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"The Sorrow and the Pity" makes you glad you are not French and pity those that are. This is not entertainment. Seeing the film is like reading a non-fiction book. Most of it is interviews are with many who remember the German occupation of France 1940-1941. France had declared war on Hitler's Germany when the Nazis invaded Poland. The French had declared war, then sat waiting for something to happen. Once Poland was defeated, something did happen. Germany invaded France. After only a few weeks, France surrendered. Two-thirds of the country was occupied and the rest more or less a Nazi ally. Recalling those years, one gathers from the film that most of the French accepted what they believed could not be changed. Germany controlled almost all of Europe and Britain seemed certain soon to fall. Many scorn those who collaborated, although they had little choice. What I kept wondering is how their countrymen view the Germans and Japanese who collaborated when their countries were occupied. This is a film that makes you think. What if? What if Hitler had not been defeated? Of course, he was, and it is a pity to see how the French treated each other after liberation. It really is sorrowful.
Jimm Budd
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The Sorrow and the Pity
Anthony Eden
(Actor),
Pierre Mendès-France
(Actor),
Marcel Oph ls
(Director),
Marcel Ophuls
(Director)
&
1
more Rated: Format: DVD
NR
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Product Description
A chronicle of a French city under the occupation. Director Marcel Ophuls combined interviews and archival film footage to explore the reality of the French occupation in one small industrial city, Clermont-Ferrand. He spoke with resistance fighters, collaborators, spies, farmers, government officials, writers, artists and veterans. The result is a shattering portrait of how ordinary people actually conducted themselves under extraordinary circumstances. By turns gripping, horrifying, and inspiring, Academy Award nominee "The Sorrow and the Pity" is a triumph of humanist filmmaking and a testament to the power of cinema. Before "Shoah," "Schindler's List," "The Long Way Home" and "The Last Days," there was "The Sorrow and the Pity".
Product details
- MPAA rating : NR (Not Rated)
- Product Dimensions : 0.7 x 7.5 x 5.4 inches; 6.4 ounces
- Item model number : 22914471
- Director : Marcel Oph ls, Marcel Ophuls, Marcel Ophüls
- Media Format : Multiple Formats, Color, NTSC, Subtitled
- Run time : 4 hours and 20 minutes
- Release date : June 28, 2011
- Actors : Anthony Eden, Pierre Mendès-France, Dr. Claude Levy, Matheus Bleibinger, Emmanuel D'Astier De La Vigerie
- Subtitles: : English
- Producers : Marcel Ophüls
- Studio : Milestone Video
- ASIN : B0055UBGEO
- Country of Origin : USA
- Number of discs : 2
- Best Sellers Rank: #66,757 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
- #1,039 in Military & War (Movies & TV)
- Customer Reviews:
Customer reviews
4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
262 global ratings
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Top reviews from the United States
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Reviewed in the United States on March 16, 2012
Reviewed in the United States on April 6, 2013
Some reviews complained this film was in French (in fact there are also scenes in German), but if you look into the setup of your DVR player, there is a subtitle function available. Don't miss out on that because the film will run in French automatically. This is indeed an interesting film with great WWII footage. The interviews with citizens who chose to side with the Vichy government as well as those who chose the Resistance offer a great opportunity to study a particular area of France and the affect WWII had upon it. I also found the viewpoints of some German officers to be revealing. One of them stated that while Hitler felt that France would offer no serious opposition to the Reich, German officers felt the French army would fight quite hard as they did in WWI and that it would be a long, hard battle. The planting of roses by French women along the Maginot Line to make it "look pretty" was ironic. This film is a must see for any WWII buff. And don't forget the subtitle setting!
Reviewed in the United States on September 17, 2021
I saw conflicting information on this edition. But, I thought I would take a chance and order it. It works! It plays on my US region Blu-ray player. The video quality is fantastic.
The only thing I would change if I could is the subtitles are white. In a B&W documentary, yellow subtitles would be easier to read. Small complaint.
The only thing I would change if I could is the subtitles are white. In a B&W documentary, yellow subtitles would be easier to read. Small complaint.
Reviewed in the United States on April 13, 2019
The documentary is excellent. I think it should have been made clear, however, that the entire text on the packaging is in Korean. Also, although you can change the language in settings, the default subtitles are in Korean. The buyer should know this beforehand.
Reviewed in the United States on January 12, 2017
Just viewed it again after many years. This documentary film is a valuable historical record to accompany any historical reading, especially now that most survivors of WWII France are gone. Interviews range from collaborators to members of the French Resistance, from "common folk" to leaders, and newsreel footage is interspersed for context. The value of this masterpiece is only strengthened by the courage it took to make it several hours long. Every minute is worth it. This film makes it clearer than ever how the holocaust could happen -- how it involved passive acceptance by so many throughout Europe -- how it was possible for the Nazis to have concentration camps in Paris and in Holland (something that I don't think was known when the film was made.)
Reviewed in the United States on March 2, 2023
Maurice Chevalier is listed as an "Actor" in this film in the Amazon Product details. Not true. The Cameo: At the very end of the movie, none other than Maurice Chevalier is featured in a stock footage. Additionally, Woody Allen doesn't appear in the copy I received. Nor is he included anywhere in the "Crew" of the film. The film as a whole is worthy. But it is not worth half the price I paid Amazon or the vendor. I would have normally returned an article like this.....but am a strong believer in "Caveat Emptor"
Reviewed in the United States on October 24, 2016
It's a MUST SEE movie for anyone REALLY interested in what went on in France during the WWII Nazi occupation! It illustrates mercilessly the sad reality of the nation's vast majority of traitors and collaborators, as opposed to the post-war official legends of "Resistance"...In fact the movie (commissioned by the ORTF - the French State TV) was kept hidden in a drawer for almost 20 years by the authorities afraid (as usual) of the bitter truth...Ultimately the French had to come to grips with their past sins, and this film was a major contribution on this thorny way!
Reviewed in the United States on December 16, 2016
It was a pity that this movie, which is a description of French duplicity after the war, was sadly short of the counterpunctual argument.
Top reviews from other countries
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5.0 out of 5 stars
THE SORROW AND THE PITY [Le Chagrin Et La Pitié] [1969 / 2017] [Blu-ray]
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 12, 2017
THE SORROW AND THE PITY [Le Chagrin Et La Pitié] [1969 / 2017] [Blu-ray] Chronicle Of A French City Under Siege! An Historical Documentary of France in World War II by Marcel Ophüls!
Director Marcel Ophüls presents a four-and-a-half hour portrait of the French town of Clermont-Ferrand under German occupation from 1940 – 1944 in one of the greatest documentaries ever made, as important as Claude Lanzmann’s ‘Shoah’ [1985] in its value not just as a film but as an essential historical record in its own right and not least since its interviewees are all long dead.
