Monsieur Batignole: A Wonderful Film About the Holocaust, Where Hope Has the Last Word

In the tradition of movies like award winning films Life is Beautiful and Schindler’s List, Monsieur Batignole (released in 2002 and released on DVD in 2004) tells us the story of one man, which stands apart because he becomes an unlikely hero, or like Monsieur Batignole would have put it himself, a hero by chance. 

In France, you’d say all films are independent films. Low-budget, original stories with impeccable acting and uncanny scripts. French cinema is well known to us for portraying vivid, uncommon characters dressed up in the most conventional stereotypes. A good example? Amélie, who took the world by storm, and made Audrey Tautou a bona fide actress. 

Edmond Batignole is no exception to this rule. 

The film opens with a heart-breaking scene. A Jewish family, the Bernsteins, are about to escape France with the aid of a fellow doctor and neighbor. The father is instructing the wife and the children how they will go about leaving France for Switzerland. They have packed the strictly necessary and hid a few valuables, in hope of a safe return. 

In the same building lives a man they all know as Monsieur Batignole, a butcher who own a shop and a modest apartment which he shares with his wife, his daughter and his insufferable future son-in-law. 

The year is 1942, France has been ransacked by the army of the Third Reich. French people are still adjusting to their new lives. Jewish families know well that they must try to escape while they still can. Others have decided that in order to survive the best way to go is to become a collaborator and become a spy for the SS officers.