Monsieur Batignole

Monsieur Batignole is a French film released in 2002. The film was directed by Gérard Jugnot and featured Gérard Jugnot, Jules Sitruk, Jean-Paul Rouve, Götz Burger, Michèle Garcia and Alexia Portal in lead roles. The film depicts the story of an ordinary grocer, Edmond Batignole, who helps the young son of his Jewish neighbour, and the boy's two cousins, to reach Switzerland safely.

Plot
In 1942, in Paris, which was under German occupation during World War II, a grocer Edmond Batignole (Gérard Jugnot) is living with his family on the ground floor of an apartment building. He has a daughter who is soon to be married. His future son-in-law, an aspiring writer Pierre-Jean (Jean-Paul Rouve) wants the penthouse apartment occupied by a Jewish family, the Bernsteins, and alerts the Gestapo who capture the family early one morning. When the Bernsteins' property is confiscated, the Batignoles apply for and are awarded the apartment. The Batignoles cater a party for SS officials in the confiscated apartment. During the party, young Simon Bernstein (Jules Sitruk) returns to his family home. Batignole hides Simon in a servant's apartment on the top floor of the building but soon moves him to the cellar to avoid discovery. Simon is later joined in the cellar by his two cousins who were themselves being hidden by the concierge of another Parisian apartment building. Edmond tries to find someone to smuggle the children over the border to Switzerland but eventually determines to take them himself. Edmond and the children undertake the dangerous trip to the Swiss border, where they are nearly caught by the police. However, with the help of a kind woman and a priest, they are able to sneak over the border to safety in Switzerland.

Cast

 * Jules Sitruk         - Simon Bernstein
 * Michèle Garcia       - Marguerite Batignole
 * Gérard Jugnot        - Edmond Batignole
 * Jean-Paul Rouve      - Pierre-Jean Lamour
 * Alexia Portal        - Micheline Batignole
 * Arthur Jugnot        - Arthur
 * Jean-Marie Winling   - Sacha Guitry
 * Marie-Hélène Lentini - Madame Taillepied
 * Violette Blanckaert  - Sarah Cohen
 * Daphné Baiwir        - Guila Cohen
 * Götz Burger          - SS Col. Spreich

Reception
Variety critic Lisa Nesselson wrote that the director "has fashioned a fine package, ready to travel". The film was a box office success in France. The 2002 French Academy of Cinema Best Young Actor award was won by Jean-Paul Rouve in this film. The film was shown at VCU French Film Festival, Cleveland International Film Festival, French Film Festival, Bergen International Film Festival where it once again received huge critical acclaim.