Describing the fall of France and the rise of the French Resistance, with the aid of newly-shot interviews and eye-opening archive footage including newsreels and propaganda films. Director Marcel Ophüls painstakingly crafts a complex, nuanced picture of what really happened in France over this period. Marcel Ophüls also demolishes numerous self-serving national myths to such an extent that, although he made the film for French television, they wouldn’t show it for over a decade.
But, as Marcel Ophüls demonstrates again and again, the overwhelming majority of French citizens during this period weren’t heroes, villains or cowards, but simply ordinary people trying to make the best of an impossible situation. And it’s Director Marcel Ophüls portrayal of these people, their hopes, their fears and their appalling moral quandaries that remains unmatched in film history.
FILM FACT No.1: Awards and Nominations: 1971 National Society of Film Critics Awards: Win: Special Award. 1972 Academy Awards®: Nominated: Best Documentary in a Feature for Marcel Ophüls. 1972 BAFTA® Awards: Win: Best Foreign TV Programme for Marcel Ophüls. 1972 National Board of Review: Win: Best Foreign Language Film for Switzerland. Win: Top Foreign Films. 1972 National Society of Film Critics Awards: Nominated: Best Film in 5th place. 1973 Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards: Win: Best Documentary. 1973 New York Film Critics Circle Awards: Win: Special Citation For the year's Best Documentary.
FILM FACT No.2: This French documentary film was first shown on French television in 1981 after being banned from that medium for years. It is frequently assumed that the reason was French reluctance to admit the facts of French history. While this may have been a factor, the principal mover in the decision was Simone Veil, a Jewish inmate of Auschwitz who became a minister and the first President of the European Parliament, on the grounds that the film presented too one-sided a view. Time magazine gave a positive review of the film, and wrote that Marcel Ophüls "tries to puncture the bourgeois myth or protectively askew memory that allows France generally to act as if hardly any Frenchmen collaborated with the Germans." Maurice Chevalier's "Sweepin' the Clouds Away" is the theme song of the film and was a popular entertainer with the German occupation force in France.
Cast: Marcel Ophüls (Director/Interviewer) Georges Bidault, Matthäus Bleibinger, Charles Braun, Maurice Buckmaster, Emile Coulaudon, Emmanuel d'Astier de la Vigerie, René de Chambrun, Christian de la Mazière, Darquier de Pellepoix, Jacques Doriot, R. Du Jonchay, Jacques Duclos, The Rt. Hon. Sir Anthony Eden KG MC MP, Sgt. Evans, Marcel Fouche-Degliame, Raphael Geminiani, Alexis Grave, Louis Grave, Marius Klein, Georges Lamirand, Pierre Laval, Pierre Le Calvez, Mr. Leiris, Claude Levy, Pierre Mendès-France, Cmdt. Menut, Elmar Michel, Mr. Mioche, Denis Rake, Henri Rochat, Paul Schmidt, Mme. Solange, Edward Spears, Helmut Tausend, Roger Tounze, Marcel Verdier, Walter Warlimont, Junie Astor (archive footage) (uncredited), René Bousquet (archive footage) (uncredited), Maurice Chevalier (archive footage) (uncredited), Danielle Darrieux (archive footage) (uncredited), Charles de Gaulle (archive footage) (uncredited), Suzy Delair (archive footage) (uncredited), Reinhard Heydrich (archive footage) (uncredited), Albert Préjean (archive footage) (uncredited), Philippe Pétain (archive footage) (uncredited) and Viviane Romance (archive footage) (uncredited)
Director: Marcel Ophüls
Producers: Alain de Sedouy and André Harris
Screenplay: André Harris (writer) and Marcel Ophüls (writer)
Cinematography: André Gazut and Jürgen Thieme
Video Resolution: 1080p [Black-and-White]
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1 [Anamorphic]
Audio: French: 1.0 LPCM Mono Audio
Subtitles: English
Running Time: 260 minutes
Region: Region B/2
Number of discs: 1
Studio: Norddeutscher Rundfunk / Television Rencontre / Télévision Suisse Romande / Arrow Films
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: ‘THE SORROW AND THE PITY’ [Le Chagrin Et La Pitié] [1969] was directed by Marcus Ophüls and is one of the great World War II Holocaust documentaries of all time, but it takes a rather unique tact, focusing on the Nazi occupation of the small industrial city Clermont-Ferrand in France. Originally created for French television in 1969, it eventually became an international success, nominated for an Oscar in 1972. Director Marcus Ophüls very provocative interview style is very powerful and engaging when combined with his very earnest subjects and the deathly serious topic. And its coverage is surprisingly thorough, running deep enough to inform even the most dedicated historians.
In the aftermath of World War II, the French clung vehemently to a belief that they and their Vichy government had resisted the Nazi occupation of France. However director Marcus Ophüls seminal documentary finds that when the small city of Clermont-Ferrand is examined closely, the myth of French resistance slowly begins to crumble in the face of overwhelming evidence that the Vichy government willingly collaborated with German forces, for reasons ranging from fear to apathy to blatant anti-Semitism. 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.
THE SORROW AND THE PITY [Le Chagrin Et La Pitié] is split into two separate documentaries, which consist of Part One: "The Collapse" [1ère Partie: L'EFFONDREMENT] which includes an extended interview with Pierre Mendès France, jailed for anti-Vichy action and later becomes a French politician who served as President of the Council of Ministers for eight months from 1954 to 1955 and he also represented the Radical Party, and his government had the support of the Communist party. At the heart of Part Two: "The Choice" [2ème Partie: LE CHOIX] we have an interview with Christian de la Mazière, one of 7,000 French youth who fought on the Eastern front wearing German uniforms.
Long before the Steven Spielberg film ‘Schindler's List’ came along, ‘THE SORROW AND THE PITY’ [Le Chagrin Et La Pitié] had already redefined how we think and feel about the Holocaust. Through profound revelation and catharsis, the landmark 1971 documentary by director Marcel Ophüls personalised the harrowing Nazi occupation of France, delving into the psyches of a few fascinating participants. In analysing the web of collaborators, resistance fighters and apathetic onlookers, and how they haunted and still haunt a nation, director Marcel Ophüls elevated the documentary to a higher art form through the force of his subject and storytelling.
Viewed today, ‘THE SORROW AND THE PITY’ [Le Chagrin Et La Pitié] still seems like the fastest four and a half hours in the history of the cinema. Only now it's all the more illuminating in its original, French-language version (with English subtitles). The film's powerful eloquence has not diminished over the years, despite all we know about France's unrivalled complicity with the Nazis and its determined resistance movement. The two documentary films reveal how militarily and emotionally ill-equipped France was to fight the Nazis. Everyone had his reasons. Some were anti-Communists sympathetic to National Socialism. Some had too much to lose and others just didn't care, but most had been too spiritually scarred by World War I. Therefore many lashed out at Jews and Communists; in one especially horrifying instance detailed in the film, French collaborators instigated the deportation of Jewish children to concentration camps.
