The Sorrow and the Pity

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DVD Cover Information

Actor: Anthony Eden, Georges Bidault, Marcel Fouche-Degliame, Maurice Chevalier, R. Du Jonchay
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language); French (Original Language); German (Original Language); English (Subtitled); German (Subtitled)
Format: Black & White, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 251 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-04-24
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Image Entertainment

Movie Reviews of The Sorrow and the Pity

Movie Review: 3.5 stars out of 4
Summary: 5 Stars

The Bottom Line:

A documentary so ambitious and sucessful that it puts efforts like Fahrenheit 9/11 to shame, The Sorrow and the Pity is a fascinating (if long) account of the French occupation as seen through the lens of the town of Clermont-Ferraud; the film that helped destroy the myth of universal French Resistance, TSatP is recommended to any history or cinema buff.

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Summary of The Sorrow and the Pity

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."

Often hailed as one of the greatest documentaries of all time, The Sorrow and the Pity is still astonishing long after its original release in Paris. The lengthy film (anyone who has heard it prominently referred to in Woody Allen's Annie Hall knows it's four hours long) tells the story of France under Nazi occupation by weaving together a number of interviews as well as newsreel clips and propaganda films shot by the Nazis. Director Marcel Oph?ls skillfully utilizes interviews with people who often contradict each other, so the story of France not only occupied but divided against itself emerges fully. Filmed in the late 1960s, when bitter memories still resonated, the interviews conducted by Oph?ls have great depth and are often amazing. Ordinary Frenchmen who found themselves performing heroic acts for the Resistance recall the dangers they faced while those who collaborated with the Nazis make excuses. A former Nazi officer interviewed at a wedding party in Germany pompously puts a benign face on what occurred where he was stationed; interviews with French residents utterly refute his sanitized version of the past. Beyond the interviews, the arresting archival footage chosen by Oph?ls is remarkable, such as an unsettling clip of a stand-up comedian performing before a laughing audience whose collar insignias identify them as members of the fanatical Nazi SS. The Sorrow and the Pity lives up to its reputation as being a magnificent documentary. --Robert J. McNamara

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