Le chagrin et la pitié (1969)

Le chagrin et la pitié

a.k.a. The Sorrow and the Pity

1969 · 251 min · Directed by Marcel Ophüls

From 1940 to 1944, France's Vichy government collaborated with Nazi Germany. Marcel Ophüls mixes archival footage with 1969 interviews of a German officer and of collaborators and resistance fighters from Clermont-Ferrand. They comment on the nature, details and reasons for the collaboration, from anti-Semitism, xenophobia, and fear of Bolsheviks, to simple caution. Part one, "The Collapse," includes an extended interview with Pierre Mendès-France, jailed for anti-Vichy action and later France's Prime Minister. At the heart of part two, "The Choice," is an interview with Christian de la Mazière, one of 7,000 French youth to fight on the eastern front wearing German uniforms.

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116

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Comments

the3rdman

An astonishing examination of the complexities of Vichy France and its legacy that dismantles de Gaulle's myth of "a nation of resistors." It locates the individual, human element often submerged under grand narratives of vilification and validation. Perhaps the most fascinating case is the aristocrat de la Maziere, who discusses candidly the motivations behind his joining of the German war effort. A crucial document that marked a shift in French perceptions of the war, only falling short of definitive because of its nearly total lack of female perspectives--an unfortunate and perplexing area of silence.

OOOO

Take a drink every time someone makes an excuse for having been a Nazi, or a Nazi sympathizer.

jarmel

Astonishing and dramatic!