The Sorrow and the Pity (1969)
The Sorrow and the Pity (1969)
A Film by Marcel Ophüls
DVD5 + DVD9 | ISO+MDS | PAL 16:9 (720x576) | 248 mins | 4,05 Gb + 5,45 Gb
Audio: French AC3 2.0 @ 224 Kbps | Subs: English
Genre: Documentary, History, War | France
A Film by Marcel Ophüls
DVD5 + DVD9 | ISO+MDS | PAL 16:9 (720x576) | 248 mins | 4,05 Gb + 5,45 Gb
Audio: French AC3 2.0 @ 224 Kbps | Subs: English
Genre: Documentary, History, War | France
Hailed as one of the most moving and influential films of our time, this Oscar nominated documentary by director Marcel Ophüls has continued to garner international acclaim since its release in 1969.
An epic account of the occupation of small French industrial city Clermont-Ferrand by the Germans in World War 2, Ophüls combines interviews along with archive footage to explore the reality of occupation. Speaking to Resistance fighters, collaborators, spies, farmers, government officials, writers, artists and veterans, it is perhaps the most gripping and inspiring portrait of how ordinary people actually conducted themselves under extraordinary circumstances.
IMDB
Rober Ebert's Review
DVD One - Part One - “L’effondrement” (“The Collapse”) - 120:46
DVD Two - Part Two - “Le Choix” (“The Choice”) - 128:38
“The Sorrow and the Pity”, made in 1969, is a 4 hour documentary ( taken from 80 hours of footage ) directed by Marcel Ophuls, son of the frequently admired director Max Ophuls. It deals with the occupation of France by Nazi Germany in WW2 from 1940 –1944 and the inherent problems associated in social and political interactions on both a personal and national level. France was “overtaken” by Germany in 42 days in spite of the fact that France had the largest army in the entire world. Due to political indecision or public perception thereof the occupation and eventual armistice caused much internal strife considering, or perhaps because of, it being a generally non-violent takeover. This perception of a struggle with little fight left many Frenchman both embarrassed and politically divided. Anti-Semitism, Anglophobia, Homophobia as well as anti-communism and anti-nazism and their corresponding counterpart beliefs all rose to the surface with strikingly divergent viewpoints.
The Sorrow and the Pity (1969)
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Ophuls focused many of his interviews on residents of a small French city, Clermont-Ferrand that is eventually seen as a microcosm of the entire country. Discussions with residents include political stances, both past and present and overall effects of the occupation even 40 years later. With historical footage culled from archival newsreels and clips of newspaper headlines Ophuls sets the tone subtly in the first half of his two-part documentary. The 2nd half takes a more hard-lined interpretive stance as many of those interviewed relate personal anecdotes on how the political climate affected them. Disturbing incidents are related in a frank fashion as previous interviewees are revisited as a new topic is brought to the forefront.
The Sorrow and the Pity (1969)
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For history buffs this is a truly fascinating film, imbedding deeply the often unspoken and unseen affects that Germanys military sweep through Europe had made on the entire country of France, this small city and many of the individuals who lived there before through and after the occupation. It is a lesson in appreciating opinions of actions that we may have interpreted differently and appreciation of the long-term effects of this particular incident in history through personal stories of farmers, journalists, WW1 veterans, collaborators and members of the Resistance. This group included Pierre Mendès-France, jailed for anti-Vichy action and later becoming France's Prime Minister.
The Sorrow and the Pity (1969)
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I think the story was relatively objective, giving air time to German officials and infantrymen as well as French and English high ranking politicians gaining their insights on similar topics. I could not help but compare the varying attitudes of the French during this timeframe to American stances internally during the Vietnam War. Often it takes violent action to raise political awareness to a state that causes divisiveness. In Clermont-Ferrand many individuals lived in fear of German reprisal and correspondingly made their own personal decisions on public or private support of Nazi’s, Vichy France, or Resistance, any of which haunting them at the time or perhaps just their consciences, years later.
