WHEN THE NIGHT FALLS
La Troisième Nuit (When the Night Falls) by Daniel Auteuil: a historical film with modern-day relevance.
Selected for Cannes Première, La Troisième Nuit (When the Night Falls) marks Daniel Auteuil‘s return to the Festival de Cannes, two years after Le Fil (An Ordinary Case) was presented in a Special Screening. For this new feature film, the director tells the story of a relatively unknown chapter in the German Occupation of France, about the rescue of Jewish children from Vénissieux in August 1942. A historical drama starring Antoine Reinartz, Grégory Gadebois, Luàna Bajrami and Daniel Auteuil himself.
La Troisième Nuit (When the Night Falls) opens during the day. The film follows Gilbert Lesage, a young civil servant at the Service Social des Étrangers, played by Antoine Reinartz, who is appointed to chair a committee tasked with deciding which Jews will be permitted to leave the Vénissieux camp. A Vichy regime directive will change everything. It stipulates that non-accompanied children must not be deported. Certain committee members including Father Glasberg, played by Daniel Auteuil, then attempt to save as many children as possible before their deportation. “Parents will be asked to abandon their children,” explains Daniel Auteuil. And this is the agonizing paradox that structures the narrative. “They know they’re going to die, but the only chance they have of saving their children is to let them go.”
What stands out straight away about La Troisième Nuit (When the Night Falls) is its shift of gaze. While other films in the Selection center around De Gaulle or Jean Moulin, this storyline chooses to tell the story of the unsung heroes. These men and women took incredibly brave action, with no weapons and no desire for glory, simply because they refused to accept the unacceptable. “When someone signs a piece of paper to save someone’s life, they’re risking their own life. But at the time, they don’t believe they’re a hero.”
The film initially hones in on offices, administrative debates, and lists, with decisions taken in almost cold blood. Then gradually, La Troisième Nuit (When the Night Falls) leaves the paperwork behind to focus on the faces of the elderly, pregnant women, and children. Human beings who cease to be case files, becoming bodies, perspectives, and families again. Scenes depicting the separation of parents from their children are particularly moving.
The cinematography enhances this sense of immersion. Many scenes take place in the military camp at nighttime in the rain, and the director notes that he worked extensively with the extras: “I talked to them a lot; we had to get them in the right headspace.”
As for the direction, Daniel Auteuil frequently uses close-ups of the characters’ eyes, as if to capture their hesitations on moral grounds, their distress, or their courage at the moment when everything could go wrong. Antoine Reinartz shines in particular, with Luàna Bajrami and Grégory Gadebois forming a highly authentic on-screen pairing alongside him. By inhabiting the role of Father Glasberg, Daniel Auteuil remains central to the scenes: “This allows the other actors to see that I have doubts and fears, too.”
The feature film emerges as a reflection on ordinary courage, memory, and individual responsibility in the face of atrocities. “We’ve all asked ourselves the question, would I have collaborated or resisted?” Before La Troisième Nuit (When the Night Falls), the director had already explored narratives relating to the Occupation as an actor in films such as Lucie Aubrac and Adieu Monsieur Haffmann (Farewell, Mr. Haffmann).
But beyond historical reenactment, La Troisième Nuit (When the Night Falls) is predominantly a story about the present. Daniel Auteuil stresses its contemporary resonance, “This isn’t a period film. It’s a modern-day film that uses a moment in history to tell the story of today.” At a time when the last remaining Holocaust victims are vanishing, the film serves as an important reminder of our duty to remember.
