28 Nov The Statement
The Statement, WWII movie starring Michael Caine
(2003) Nearly fifty years after World War II authorities are determined to find the hiding place of a French Nazi collaborator who in 1944 ordered the execution of seven Jews.
Pierre Brossard, played by Michael Caine, has been scurrying from hiding place to hiding place, primarily with the help of his friends in the Catholic church.
I’m always curious about the inspiration for telling a story such as this so many years later. What I learned is that there really was a devout Roman Catholic named Paul Touvier who joined the French army and then worked with the Vichy government. He really did order the executive of seven Jews but after his arrest he testified that he had been ordered to kill thirty.
Brian Moore wrote a novel in 1995 called The Statement which was made into this movie. He was from an Irish Catholic family but (according to Wikipedia) rejected that faith and wrote critically of the church in his novels.
Norman Jewison directed and co-produced The Statement. He is better known for Fiddler on the Roof and one of my favorite movies, Moonstruck. Jewison is not Jewish although because of his name you might think so. He was born in Canada and served in the Royal Canadian Navy during World War II.
At the end of the film just before the credits we read that “At 5:00 am, on June 29, 1944, in Rilleux-la-Pape, France, seven Jews were executed. This film is dedicated to those seven men and the 77,000 other French Jews who perished under German occupation and the Vichy regime.”
Did I like the movie? Yes, because Michael Caine was in it. It held my interest because I was sure that any minute something more interesting would happen. The screenwriter was Sir Ronald Harwood who won an Oscar in 2003 for his screenplay of The Pianist. No comparison.
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