I recommend this DVD to everyone who will devote the time to viewing it that it so richly deserves, but I especially recommend it to fans of History and WW2.
Gary Tooze, DVDBeaver
The Sorrow and the Pity (1969)
How truly compelling is "The Sorrow and the Pity," a monumental 4 ½-hour documentary about one of the saddest realities of World War II: the almost placid collaboration of the French with their occupying German conquerors. The movie was created by Marcel Ophüls (son of the great Max Ophüls) and portrays a devastating picture of the collective compromise of morality under duress. We are brought into intimate contact with the times by way of newsreel footage and interviews with present-day survivors of all persuasions as they recall the events of the past, corroborate or contradict others or even themselves. We see the danger that comes with historical amnesia and the refusal to see that there is a potential for great evil as well as great good in all of us. This is a profound movie, and a profoundly disquieting one. It does not substitute facile attitudinizing for intelligence and integrity. It demands that we push the limits of our vision beyond the borders of the screen masking in the theatre. It would be a sorrow and a pity not to see it…and think about its implications for all of us.IMDB Reviewer
The Sorrow and the Pity (1969)
The Nazi occupation of France lasted more than four years. Marcel Ophuls' landmark 1969 documentary boils it down to a more manageable 265 minutes - which still amounts to an awful lot of sorrow and a veritable ocean of pity. Strange to note, then, that the film is so boldly conceived, richly textured and beautifully paced that its marathon running time feels more like a sprint.
The Sorrow and the Pity alights in the town of Clermont-Ferrand, 20 miles from Vichy and a microcosm, one imagines, of occupied France in general. Employing a seamless blend of contemporary interviews, newsreel footage and propaganda films, it paints an engrossing portrait of a cowed and compromised nation, presided over by the Blimpish Marshal Pétain and serenaded by the honeyed tones of Maurice Chevalier.
The Sorrow and the Pity (1969)
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The opening section is as apocalyptic as any sci-fi thriller. The Maginot Line breaks and France goes under. We see the roads clogged with lines of abandoned getaway cars while a triumphant Hitler plays tourist around a deserted Paris. Before long, collaboration has become the norm. A hairdresser casually shops her friend to the Gestapo. A Nazi aristocrat recalls the decadent nightlife. A shopkeeper named Klein takes out an ad in the local paper to assure his customers he's not Jewish. Interviewed three decades later, these people squirm and dissemble and justify their behaviour with airy hand gestures and nervous glances to the corner.
The Sorrow and the Pity (1969)
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The Sorrow and the Pity was originally made for French television, except that the authorities refused to show it. You can see what they objected to. Ophuls' revisionist history lesson effectively exploded the myth of Vichy France as some hotbed of patriotic fervour, with De Gaullists camped out in every barn. In its place it revealed a country caught hopelessly off guard and then sold down the river by its own middle class.
"The workers always showed more resistance," explains one old-timer. "But the bourgeoisie were scared. They had more to lose." When asked for his abiding memory of the occupation, one silver-haired bourgeois recalls the splendid hunting season of 1942. The woods, he says, were absolutely teeming with game.
The Sorrow and the Pity (1969)
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In the film's second half, the Resistance sparks into life around Clermont-Ferrand and heroes belatedly emerge from the rubble. When set against the context that Ophuls has established, their actions look all the more remarkable. We meet Gaspar, the bull-necked boss of the local Maquis, obviously still enraged by the compliance of his neighbours. We follow the fortunes of Pierre Mendès-France, a mercurial Jewish politician who broke out of his prison cell, and the wonderfully named Dennis Rake, a gay British operative determined to prove that he was as brave as any heterosexual.
Finally, waiting in the wings, are those faceless students from Clermont-Ferrand high school, who joined the Resistance and are no longer around to tell the tale. "Many of them have streets named after them now," boasts their proud former teacher - who stood by and did nothing.
The Sorrow and the Pity (1969)
Special Features:Many Thanks to liszt.
- 2004 NFT interview with director Marcel Ophüls.
- Programme notes.