The answers are never simple. An old farmer talks about being interned at Buchenwald concentration camp after a neighbour reported his resistance activities. A British agent who parachuted into Vichy France tells of falling in love with a German soldier. Pro-Nazi Frenchmen talk in disturbingly unrepentant tones about their hatred of Communism and the absolute perfection of the German army.
More than just a series of talking heads, director Marcel Ophüls film investigates history, memory, and the ultimate truth. Although Marcel Ophüls never explicitly judges his speakers, instead Marcel Ophüls often undercuts their assertions, showing archive footage that contradicts their claims or setting their testimony next to the strikingly different recollections of other testimonies. Marcel Ophüls unearthed rare films for ‘THE SORROW AND THE PITY’ [Le Chagrin Et La Pitié] including German newsreels (originally seen only in enemy territory) and the viciously anti-Semitic film ‘Jud Süß’ [Süss the Jew] [1940] which was a Nazi Drama/Propaganda film produced by Terra Filmkunst at the behest of Joseph Goebbels, and considered one of the most anti-Semitic films of all time and the film was directed by Veit Harlan, which showed the climate of hatred that the Germans stoked up against the Jews. But several of Marcel Ophüls subjects also attest to a closeted anti-Semitism that already existed in France, which the German occupiers merely exploited. In one eerie moment from a newsreel of the anti-Semitic exhibition "The Jew and France," viewers can see the face of esteemed director Ernst Lubitsch used to illustrate how to "spot" a Jew.
What stands out in this brilliant documentary is just how few people took up arms against the invaders. Partly that was out of fear, yet partly also out of a misguided belief that it was all for the best. It begs a distressing question. Winston Churchill may have been convinced that the British would "fight them on the beaches... in the hills and in the streets", but after watching this gripping story of a nation's collapse, you can't help wondering if we'd have reacted any differently than the citizens of Clermont-Ferrand. Marcel Ophüls audio voice can be heard throughout the film, questioning his subjects and probing subtly, but effectively, ever deeper to reveal evasions and outright lies in the interviewees' statements. Marcel Ophüls saw the film as an examination of history as the "process of recollection, in things like choice, selective memory, and rationalization." Now and again we get some nice lighter moments in the documentary was to see Maurice Chevalier singing comedy songs to young soldiers and enjoying the moment and also having a good laugh, especially because Maurice Chevalier singing songs that mocked the French Government.
In ‘THE SORROW AND THE PITY’ [Le Chagrin Et La Pitié] director Marcel Ophüls mixes anthropology, history, psychology and sociology to get at the truth and primarily leaving the judging to us. Marcel Ophüls shows us the aristocrats, peasants, shopkeepers and politicians of Clermont-Ferrand, a small industrial town near Vichy, and the capital of the collaborationist Philippe Pétain or Marshal Pétain regime. Along the way, the film shatters the myth of a united French resistance. One resistance fighter claims that only social misfits joined the movement, because they had nothing to lose. Louis Grave, a farmer, rakes his field while proclaiming a newfound preference for pacifism. ''Only fanatics know why they're fighting,'' he says. When Marcel Ophüls asks him if he knows why he fought the Nazis, Louis Grave, who is no fanatic, suggests that it was because they made a mess of France and innocently contradicting himself.
Denis Rake, during the war an English agent working in France, poignantly describes how he joined the resistance to overcome his fear of being considered a coward because of his homosexuality. But while posing as a transvestite cabaret performer, who fell in love with a Nazi who befriended him. What was also very upsetting is when Madame Solange, a beautician, nervously relates how she was tortured after the liberation for having supported Petain. As Marcel Ophüls digs deeper, he subtly uncovers her underlying anti-Semitism. In another of the film's charged interviews, Christian de la Maziere, an aristocrat who fought with the French Waffen SS division, recalls how his philosophical attraction to fascism was mixed with revulsion at wearing the Nazi uniform. Both authoritative and personal, ‘THE SORROW AND THE PITY’ [Le Chagrin Et La Pitié] is a film that draws you in, exerting a quiet but powerful grip as it shows how the unimaginable became completely natural. It takes its title, and its tone, from a former Resistance fighter who said, yes, there was courage during the war, "but the two emotions I experienced the most frequently were sorrow and pity." And so it is today.
It is roughly over sixty years now since World War II ended, and the people who lived through that period are now dead or very elderly. For that reason, this documentary and others like it are important and should be seen in case we forget about those darkest days in the middle of the last century. ‘THE SORROW AND THE PITY’ [Le Chagrin Et La Pitié] asks us very uncomfortable questions and how would we have reacted in similar circumstances at the time? It asks us to make our own judgements. If you have any genuine interest in history, especially and specifically World War II, then this superb Arrow Academy Blu-ray discs presentation will be an essential purchase. There are other stories, equally disturbing and ambiguous, that link Marcel Ophüls's work with the spiritual legacy of his father. ‘THE SORROW AND THE PITY’ [Le Chagrin Et La Pitié], which captures the German occupation of a French town between 1940 – 1944, and arguably deserves to sit alongside the others as one of the best documentaries ever produced. It’s a difficult and challenging material, one that’s easy to shy away from, but what all these films have in common is that they refuse to look away. They don’t allow the viewer to take the easy way out. This is what real people went through, and this is why we should never forget. In fact, here we see a film that France was almost embarrassed to show for a time because of its honesty and bleak outlook on what they did during the Nazi occupation. While they’d like to be seen as a country full of resistance, the clear truth is that many were not like that at all.
Blu-ray Video Quality – Arrow Films presents us this Blu-ray disc in a 1080p Black-and-White encoded presentation and an even more superb 1.66:1 visual experience. The documentary film is given an anamorphic transfer, given the film’s television origins and its use of archive footage, that ratio seems rather odd, but apart from some cropping of archive footage it seems very accurate, especially when you press the ZOOM button several times, you eventually get the right 1.66:1 aspect ratio with thin horizontal black panels either side of the screen and in doing so you are able to read the white subtitles at the bottom of the screen properly. Some of the interview footage can sometimes have occasional scratches and white spots frequently visible, especially with the old German newsreel footage, which is of course to be suspected and of course it is no worse or better than the condition of the rest of the archive footage you view. Despite this situation, it remains entirely watchable throughout, so please do not expect state-of-the-art picture quality from an archival film like this, because it is definitely age related and of course what was only available at the time the documentary was put together. Playback Region B/2: This will not play on most Blu-ray players sold in North America, Central America, South America, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. Learn more about Blu-ray region specifications.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – Arrow Films presents us this Blu-ray disc just a French 1.0 LPCM Mono Audio with of course English SDH Subtitles appearing at the bottom of the screen. The soundtrack was of course in original mono, mainly in French. With The Rt. Hon. Sir Anthony Eden KG MC MP n is able to speak most of the time in fluent French, but occasionally speaks in English, but other English and German interviewees speak in their own languages, which is translated into French via a voiceover and then subtitled into English. In some parts of the second half, English interviewees are left in English without any voiceover. The majority of the film is in French, with optional English subtitles. The words people say are quite clear throughout, as is the music, which is made up from the popular songs of that period. So overall, despite the source material, Arrow Academy has once again done a superb professional job all-round.
Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:
High Definition Blu-ray [1080p] presentation, from materials supplied by Gaumont. The Gaumont Film Company is a French mini-major film studio founded by the engineer-turned-inventor Léon Gaumont, in 1895.
Original uncompressed French 1.0 LPCM Mono Audio.
Optional English subtitles.
Special Feature: Le Nouveau Vendredi: Le Chagrin Et La Pitié [1981] [480i] [1.33:1] [62:07] Although originally made for French television, the documentary film ‘THE SORROW AND THE PITY’ [Le Chagrin Et La Pitié] would not be broadcast in France for twelve years. After its first screening at the end of October 1981, where host Robert Pietri of Le Nouveau Vendredi hosted this debate and discussion programme, in which director Marcel Ophüls, Fernand Tavarès [French Télévision Journalist], Henri Amouroux [French Historian and Journalist] and Alain Guérin [Investigative Journalist] discuss the film with an audience of Clermont-Ferrand students. When they show some clips from the documentary film, it has a ghastly horrible green tint. Although we get the white English subtitles, they do not always display all the words spoken by all the French people who participated in the discussion in regards to the film documentary. There was one female student who kept on grabbing the microphone and tended to hog the proceedings and spouting stupid inane comments and I could not understand why Robert Pietri did ask a lot more students to hear lots more different points of views from the other students. I thought Henri Amouroux was totally over the top and also had a very arrogant belligerent attitude and did not like it when the other experts on the panel challenged his very narrow point of views. Contributors include: Robert Pietri [Le Nouveau Vendredi], Fernand Tavarès [Télévision France 3 Auvergne], Henri Amouroux [Journaliste – Ecrivain], Alain Guérin [Journaliste – Ecrivain] and Marcel Ophüls [Réalisateur]. Please note: In the Special Edition Contents List, Arrow Films states that this French Television Debate is 55 minutes long, well as you can see it is in fact 62 minutes and 7 seconds in length.
Special Feature: Interview at the NFT with Marcel Ophüls [2004] [480i [1.33:1] [30:11] On the 22nd May, 2004, after a screening of ‘THE SORROW AND THE PITY’ film documentary at London’s National Film Theatre, its director Marcel Ophüls discusses the film on stage with critic Ian Christie. When the interview is about to start, Marcel Ophüls is invited onto the stage, you see the video starts at precisely 20:57:19, but what a shame the technical video camera information was not able to be edited out. Marcel Ophüls goes into great depth about his career in films, especially goes into a failed film he directed that was a box office disaster. Marcel Ophüls also talks in-depth about his career in French television documentaries, especially how he was introduced doing long documentary about the Second World War and especially ‘THE SORROW AND THE PITY,’ but in the process Marcel encountered a lot of problems, but eventually got the sack and then went to work for German Television in a very boring office job, especially someone he did not get on with very well and there was no love lost from either of them. But over time eventually persuaded his German boss to bring two original guys from Swiss Television who was at the time was unemployed to produce the French television film documentary. But eventually the film documentary was finally released, and it played in a single theatre on the Left Bank in Paris, who was owned by two French brothers, where it became a long-running hit, because of not being allowed on French television. On top of all that François Truffaut was the man who made it all possible. But in the process after it had been viewed in all of the French cinemas, they eventually wanted it broadcast on French television, but Marcel was ordered to the film heavily censored, but it never happened and of course the full 260 minutes was viewed by the French public and was a massive success. Marcel also gives great praise and admiration towards The Rt. Hon. Sir Anthony Eden KG. MC. MP. Who he thought was totally wonderful and thought he was also a very handsome person, as very well dressed, and of course The Rt. Hon. Sir Anthony Eden KG. MC. MP had a great love of France and of course was totally fluent in French. Marcel informs us that his personal film documentary was sadly a big flop and was forced into retirement for the last 10 years of his working life, but states, “But still, I think I won, but I think in the end I won, because of all the sudden documentaries had from then on became hot again and feels he was the birth of documentaries and are being reborn and it is not on the basis of “Cinéma Vérité.” But just at that point when marcel has a drink of water, the sound goes silent and ends without warning. But despite this, it was a really excellent video presentation and I could have listened to Marcel Ophüls for ages, as he is a very interesting intelligent person to listen to and is a very knowledgeable person who deserved all his success.
PLUS: Beautiful Printed Blu-ray Reversible sleeve featuring new original artwork and especially featuring two choices of artwork. Sadly we are not informed who the designer was.
BONUS: FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Beautiful printed 44-page booklet featuring writings on the film entitled COLLABORATION AND RESISTANCE by Pauline Kael. THE SORROW AND THE PITY by Jean-Pierre Melville. MARCEL OPHÜLS AND THE SORROW AND THE PITY by Frederick Busi. OCCUPATION TIMELINE: This covers the period of 1939, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1843, 144, 1945 and 1947. The booklet also includes FILM CREDITS, ABOUT THE FILM TRANSFER, PRODUCTION CREDITS and SPECIAL THANKS. It also features lots of Black-and-White photographs, some from the documentary and some of the people involved in the film documentary.
