Build a movie plot around this: What year does this movie take place? 1944
Answer:
In 1944, masterpieces of modern art stolen by the Wehrmacht are being shipped to Germany; the officer in charge of the operation, Colonel Franz von Waldheim (Paul Scofield), is determined to take the paintings to Germany, no matter the cost. After the works chosen by Waldheim are removed from the Jeu de Paume Museum, curator Mademoiselle Villard (Suzanne Flon) seeks help from the French Resistance. Given the imminent liberation of Paris by the Allies, they need only delay the train for a few days, but it is a dangerous operation and must be done in a way that does not risk damaging the priceless cargo.Although Resistance cell leader and SNCF area inspector Paul Labiche (Burt Lancaster) initially rejects the plan, telling Mlle. Villard and senior Resistance leader Spinet (Paul Bonifas), "I won't waste lives on paintings," he has a change of heart after a cantankerous elderly engineer, Papa Boule (Michel Simon), is executed for trying to sabotage the train on his own. After that sacrifice, Labiche joins his Resistance teammates Didont (Albert Remy) and Pesquet (Charles Millot), who have been organizing their own plan to stop the train with the help of other SNCF Resistance members. They devise an elaborate ruse to reroute the train, temporarily changing railway station signage to make it appear to the German escort as if they are heading to Germany when they have actually turned back toward Paris. They then arrange a double collision in the small town of Rive-Reine that will block the train without risking the cargo. Labiche, although shot in the leg, escapes on foot with the help of the widowed owner of a Rive-Reine hotel, Christine (Jeanne Moreau), while other Resistance members involved in the plot are executed.The night after the collision, Labiche and Didont meet Spinet again, along with young Robert (the nephew of Jacques, the executed Rive-Reine station master) and plan to paint the tops of three boxcars white to warn off Allied aircraft from bombing the art train. Robert recruits railroad workers and...