Le chagrin et la pitié (1969)

User Rating:

8.5/10   

Director:

Marcel Ophüls

Writers:

André Harris (writer)
Marcel Ophüls (writer)

Release Date:

25 March 1972 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary | History | War

Plot:

From 1940 to 1944, France's Vichy government collaborated with Nazi Germany. Marcel Ophüls mixes archival...

Plot Keywords:

Interview | France | Collaboration | Clermont Ferrand | Collaborator

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 5 wins

Cast

Georges Bidault	...	Himself
Matthäus Bleibinger
Charles Braun
Maurice Buckmaster
Emile Coulaudon
Emmanuel d'Astier de la Vigerie
René de Chambrun		(as Comte René de Chambrun)
Christian de la Mazière
Jacques Duclos
R. Du Jonchay		(as Colonel R. du Jonchay)
Anthony Eden	...	(also archive footage) (as Lord Avon)
Sgt. Evans
Marcel Fouche-Degliame
Raphael Geminiani
Alexis Grave
Louis Grave
Marius Klein
Georges Lamirand
Pierre Le Calvez
Mr. Leiris
Claude Levy		(as Dr. Claude Levy)
Pierre Mendès-France	...	Himself
Cmdt. Menut
Elmar Michel
Mr. Mioche
Marcel Ophüls	...	Interviewer
Denis Rake
Henri Rochat	...	Himself
Paul Schmidt
Mme. Solange
Edward Spears	...	Himself
Helmut Tausend
Roger Tounze
Marcel Verdier
Walter Warlimont

Also Known As:

Das Haus nebenan - Chronik einer französischen Stadt im Kriege (West Germany)
Le chagrin et la pitié - Chronique d'une ville Français sous l'occupation (France)
The Sorrow and the Pity (USA)
Zorn und Mitleid (West Germany)

Runtime:

251 min

Country:

France | Switzerland | West Germany

Language:

French | German | English

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:M | France:U | UK:12A | USA:PG

Company:

Télévision Rencontre

Trivia:

Originally intended for French television but broadcasters refused to show it.

Quotes:

Georges Bidault: Some people are resistants by nature. In other words, some people are naturally headstrong. Others on the contrary, try to adapt to the circumstances, and get what they can out of it. If you are a resistant over everything and nothing, you're exaggerating. But if you accept everything, you're lying.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Angel: Conviction (#5.1)" (2003)

Can't stop thinking about this

I've only seen the first installment, but I can't stop thinking about two things in particular. Firstly, the haberdasher (and World War I veteran), of Clermont Ferrand who took out a newspaper ad to declare he was not Jewish after he was suspected of being so along with his three brothers. Secondly, the bourgeois chemist who was so scared of his child born in 1942 being malnourished, that he fed the blighter as much as he could and he was now (1969), the tallest of his siblings at 1m85cm. The history of ordinary people can very often be so much more vivid than the dry recantation of the big events we read in text books and see in other much more turgid documentaries. Definitely a must- see and I can certainly comprehend why it was not shown on French TV until years later in 1981.