Finally, ‘THE SORROW AND THE PITY’ [‘Le Chagrin et la Pitié’] [1969] chronicles a French village in the occupation years. Interviews are alternated with archive footage which. In this film, director Marcel Ophüls unveils the myth of infallibility of the French resistance heroes by showing that the reality behind the myth was infinitely more complex. Marcel Ophüls reduces the resistance heroes to human proportions and shows people who were motivated by a mixture of courage and fear. Released in French cinemas in 1971 after the French television station it was produced for, but refused to screen it. But ‘THE SORROW AND THE PITY’ [‘Le Chagrin et la Pitié’] became an overnight sensation. A quarter of a century after the end of the war it was considered incendiary and intolerable. Even today it has not lost little of its challenging impact and Barbara Kopple [American Film Director] said of the French documentary: "It is truly a great film on several levels, one of which is its ability to show how people often rationalise in making decisions that may be good in the short term but could have terrible consequences." But, while its revelations still have a shocking power, ‘THE SORROW AND THE PITY’ [‘Le Chagrin et la Pitié’] still has enduring effectiveness owes much to Marcel Ophuls's mastery of his material. Everything about this extraordinary account of France's wartime experience is arranged by meticulous contrast. The town of Clermont-Ferrand itself was chosen as it was both close to Vichy and served as the centre of Maquis activity in the Auvergne. Personal testimonies were juxtaposed with contemporary newsreels, while prominent politicians and everyday citizens were encouraged to ponder both local incidents and their wider national context. Expert and unreliable witnesses alike were given equal opportunity to testify, as they had all been in the crowds that had witnessed the respective arrivals of Philippe Pétain or Marshal Pétain regime in 1940 and General De Gaulle four years later. Consequently, French and Germans, aristocrats and peasants, intellectuals and workers, diplomats and spies, democrats and fascists were all invited to contribute to this demolition of the war's clichés and stereotypes in order to reveal that the population which endured the Nazi tyranny could not be divided so easily into resistors and collaborators as even those who lived through this traumatic time would like suppose or, indeed, would prefer those who came after to believe. Marcel Ophüls's use of archive footage was exemplary. But the indelible moments were provided by such dismayingly unrepentant figures as Wehrmacht captain Helmut Tachsend and Charlemagne Division veteran Christian de la Mazière, whose arrogance contrasted sharply with the unassuming recollections of British agent Denis Rake, Marquis chief and Buchenwald survivor Louis Grave, and Jewish historian Claude Lévy. ‘THE SORROW AND THE PITY’ [‘Le Chagrin et la Pitié’] is one of cinema's documentaries genius masterpieces and a touchstone for all Woody Allen fans, where in the film ‘Annie Hall’ [1977] Alvy Singer [Woody Allen] obsesses about the themes of the film and makes two references about the main character's obsession with the persecution of Jews during World War II. What matters are that Marcel Ophüls created something so very important, and making such an impact, that we’re still talking about it today. I can’t recommend it highly enough. It’s certainly not Sunday afternoon family viewing, but it’s an absorbing, disturbing, inspiring film well worth four-hours of your time. You’ll have a whole new outlook on the world by the end this very absorbing and fascinating documentary of something I did not anything about and the world should be informed it is now available on the Blu-ray format. Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
Director Marcel Ophüls presents a four-and-a-half hour portrait of the French town of Clermont-Ferrand under German occupation from 1940 – 1944 in one of the greatest documentaries ever made, as important as Claude Lanzmann’s ‘Shoah’ [1985] in its value not just as a film but as an essential historical record in its own right and not least since its interviewees are all long dead.
Describing the fall of France and the rise of the French Resistance, with the aid of newly-shot interviews and eye-opening archive footage including newsreels and propaganda films. Director Marcel Ophüls painstakingly crafts a complex, nuanced picture of what really happened in France over this period. Marcel Ophüls also demolishes numerous self-serving national myths to such an extent that, although he made the film for French television, they wouldn’t show it for over a decade.
But, as Marcel Ophüls demonstrates again and again, the overwhelming majority of French citizens during this period weren’t heroes, villains or cowards, but simply ordinary people trying to make the best of an impossible situation. And it’s Director Marcel Ophüls portrayal of these people, their hopes, their fears and their appalling moral quandaries that remains unmatched in film history.
FILM FACT No.1: Awards and Nominations: 1971 National Society of Film Critics Awards: Win: Special Award. 1972 Academy Awards®: Nominated: Best Documentary in a Feature for Marcel Ophüls. 1972 BAFTA® Awards: Win: Best Foreign TV Programme for Marcel Ophüls. 1972 National Board of Review: Win: Best Foreign Language Film for Switzerland. Win: Top Foreign Films. 1972 National Society of Film Critics Awards: Nominated: Best Film in 5th place. 1973 Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards: Win: Best Documentary. 1973 New York Film Critics Circle Awards: Win: Special Citation For the year's Best Documentary.
FILM FACT No.2: This French documentary film was first shown on French television in 1981 after being banned from that medium for years. It is frequently assumed that the reason was French reluctance to admit the facts of French history. While this may have been a factor, the principal mover in the decision was Simone Veil, a Jewish inmate of Auschwitz who became a minister and the first President of the European Parliament, on the grounds that the film presented too one-sided a view. Time magazine gave a positive review of the film, and wrote that Marcel Ophüls "tries to puncture the bourgeois myth or protectively askew memory that allows France generally to act as if hardly any Frenchmen collaborated with the Germans." Maurice Chevalier's "Sweepin' the Clouds Away" is the theme song of the film and was a popular entertainer with the German occupation force in France.
Cast: Marcel Ophüls (Director/Interviewer) Georges Bidault, Matthäus Bleibinger, Charles Braun, Maurice Buckmaster, Emile Coulaudon, Emmanuel d'Astier de la Vigerie, René de Chambrun, Christian de la Mazière, Darquier de Pellepoix, Jacques Doriot, R. Du Jonchay, Jacques Duclos, The Rt. Hon. Sir Anthony Eden KG MC MP, Sgt. Evans, Marcel Fouche-Degliame, Raphael Geminiani, Alexis Grave, Louis Grave, Marius Klein, Georges Lamirand, Pierre Laval, Pierre Le Calvez, Mr. Leiris, Claude Levy, Pierre Mendès-France, Cmdt. Menut, Elmar Michel, Mr. Mioche, Denis Rake, Henri Rochat, Paul Schmidt, Mme. Solange, Edward Spears, Helmut Tausend, Roger Tounze, Marcel Verdier, Walter Warlimont, Junie Astor (archive footage) (uncredited), René Bousquet (archive footage) (uncredited), Maurice Chevalier (archive footage) (uncredited), Danielle Darrieux (archive footage) (uncredited), Charles de Gaulle (archive footage) (uncredited), Suzy Delair (archive footage) (uncredited), Reinhard Heydrich (archive footage) (uncredited), Albert Préjean (archive footage) (uncredited), Philippe Pétain (archive footage) (uncredited) and Viviane Romance (archive footage) (uncredited)
Director: Marcel Ophüls
Producers: Alain de Sedouy and André Harris
Screenplay: André Harris (writer) and Marcel Ophüls (writer)
Cinematography: André Gazut and Jürgen Thieme
Video Resolution: 1080p [Black-and-White]
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1 [Anamorphic]
Audio: French: 1.0 LPCM Mono Audio
Subtitles: English
Running Time: 260 minutes
Region: Region B/2
Number of discs: 1
Studio: Norddeutscher Rundfunk / Television Rencontre / Télévision Suisse Romande / Arrow Films
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: ‘THE SORROW AND THE PITY’ [Le Chagrin Et La Pitié] [1969] was directed by Marcus Ophüls and is one of the great World War II Holocaust documentaries of all time, but it takes a rather unique tact, focusing on the Nazi occupation of the small industrial city Clermont-Ferrand in France. Originally created for French television in 1969, it eventually became an international success, nominated for an Oscar in 1972. Director Marcus Ophüls very provocative interview style is very powerful and engaging when combined with his very earnest subjects and the deathly serious topic. And its coverage is surprisingly thorough, running deep enough to inform even the most dedicated historians.
