von Waldheim + film nomenclature

the names of the protagonists reminded me more than a little of Guy de Maupassant and his stories of Norman peasants and those in his collection, "Les Soirées de Médan", of the Franco-Prussian war of 1870. Waldheim is not as vile as "Mademoiselle Fifi" who is stabbed by an outraged French 'poule'; yet his name brings to mind the history of that same "Kurt" Waldheim, whose complicity with atrocities committed in the Balkans surfaced after he became Secretary-General of the United Nations.

The de Maupassant connection is evident in the character of the Michel Simone character, Papa Boule, ("Boule de Suif"?--a pun)and his innate Norman peasant 'stinginess' ("The Piece of String" "La Ficelle" echo?) when he keeps the incriminating oil-stained franc piece instead of "tossing it" after the German officer, Herren (knowing an old Franc-tireur trick or two) makes him empty his pockets and this gets him shot for his piece-of-string avarice ("...4 francs are 4 francs..."); he is also unafraid enough to spit at von Waldheim the same as the old man did in "Le Père Milon", who spat with all his might into a Prussian officer's face and then was stood up against a wall and shot in a trice just as Papa Boule is in "Le Train".

Labiche has no counterpart in de Maupassant's collection, except for his occupation as a railway functionary; but his name is telling since he is, indeed, a "bitch", a thorn-in-the-flesh, to von Waldheim and the occupiers, and becomes a "franc-tireur", killing his share of Germans down the line.

Albert Rémy is a fatalistic "maquisard" (man of the "maquis") named "Didont" ("...dites donc"--a pun?).

There is definitely a de Maupassant connection in this tale of the third of Germany's wars against France.