Look Who it Was Random video

Raoul Coutard - The boss's brother (4/179)

163 views · Published 6 September 2017 · 1:47 · Indexed 21 September 2026

Channel: Web of Stories - Life Stories of Remarkable People · 2017 · Film & Animation

Watch on YouTube

To listen to more of Raoul Coutard’s stories, go to the playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYde0bcy2eo&list=PLVV0r6CmEsFz94HTVkL-hi8sRSrIWv0iD

French cinematographer Raoul Coutard (1924-2016) was originally a war photographer. He made his debut as a director of photography in the film 'La Passe du Diable' and became a leading figure in French New Wave cinema. [Listener: Bernard Cohn; date recorded: 2004]

TRANSCRIPT: So I needed to start somewhere, I found a job that got me in at the bottom to do amateur work, in a company that did amateur work. So that was during the war. In fact, I witnessed something absolutely extraordinary because the guy that ran the company was a guy that had multiple sclerosis, which he had apparently caught, he got a pension for it, after having been vaccinated against... the vaccines that were done in the army. But he hadn't had a... At the time, before getting vaccinated, they looked to see if you had albumin, and they hadn't done the check on him, and he had some, so they concluded that it was the vaccine that gave him multiple sclerosis, so the army had given him a... So he really struggled to move, etc., he was very sick. And I witnessed something extraordinary because since it was during the occupation, and his brother came to see him, and he would wear a yellow star when he came into the store and made him believe that he was Jewish. And obviously, when he went out he would take off his star because he wasn't Jewish. And the other one was really worried by it and in the end, it hurried his death. And the other one took his place afterwards.

[BC] He was doing it on purpose?

Yes, yes.

[BC] It's an incredible story!

Yes, it's an incredible story.

[BC] So... how old were you when you witnessed that?

Oh! I was 16.

[BC] It must have concerned you, as we say?

Yes, it concerned me but I would ask him why, because I had seen him take the star off, I would say, 'But don't you run the risk of getting caught by the Germans?' He would say, 'No, no, no, I take the risk', etc.

More from this channel