The Sorrow and the Pity
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Movie Reviews of The Sorrow and the Pity
Movie Review: 60 Years Ago
Summary: 5 Stars
60 years ago France negotiated a peace with Hitler and the country was split: Germany occupied the north while Petain's collaborationist; puppet government installed itself in the South. France was the only conquered country in WWII to have established a collaborationist government. To further disgrace herself in defeat, she was proactive in Hitler's Final Solution by instituting the same anti-Semitic policies as had been enacted elsewhere in Hitler's Europe and in sending thousands of French citizens to death camps. How could this have been possible? Is one man to blame? Hitler? Petain? Or is an entire nation guilty? While most of France sat idly by, small groups of patriots-risking death, torture, and deportation--formed resistance factions within France to combat the Nazi propaganda and even undermine German military strength with sabotage and assassinations. These "terrorists" as the German's called them, sacrificed everything for their ideals. While the experience of World War II and the evils of Hitler have been recorded in countless mediums,The Sorrow and The Pity is one of the most important if for no other reason than because there is a sense in our (American) society that war is fiction. It is almost absurd to think of one's homeland being invaded--even occupied--by another country. Surely, our civilization has moved beyond the barbarism of those days! Watch this documentary and try to understand, because these events are not fiction. They really happened. It was only 60 years ago.Movie Review: Stellar History.
Summary: 5 Stars
Never in my life have I seen a film dedicated to the subject of Vichy France. I had long read about it but knew very little about the official pronouncements of the collaborationist government. I assumed that The Sorrow and the Pity was strictly a documentary about the French resistance, but was pleasantly surprised by its depth. It describes the Vichy of Petain and Laval quite thoroughly. You may recognize some of Ophuls' interviewees from The World at War (such as Edward Spears), but the stand out individual here was the fellow who volunteered for the SS. I assume he served in the Charlemagne outfit. Frankly, I was surprised he was alive and actually showing his face. His point that the slaughter of 1,600 French sailors by the English was a motivating force for him to join the Germans was something I would have never considered. It seems inconceivable back then for the French to have even hesitated siding with anybody other than England--given the competition--but it is clear that Anglophobia was rampant after "the rout" of May 1940. The most sensational thing about this film is the footage of the collaborationists. It seems as if modern history has made great attempts to cover up just how much the citizenry backed Petain (at first) and looked sympathetically to the Nazis. The speeches, the newsreels, and the photos are incredibly valuable and terribly interesting- especially if you're a history buff. I'd rank this one right up there with Hotel Terminus.Movie Review: A true Mount Everest in the Cinema' s story!
Summary: 5 Stars
Far beyond of all the praised comments and countless acknowledgments around the world, "The sorrow and the pity" still remains as one of the most striking testimonials of a recent past. The co production talks by itself:(French- Swiss-West German). Necessarily lengthy documentary directed by Marcel Ophlus about anti-Semitism and the Nazi occupation during the Vichy regime in the WW2 It's worthy to recall the French TV did not run the film for some time, because in the own words of a credited officer spokesman "The population was not yet mature enough to accept the idea that during the WW2 most of Frenchmen did not fight in the resistance." Nevertheless, we should realize that it was not a mere coincidence the claasic film of Rene clement "La bataille du Rail" awarded the First Cannes Film Festival in 1946, that mirrored the emblematic and even titanic facts (perhaps minor episodes for some people) of those railroad men, who by all their means caused many troubles to Nazi forces along France. They visibly did not fight against the virus of religious and racial bigotry ss the genial filmmaker makes incisively clear by interviewing dozens of people who lived those dark days of Hitlerism, whether powerful or not.
Filmed in glorious Black & White the running time of 265 min, to be true, it is not perceived due the impressive and absorbing script
A towering and supreme film.
Movie Review: Fascinating film
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a fascinating film, and one interesting thing it does is cut from the then present to the 1940s. So, for example, someone is explaining how even though they worked for the pro-Nazi Vichy government, they never realy believed in it, or took it that seriously. Then it cuts to a firebrand pro_Nazi speech they made in 1942.
The people who emerged with the most integrity, were the TV repairman who had been a Conservative Resistance leader (Codename Gaspar), George Marchais, then head of the French Communist party who said that you had to keep killing Germans or you would lose your members, and the man in dark glasses who-as a youth- had joined the Waffen SS, however you can imagine what he would have been like in 1944: killed you as soon as look at you, very chilling.
My Aunt lived under German Occupation, and while she was treated quite well by the German troops billeted in her house (who were all aged about 19 and had fingers and toes missing from Russian Winters) being occupied is a humiliating experience for anyone. The Germans would walk into your house, help themselves to what they wanted. Once they kicked a Pole to death outside the front door. There is nothing you can do. It is the feeling of utter powerlessness and humiliation that peoplem rememeber forever, and presumeably will do in places like Iraq.
Movie Review: Humanist Filmamking at Tts Finest
Summary: 5 Stars
Marcel Ophul's The Sorrow anf the Pity (Le chagrin et la pitié) is an example of hunmaist filmmaking at its finest. Comprised of some two tears work in assembling and interviewing the survivors of France's Vichy regime and editing the material down to slightly over four hours seems to have been a herculean task.
The film interviews politicians, resistance fighters, collaborators, and ordinary farmers to give a complete picture of what life was like in the village of Clermont-Ferrand during the Nazi occupation. We get the story from many sides but unfortunately what we do not get is anyone who takes responsibility for the things that happened.
This film marks a perfect bookend to films like Shoah which capture the human costs of the Holocaust. These are events that need to be remembered and recorded so that they can never happen again.
The standard definition film is presented over two discs. The picure is a little grainy and could use some restoration. However as this film has been completely unavailable for 15 years it is good to see it in any form The dialogue is well subtitled in yellow and is quite easy to follow. The only bonus feature is the trailer which is presented on each disc.
This is a film that should be seen by any student of film or history for its historic value.