of Au nom de tous les miens, even if the re David ; that Claude Heroux (the other Serge Major (Cdal loc. man. Franc;:ois Ouimet tely reconstructed on location in Hun­ (Cd a l, I1d iko Vegvari !Hung.1 p. assls. Sylvia Mon­ gary) transcend these limitations to point of it all remains an American TV half of the team that recently brought talti. Monik Nantel (Cdal p. sec. Therese Prigent, achieve something closer to the real sale or Majors deal. Associating Cana­ us Going Berserk, an authentic piece of So lange Cazier-Charpentie r, Patricia Cahill (Cda I horror of the events. dian filmmaking, even remotely, with L.A. Canadiana) was the Canadian cast. d. Ginette D' Amico (Cdal cast. Toronto Deir­ the European tragedy, confers a kind of producer ; that Montreal production dre Bowe n (Cdal Filmed on location in France, Despite competent performances by Hungary, Canada, a nd the U.S. p.c. Producteurs York (who also plays Gray's father, one much-needed dignity on those Cana­ company Les productions mutuelles Associes, TFl Films Production (Fr.I, Les productions of the organizers of the insanely heroic dians involved with the production. was one of the co-producing parties, mutuelles Ltee (Cdal. w ith the participation of 1944 Warsaw uprising)' and Macha Enough, surely, to conclude that the along with Canadian dollars from the Societe Radio-Canada and the Canadian Fi lm Meril (Gray's mother), the weaknesses experience can, will and should be CFDC and Radio-Canada. And now, Development Corp. dist. Europe: Cinema Inter­ national Corp.; dist. Quebec: Les Films Rene of Au nom de tous les miens are those of repeated. Canadian independent distributor Malo Inc. l.p. Michael York, Jacques Penol. Brigitte the book as well. The young French Still, one of the amusing games that Rene Malo has brought the completed Fossey, Macha Meril, Helen Hughes.

January 1 984 - Cinema Canada/27