In the aftermath of World War II, the French clung vehemently to a belief that they and their Vichy government had resisted the Nazi occupation of France. However director Marcus Ophüls seminal documentary finds that when the small city of Clermont-Ferrand is examined closely, the myth of French resistance slowly begins to crumble in the face of overwhelming evidence that the Vichy government willingly collaborated with German forces, for reasons ranging from fear to apathy to blatant anti-Semitism. 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.
THE SORROW AND THE PITY [Le Chagrin Et La Pitié] is split into two separate documentaries, which consist of Part One: "The Collapse" [1ère Partie: L'EFFONDREMENT] which includes an extended interview with Pierre Mendès France, jailed for anti-Vichy action and later becomes a French politician who served as President of the Council of Ministers for eight months from 1954 to 1955 and he also represented the Radical Party, and his government had the support of the Communist party. At the heart of Part Two: "The Choice" [2ème Partie: LE CHOIX] we have an interview with Christian de la Mazière, one of 7,000 French youth who fought on the Eastern front wearing German uniforms.
Long before the Steven Spielberg film ‘Schindler's List’ came along, ‘THE SORROW AND THE PITY’ [Le Chagrin Et La Pitié] had already redefined how we think and feel about the Holocaust. Through profound revelation and catharsis, the landmark 1971 documentary by director Marcel Ophüls personalised the harrowing Nazi occupation of France, delving into the psyches of a few fascinating participants. In analysing the web of collaborators, resistance fighters and apathetic onlookers, and how they haunted and still haunt a nation, director Marcel Ophüls elevated the documentary to a higher art form through the force of his subject and storytelling.
Viewed today, ‘THE SORROW AND THE PITY’ [Le Chagrin Et La Pitié] still seems like the fastest four and a half hours in the history of the cinema. Only now it's all the more illuminating in its original, French-language version (with English subtitles). The film's powerful eloquence has not diminished over the years, despite all we know about France's unrivalled complicity with the Nazis and its determined resistance movement. The two documentary films reveal how militarily and emotionally ill-equipped France was to fight the Nazis. Everyone had his reasons. Some were anti-Communists sympathetic to National Socialism. Some had too much to lose and others just didn't care, but most had been too spiritually scarred by World War I. Therefore many lashed out at Jews and Communists; in one especially horrifying instance detailed in the film, French collaborators instigated the deportation of Jewish children to concentration camps.
The answers are never simple. An old farmer talks about being interned at Buchenwald concentration camp after a neighbour reported his resistance activities. A British agent who parachuted into Vichy France tells of falling in love with a German soldier. Pro-Nazi Frenchmen talk in disturbingly unrepentant tones about their hatred of Communism and the absolute perfection of the German army.
More than just a series of talking heads, director Marcel Ophüls film investigates history, memory, and the ultimate truth. Although Marcel Ophüls never explicitly judges his speakers, instead Marcel Ophüls often undercuts their assertions, showing archive footage that contradicts their claims or setting their testimony next to the strikingly different recollections of other testimonies. Marcel Ophüls unearthed rare films for ‘THE SORROW AND THE PITY’ [Le Chagrin Et La Pitié] including German newsreels (originally seen only in enemy territory) and the viciously anti-Semitic film ‘Jud Süß’ [Süss the Jew] [1940] which was a Nazi Drama/Propaganda film produced by Terra Filmkunst at the behest of Joseph Goebbels, and considered one of the most anti-Semitic films of all time and the film was directed by Veit Harlan, which showed the climate of hatred that the Germans stoked up against the Jews. But several of Marcel Ophüls subjects also attest to a closeted anti-Semitism that already existed in France, which the German occupiers merely exploited. In one eerie moment from a newsreel of the anti-Semitic exhibition "The Jew and France," viewers can see the face of esteemed director Ernst Lubitsch used to illustrate how to "spot" a Jew.
What stands out in this brilliant documentary is just how few people took up arms against the invaders. Partly that was out of fear, yet partly also out of a misguided belief that it was all for the best. It begs a distressing question. Winston Churchill may have been convinced that the British would "fight them on the beaches... in the hills and in the streets", but after watching this gripping story of a nation's collapse, you can't help wondering if we'd have reacted any differently than the citizens of Clermont-Ferrand. Marcel Ophüls audio voice can be heard throughout the film, questioning his subjects and probing subtly, but effectively, ever deeper to reveal evasions and outright lies in the interviewees' statements. Marcel Ophüls saw the film as an examination of history as the "process of recollection, in things like choice, selective memory, and rationalization." Now and again we get some nice lighter moments in the documentary was to see Maurice Chevalier singing comedy songs to young soldiers and enjoying the moment and also having a good laugh, especially because Maurice Chevalier singing songs that mocked the French Government.
In ‘THE SORROW AND THE PITY’ [Le Chagrin Et La Pitié] director Marcel Ophüls mixes anthropology, history, psychology and sociology to get at the truth and primarily leaving the judging to us. Marcel Ophüls shows us the aristocrats, peasants, shopkeepers and politicians of Clermont-Ferrand, a small industrial town near Vichy, and the capital of the collaborationist Philippe Pétain or Marshal Pétain regime. Along the way, the film shatters the myth of a united French resistance. One resistance fighter claims that only social misfits joined the movement, because they had nothing to lose. Louis Grave, a farmer, rakes his field while proclaiming a newfound preference for pacifism. ''Only fanatics know why they're fighting,'' he says. When Marcel Ophüls asks him if he knows why he fought the Nazis, Louis Grave, who is no fanatic, suggests that it was because they made a mess of France and innocently contradicting himself.
Denis Rake, during the war an English agent working in France, poignantly describes how he joined the resistance to overcome his fear of being considered a coward because of his homosexuality. But while posing as a transvestite cabaret performer, who fell in love with a Nazi who befriended him. What was also very upsetting is when Madame Solange, a beautician, nervously relates how she was tortured after the liberation for having supported Petain. As Marcel Ophüls digs deeper, he subtly uncovers her underlying anti-Semitism. In another of the film's charged interviews, Christian de la Maziere, an aristocrat who fought with the French Waffen SS division, recalls how his philosophical attraction to fascism was mixed with revulsion at wearing the Nazi uniform. Both authoritative and personal, ‘THE SORROW AND THE PITY’ [Le Chagrin Et La Pitié] is a film that draws you in, exerting a quiet but powerful grip as it shows how the unimaginable became completely natural. It takes its title, and its tone, from a former Resistance fighter who said, yes, there was courage during the war, "but the two emotions I experienced the most frequently were sorrow and pity." And so it is today.
