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.
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.