Don't Believe the Hype

A Disappointing Continuation

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

There were three stars in this movie: Mendes-France, Anthony Eden, de la Vigerie. De la Vigerie had the most interesting, most philosophical things to say, but his part was small. After any event, the truth slips away; since its history is written by the winners. De la Vigerie was evidently on the point of death. There are lies, damn lies, statistics and history. This film gets closer to the truth, because there were no winners, French, German, British. Even Rake's heroism came across as faintly treacherous. The fat smug German was an archetypal caricature Boche, Caboche, Kraut or Cabbage. It was quite odd that no-one really seemed to blame Petain. I don't think anyone had a truly bad word to say about him. Here today, gone tomorrow. What a fate.I remember once asking a normal middle-class, Roman Catholic, British friend, what he would have done if he'd been born an average German, circa 1920. He told me he would have resisted Hitler with every fibre in his being. Like hell he would, I thought. No imagination. Unable to face the truth. Propaganda is met with counter-propaganda.There may be other documentaries as good, or even better, than this one, but, if so, I haven't seen them. It's only had 32 reviews, so far, on this site, so it's quite easy to read them all. Takes much less time than watching the film's 4 plus hours, though that wasn't at all difficult. I can't say I disagree with any of them, although I don't personally give the production less than ten stars. Charity begins at home. Not too many saints and genuine martyrs around. Not counting the current wave of brain-washed suicidal kids and patsies.

As with many films that feature in it, I probably would never have known about or seen this French film if it did not feature in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, and that is the only reason I probably would watch it. Basically this documentary focuses on the German Nazi invasion of France during the Second World War, 1940 to 1944, due to the French Vichy government collaborating. Throughout the film director Marcel Ophüls interviews the politicians involved with the situation, the former resistance fighters, the former German Nazis who were involved, the religious types and other people affected by the invasion. The film is split into two parts, both two hours, "The Collapse" and "The Choice", including many stock footage moments made during the time, and it concludes with the important interview with France's Prime Minister. I will admit that I did not understand all of what was being talked about during the interviews, and I did doze off a little bit in certain parts that were a bit boring, but the stock footage stuff is interesting enough, and the opinions of what was happening was alright, so overall it is a worthwhile political documentary. It was nominated the Oscar for Best Documentary, Features for Ophüls, and it won the BAFTA for Best Foreign TV Programme. Very good!

This is an important and remarkable documentary on the years of occupation in France during World War II. Fortunately, as it was made in 1969, it has interviews with several who participated in that era. These are survivors with many different points of view, which is why I used the word "remarkable". Many of these interviews are not only penetrating and revealing, some are quite disturbing. This is also coupled with film footage taken during those years, both French and German, which gives additional insights into the thought processes of the era. We vividly experience how the French were thinking during those years – a time period where many felt that the Nazi reign was supreme and never-ending. It is easy in hind-sight to say that the Allies were to be victorious – but from 1940 thru 1943 this was not evident. Only after the Allied landing in North Africa in November 1943, did it start to occur to many in France that German hegemony over their country could come to an end. This film takes us through the shifting moods of that turbulent time.There is a wide spectrum of people interviewed. There is one with a French person who joined France's version of the SS (most of whom were killed on the Eastern Front). There is another with the son-in-law of Pierre Laval; seldom have I seen a man so speechless, after he is interrupted by the interviewer who corrects him on the number of French Jews rounded up with the full collaboration of the French police and later murdered. Pierre Laval was executed by France after a trial in 1945 – this gives an indication of the tremendous soul-searching and vehemence that goes on in France to this day. Prior to 1940 Pierre Laval had served in many French government ministries and was even its Prime Minister.There are a wide assortment of statements: from French "resistants" – some communist, some right-wing, British commandoes and pilots sent over, a German officer who served in France. There are people from the same village who said they saw no German soldiers and others who saw too many. There is an uncomfortable interview with an elderly woman who was tortured after the liberation as she was suspected of collaborating with the enemy. It is made clear by some that the enemy could be both French and German. Others call the "resistants' fighters" "terrorists".As the British foreign minister (Anthony Eden) under Churchill said towards the end of the documentary: "If one hasn't been through the horror of an occupation... you have no right to pronounce upon what a country does which has been through all that." It's a long documentary (over 4 hours) – but essential for understanding this period of history. It is a tribute to France that it made such a revealing film of that epoch.

I just saw this film on TCM and was pretty impressed. I've been a big fan of The History Channel (which could be called the World War II channel) for about fifteen years, which has given me a great deal of information about WWII that I did not get in school. But this movie went to depths I'd not seen before on how the French behaved in the war.It's commonplace nowadays to hear about how the French hate us (Americans) or how France is filled with "cheese-eating surrender monkeys." But I was really unprepared to learn just how badly France caved in to the Germans. A great deal of the country turned into German collaborators, and worse. The French anti-Semitism almost outdid the Germans.It's interesting to note that no French companies would finance this film. The filmmaker had to go to Switzerland, and, ironically, Germany to get funding. It's easy to see why when you watch this film. I don't know how well this film was accepted in France, but I can imagine there are many French folks who would just like to forget that whole portion of their history. Amazingly, to me, the same people that caved so quickly, then became fervent nationalists upon liberation and started publicly hacking off the hair of French women who dated Germans and put collaborators on trial with gusto. Damned if I can figure their actions out. Then again, I've never had a Nazi tank in my front yard.This movie is not for every taste. I myself am not a fan of films that require subtitles, although The History Channel has broken me down in that area when it comes to documentaries. At four hours long, I taped it and watched it in two chunks. It was very interesting to get an inside look at what happened from a diverse group of people that lived it. That included the resistance. (Yes, there were some that stood strong against their enemies.)For anyone that would like an insider's view of that portion of French history, this movie is a must see.