It is roughly over sixty years now since World War II ended, and the people who lived through that period are now dead or very elderly. For that reason, this documentary and others like it are important and should be seen in case we forget about those darkest days in the middle of the last century. ‘THE SORROW AND THE PITY’ [Le Chagrin Et La Pitié] asks us very uncomfortable questions and how would we have reacted in similar circumstances at the time? It asks us to make our own judgements. If you have any genuine interest in history, especially and specifically World War II, then this superb Arrow Academy Blu-ray discs presentation will be an essential purchase. There are other stories, equally disturbing and ambiguous, that link Marcel Ophüls's work with the spiritual legacy of his father. ‘THE SORROW AND THE PITY’ [Le Chagrin Et La Pitié], which captures the German occupation of a French town between 1940 – 1944, and arguably deserves to sit alongside the others as one of the best documentaries ever produced. It’s a difficult and challenging material, one that’s easy to shy away from, but what all these films have in common is that they refuse to look away. They don’t allow the viewer to take the easy way out. This is what real people went through, and this is why we should never forget. In fact, here we see a film that France was almost embarrassed to show for a time because of its honesty and bleak outlook on what they did during the Nazi occupation. While they’d like to be seen as a country full of resistance, the clear truth is that many were not like that at all.
Blu-ray Video Quality – Arrow Films presents us this Blu-ray disc in a 1080p Black-and-White encoded presentation and an even more superb 1.66:1 visual experience. The documentary film is given an anamorphic transfer, given the film’s television origins and its use of archive footage, that ratio seems rather odd, but apart from some cropping of archive footage it seems very accurate, especially when you press the ZOOM button several times, you eventually get the right 1.66:1 aspect ratio with thin horizontal black panels either side of the screen and in doing so you are able to read the white subtitles at the bottom of the screen properly. Some of the interview footage can sometimes have occasional scratches and white spots frequently visible, especially with the old German newsreel footage, which is of course to be suspected and of course it is no worse or better than the condition of the rest of the archive footage you view. Despite this situation, it remains entirely watchable throughout, so please do not expect state-of-the-art picture quality from an archival film like this, because it is definitely age related and of course what was only available at the time the documentary was put together. Playback Region B/2: This will not play on most Blu-ray players sold in North America, Central America, South America, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. Learn more about Blu-ray region specifications.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – Arrow Films presents us this Blu-ray disc just a French 1.0 LPCM Mono Audio with of course English SDH Subtitles appearing at the bottom of the screen. The soundtrack was of course in original mono, mainly in French. With The Rt. Hon. Sir Anthony Eden KG MC MP n is able to speak most of the time in fluent French, but occasionally speaks in English, but other English and German interviewees speak in their own languages, which is translated into French via a voiceover and then subtitled into English. In some parts of the second half, English interviewees are left in English without any voiceover. The majority of the film is in French, with optional English subtitles. The words people say are quite clear throughout, as is the music, which is made up from the popular songs of that period. So overall, despite the source material, Arrow Academy has once again done a superb professional job all-round.
Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:
High Definition Blu-ray [1080p] presentation, from materials supplied by Gaumont. The Gaumont Film Company is a French mini-major film studio founded by the engineer-turned-inventor Léon Gaumont, in 1895.
Original uncompressed French 1.0 LPCM Mono Audio.
Optional English subtitles.
Special Feature: Le Nouveau Vendredi: Le Chagrin Et La Pitié [1981] [480i] [1.33:1] [62:07] Although originally made for French television, the documentary film ‘THE SORROW AND THE PITY’ [Le Chagrin Et La Pitié] would not be broadcast in France for twelve years. After its first screening at the end of October 1981, where host Robert Pietri of Le Nouveau Vendredi hosted this debate and discussion programme, in which director Marcel Ophüls, Fernand Tavarès [French Télévision Journalist], Henri Amouroux [French Historian and Journalist] and Alain Guérin [Investigative Journalist] discuss the film with an audience of Clermont-Ferrand students. When they show some clips from the documentary film, it has a ghastly horrible green tint. Although we get the white English subtitles, they do not always display all the words spoken by all the French people who participated in the discussion in regards to the film documentary. There was one female student who kept on grabbing the microphone and tended to hog the proceedings and spouting stupid inane comments and I could not understand why Robert Pietri did ask a lot more students to hear lots more different points of views from the other students. I thought Henri Amouroux was totally over the top and also had a very arrogant belligerent attitude and did not like it when the other experts on the panel challenged his very narrow point of views. Contributors include: Robert Pietri [Le Nouveau Vendredi], Fernand Tavarès [Télévision France 3 Auvergne], Henri Amouroux [Journaliste – Ecrivain], Alain Guérin [Journaliste – Ecrivain] and Marcel Ophüls [Réalisateur]. Please note: In the Special Edition Contents List, Arrow Films states that this French Television Debate is 55 minutes long, well as you can see it is in fact 62 minutes and 7 seconds in length.
Special Feature: Interview at the NFT with Marcel Ophüls [2004] [480i [1.33:1] [30:11] On the 22nd May, 2004, after a screening of ‘THE SORROW AND THE PITY’ film documentary at London’s National Film Theatre, its director Marcel Ophüls discusses the film on stage with critic Ian Christie. When the interview is about to start, Marcel Ophüls is invited onto the stage, you see the video starts at precisely 20:57:19, but what a shame the technical video camera information was not able to be edited out. Marcel Ophüls goes into great depth about his career in films, especially goes into a failed film he directed that was a box office disaster. Marcel Ophüls also talks in-depth about his career in French television documentaries, especially how he was introduced doing long documentary about the Second World War and especially ‘THE SORROW AND THE PITY,’ but in the process Marcel encountered a lot of problems, but eventually got the sack and then went to work for German Television in a very boring office job, especially someone he did not get on with very well and there was no love lost from either of them. But over time eventually persuaded his German boss to bring two original guys from Swiss Television who was at the time was unemployed to produce the French television film documentary. But eventually the film documentary was finally released, and it played in a single theatre on the Left Bank in Paris, who was owned by two French brothers, where it became a long-running hit, because of not being allowed on French television. On top of all that François Truffaut was the man who made it all possible. But in the process after it had been viewed in all of the French cinemas, they eventually wanted it broadcast on French television, but Marcel was ordered to the film heavily censored, but it never happened and of course the full 260 minutes was viewed by the French public and was a massive success. Marcel also gives great praise and admiration towards The Rt. Hon. Sir Anthony Eden KG. MC. MP. Who he thought was totally wonderful and thought he was also a very handsome person, as very well dressed, and of course The Rt. Hon. Sir Anthony Eden KG. MC. MP had a great love of France and of course was totally fluent in French. Marcel informs us that his personal film documentary was sadly a big flop and was forced into retirement for the last 10 years of his working life, but states, “But still, I think I won, but I think in the end I won, because of all the sudden documentaries had from then on became hot again and feels he was the birth of documentaries and are being reborn and it is not on the basis of “Cinéma Vérité.” But just at that point when marcel has a drink of water, the sound goes silent and ends without warning. But despite this, it was a really excellent video presentation and I could have listened to Marcel Ophüls for ages, as he is a very interesting intelligent person to listen to and is a very knowledgeable person who deserved all his success.
