Tyres

Raoul Paulhan works for his father in a roadside tire repair shop in Vichy France during the Nazi occupation. Raoul was born in 1925, the same year his father, André, founded the business. Raoul grew up working on automobiles, his father frequently emphasizing the importance of their work and its ability to bring them a better future. In 1942, his father paints a sign above their business, “André Paulhan et Fils”—André Paulhan and Son—and hopes it will one day be repainted with Raoul’s name on it. The next day, a German Limousine passes their shop on the road, signaling the beginning of full Nazi occupation.

The war is hard on André’s business. A year passes, and André strikes a deal with the gendarmerie: Raoul is exempt from military conscription under the Service du travail obligatoire, and in return, the Nazis begin using the repair shop. To counterbalance this, André begins making handshake deals with the maquisard guerilla fighters, servicing them for free. Petit Ours, a leader among the maquisards, comes to have his motorcycle repaired, and afterward, André warns Raoul not to get involved in the resistance. Raoul discerns that his father is striking a fragile balance for their safety.

Raoul has a crush on a girl who frequently bikes past their shop. An opportunity comes to speak to her when Raoul sees a military vehicle bearing down behind her as she bikes up the road. He warns her just in time, and the two strike up conversation. During their conversation, the girl drops the name of Petit Ours, and Raoul infers she is a messenger for the resistance. Raoul is dismayed, worried for both her safety and for the potential safety of his father’s shop. Pressure on the Paulhans continues to increase—both from the Nazis and the Maquis—and a plainclothes maquisard implies to Raoul that the Paulhans might be seen as collaborators.

The girl and Raoul eventually fall in love but do not speak of Petit Ours or her role in the resistance. The girl’s name is Cécile Viala, and her presence in Raoul’s life fills it with purpose and wonder. The war reaches its climax, and the German presence in their town escalates as the Nazis become desperate to retain control over France. Raoul prevents Cécile from being caught and interrogated in the aftermath of a shootout between Nazi armored cars and a diesel truck on their road. Three resistance fighters are killed, disemboweled, and laid out in the town hall for the whole village to see. The next week, Petit Ours is captured and hanged.

The Gestapo officer who ordered Petit Ours’s execution is getting his Maybach serviced at Paulhan’s shop, and Raoul decides to take a stand. He secretly files down the inner tubing of one of the tires so that it will blow out and cause the car to crash. Just at that moment, Cécile bikes up with a broken chain on her bike and is horrified to see them helping the Gestapo. Raoul explains it is not what it looks like, but she bikes away in a hurry. Her chain breaks again and she is forced to take a ride from the Gestapo officer—the car crashes and both are killed. Raoul is destroyed by guilt. He takes over his father’s business but never has kids of his own, and he never repaints the sign. He erects a memorial at the sight of the crash, which used to be marked by scorch marks and physical indicators of the accident. Now, though, these marks have faded, so the only thing left are the flowers Raoul leaves—and yet, the flowers keep dying, so he replaces them with plastic ones, and the cars go by ever faster.