City of Belmont - Ruth Faulkner Public Library

Monsieur Mayonnaise

eng

videorecording

Censorship classification : M

Monsieur Mayonnaise

94

Australian filmmaker-artist Philippe Mora criss-crosses the globe tracing his family's survival during the Holocaust in Trevor Graham's ingredient-heavy documentary Monsieur Mayonnaise. Unnecessarily structured as a tongue-in-cheek mystery with Mora himself in the guise of a film noir detective, Monsieur Mayonnaise is an eye-catching, engrossing romp. Philippe's father Georges Mora, born Gunter Morawski in Leipzig, received his nickname Monsieur Mayonnaise during WWII, but not everyone knew where the moniker came from. As a member of the French Resistance, he helped smuggle scores of Jewish children into Switzerland from Nazi-occupied France. Realizing the Nazis hated to get their gloves soiled, Georges hit on the idea of wrapping documents in wax paper, slathering them with mayo, and sticking them in a sandwich; the ploy worked like a charm. Wanting to document the full story of both his parents before all the witnesses were gone, Philippe paired with Trevor Graham in search of his roots, which took them from Los Angeles to Leipzig, Berlin, Melbourne, Paris, and Philadelphia. In many ways, Monsieur Mayonnaise is a love letter to Philippe's father, with the ultimate goal being to trace anyone his father saved during the war. Along the way, he details both parents-- stories of survival, from Mirka's incredibly lucky release from a detention camp, to Georges-- work smuggling Jewish orphans across the border

adult

live action