PLUS: Beautiful Printed Blu-ray Reversible sleeve featuring new original artwork and especially featuring two choices of artwork. Sadly we are not informed who the designer was.
BONUS: FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Beautiful printed 44-page booklet featuring writings on the film entitled COLLABORATION AND RESISTANCE by Pauline Kael. THE SORROW AND THE PITY by Jean-Pierre Melville. MARCEL OPHÜLS AND THE SORROW AND THE PITY by Frederick Busi. OCCUPATION TIMELINE: This covers the period of 1939, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1843, 144, 1945 and 1947. The booklet also includes FILM CREDITS, ABOUT THE FILM TRANSFER, PRODUCTION CREDITS and SPECIAL THANKS. It also features lots of Black-and-White photographs, some from the documentary and some of the people involved in the film documentary.
Finally, ‘THE SORROW AND THE PITY’ [‘Le Chagrin et la Pitié’] [1969] chronicles a French village in the occupation years. Interviews are alternated with archive footage which. In this film, director Marcel Ophüls unveils the myth of infallibility of the French resistance heroes by showing that the reality behind the myth was infinitely more complex. Marcel Ophüls reduces the resistance heroes to human proportions and shows people who were motivated by a mixture of courage and fear. Released in French cinemas in 1971 after the French television station it was produced for, but refused to screen it. But ‘THE SORROW AND THE PITY’ [‘Le Chagrin et la Pitié’] became an overnight sensation. A quarter of a century after the end of the war it was considered incendiary and intolerable. Even today it has not lost little of its challenging impact and Barbara Kopple [American Film Director] said of the French documentary: "It is truly a great film on several levels, one of which is its ability to show how people often rationalise in making decisions that may be good in the short term but could have terrible consequences." But, while its revelations still have a shocking power, ‘THE SORROW AND THE PITY’ [‘Le Chagrin et la Pitié’] still has enduring effectiveness owes much to Marcel Ophuls's mastery of his material. Everything about this extraordinary account of France's wartime experience is arranged by meticulous contrast. The town of Clermont-Ferrand itself was chosen as it was both close to Vichy and served as the centre of Maquis activity in the Auvergne. Personal testimonies were juxtaposed with contemporary newsreels, while prominent politicians and everyday citizens were encouraged to ponder both local incidents and their wider national context. Expert and unreliable witnesses alike were given equal opportunity to testify, as they had all been in the crowds that had witnessed the respective arrivals of Philippe Pétain or Marshal Pétain regime in 1940 and General De Gaulle four years later. Consequently, French and Germans, aristocrats and peasants, intellectuals and workers, diplomats and spies, democrats and fascists were all invited to contribute to this demolition of the war's clichés and stereotypes in order to reveal that the population which endured the Nazi tyranny could not be divided so easily into resistors and collaborators as even those who lived through this traumatic time would like suppose or, indeed, would prefer those who came after to believe. Marcel Ophüls's use of archive footage was exemplary. But the indelible moments were provided by such dismayingly unrepentant figures as Wehrmacht captain Helmut Tachsend and Charlemagne Division veteran Christian de la Mazière, whose arrogance contrasted sharply with the unassuming recollections of British agent Denis Rake, Marquis chief and Buchenwald survivor Louis Grave, and Jewish historian Claude Lévy. ‘THE SORROW AND THE PITY’ [‘Le Chagrin et la Pitié’] is one of cinema's documentaries genius masterpieces and a touchstone for all Woody Allen fans, where in the film ‘Annie Hall’ [1977] Alvy Singer [Woody Allen] obsesses about the themes of the film and makes two references about the main character's obsession with the persecution of Jews during World War II. What matters are that Marcel Ophüls created something so very important, and making such an impact, that we’re still talking about it today. I can’t recommend it highly enough. It’s certainly not Sunday afternoon family viewing, but it’s an absorbing, disturbing, inspiring film well worth four-hours of your time. You’ll have a whole new outlook on the world by the end this very absorbing and fascinating documentary of something I did not anything about and the world should be informed it is now available on the Blu-ray format. Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
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Amazon Customer
1.0 out of 5 stars
Badly Damaged Case
Reviewed in Australia on March 6, 2020
I purchased this product as a birthday present for a friend however upon opening I found that the interior of the case holding the two CD's was badly damaged. This had caused the CD's and plastic items to become free inside the case and then endure the rigours of the postal system. Given the damage is purely internal, it is highly unlikely to have occurred during shipment and would have been dispatched in a damaged condition. This is just not good enough!
B. Drury
5.0 out of 5 stars
Everyone should watch this documentary....
Reviewed in Canada on April 24, 2013
because unless you lived through this time, there is no way you would know that this actually happened. It portrays the role of the French during World War Two, vis-a-vis their own internal politics and their own diverse political factions, the Germans, and the Jews. Who knew that they basically let the Germans walk into France and take it over with very little resistance? Who knew that they generally preferred to collaborate with the Germans rather than face the tough question of whether or not to send Jews to their certain death? Through a series of candid interviews with French citizens from all walks of life, German soldiers and a few Jews, you are left with the unforgettable impression of a country that was demoralized to such an extent after the First World War that it had no stomach for even beginning to contemplate fighting the Second World War, and that the decisions that many made during that difficult time were based on survival. You are also left with the question : Would I have behaved any better? Who am I to judge? There is sorrow for what happened, but also pity for the perpetrators and the betrayed.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Incomparable and moving testimony of France under Nazi occupation
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 10, 2023
A remarkable, moving and at times disturbing film about Vichy France consisting of interviews of people from all sides who were there. - Simple citizens, members of various resistance movements, victims and families of victims, politicians, members of the Vichy regime, including collaborators and also interviews with former German soldiers stationed in wartime France.
This is an historical document. Unmissable.
This is an historical document. Unmissable.
fourwinds
5.0 out of 5 stars
a must view
Reviewed in Canada on January 8, 2020
Exceptional view of what it was like to live in occupied France in WW 11 . A haunting story of the interactions of the people of a small community living under the oppressive weight of Nazi Germany, and the political repercussions faced by the citizens.
