The Lorry


The Lorry or The Truck is a 1977 French drama film directed by Marguerite Duras.

Plot

Reaction

Le camion was entered into the 1977 Cannes Film Festival.
After the Cannes debut, the crowd reacted "at first with highly vocal disbelief and the with outbursts of anger, and walk-outs" and even those "charmed by her harmonious, lulling use of the film medium... have, buried under a few layers, the rebellious instincts that others loud voice to."
Following the showing, Duras stood atop a flight of stairs while a crowd yelled insults at her. Critic of the time, Pauline Kael wrote that she believed that Duras enjoyed antagonizing the crowd.
It later opened at The New York Film Festival.
In an interview with Marguerite Duras, Jean-Luc Godard praised the film for the way that it "lets the text come through but also carries it."

Cast

for The New Yorker wrote that in La Camion Dumas "has become a master" and that the film is a split between "her artistry and what the public wants...pointed up and turned against the audience." She praises the film as the "opposite extreme from popcorn filmmaking, it's the demonstration of creative force."