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Last night after I got Ros to bed, I sat down to indulge in some yummy homemade pumpkin pie before settling in to write the final paper for the (infuriatingly ill-organized) course I'm currently taking for work. I turned on the TV, flipped past TCM, and was promptly sucked into a WW II POW film from 1943, The Cross of Lorraine. The film is about French soldiers who are captured by the Germans in the early days of the war, and it stars Jean-Pierre Aumont (the only actual Frenchman in the film) and Gene Kelly as friends who try to survive the prison camp they're thrown into. It has hurt/comfort for the nation, and is more than a bit slashy.

This picture happens after Gene Kelly's Victor has been tortured for having a sassy mouth, and Aumont's Paul agrees to take a job he doesn't want interpreting for the Germans to get him out of the dungeon he's been thrown into. It is entirely indicative of the vibe of the entire film:


I know, right?

I basically spent the entire film wondering why I'd never heard of it and where it had been all my life.

( More hurt/comforty goodness (and spoilers) this way )