critics consensus

A highly detailed, exciting historical epic. Read critic reviews

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Safe Conduct Photos

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Movie Info

In 1940s Paris, during the German occupation, two men in the film industry find different ways to deal with the Vichy regime stifling their creativity. Jean Devaivre (Jacques Gamblin) is an assistant director, and Jean Aurenche (Denis Podalydès) is a screenwriter. Devaivre actively rebels against the occupation: He is an employee of Continental, a Nazi film company, but secretly fights in the resistance. Aurenche, on the other hand, refuses to create propaganda by working for the company.

Genre:

history, drama
Original Language:

French (Canada)
Director:

Bertrand Tavernier
Producer:

Frédéric Bourboulon, Alain Sarde
Writer:

Jean Cosmos, Bertrand Tavernier
Box Office (Gross USA):

$26.6K
Runtime:

2h 50m
Production Co:

Paramount
Sound Mix:

Stereo
Aspect Ratio:

Scope (2.35:1)

Cast & Crew

Jacques Gamblin
Jean Devaivre

Denis Podalydès
Jean Aurenche

Christian Berkel
Dr. Greven

Marie Gillain
Olga

Charlotte Kady
Suzanne Raymond

Marie Desgranges
Simone Devaivre

Show all Cast & Crew

Critic Reviews for Safe Conduct

All Critics (37) | Top Critics (18) | Fresh (28) | Rotten (9)

Longer than 2 1/2 hours, there's too much to sort out and the confusion becomes annoying.

January 23, 2004 | Rating: 2.5/4 | Full Review…

Marta Barber
Miami Herald
[While The Last Metro] was more melodramatic, confined to a single theater company and its strategies and deceptions, while Tavernier is more concerned with the entire period of history.

May 9, 2003 | Rating: 4/4 | Full Review…

Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
No one who loves French film (or movies in general) should miss it.

May 8, 2003 | Rating: 4/4

Michael Wilmington
Chicago Tribune
There's an epic here, but you have to put it together yourself.

March 28, 2003 | Rating: 2.5/4 | Full Review…

Ty Burr
Boston Globe
Though it runs 163 minutes, Safe Conduct is anything but languorous. It's packed to bursting with incident, and with scores of characters, some fictional, some from history.

March 21, 2003 | Rating: 3/4 | Full Review…

Mick LaSalle
San Francisco Chronicle
You could love Safe Conduct (Laissez Passer) for being a subtitled French movie that is 170 minutes long. You could hate it for the same reason.

February 6, 2003 | Rating: B- | Full Review…

Tom Maurstad
Dallas Morning News
Safe Conduct is gripping and appealing-and honest-in regard to that part of modern life it does treat, and that is no small matter.

February 16, 2021 | Full Review…

David Walsh
World Socialist Web Site
Quote not available.

July 18, 2005 | Rating: 2/5

Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com
Controversial film about art under occupation

January 19, 2005 | Full Review…

Louis Proyect
rec.arts.movies.reviews
[Director] Tavernier takes his time in capturing this time period - at the expense of a concise narrative and often the viewer's interest.

May 17, 2004 | Rating: 2.25/5 | Full Review…

Kent Turner
Film-Forward.com
Tavernier's fatal flaw is letting the film bog down in studio politics and the filmmaking process, something which hasn't carried a "serious" film since The Player.

May 8, 2004 | Rating: 2.5/5

Christopher Null
Filmcritic.com
Obsessively detailed and impeccably observed, the film is bursting with the stuff of everyday life and curious wartime anecdotes.

October 15, 2003 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review…

Jurgen Fauth
About.com