The Sorrow and the Pity
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Movie Reviews of The Sorrow and the Pity
Movie Review: Courageous, controversial and truthful
Summary: 5 Stars
To most film viewers, this masterpiece of Marcel Ophuls is known by being continuously mentioned by Woody Allen and Diane Keaton in "Annie Hall". Yes, it is the long documentary film about the holocaust that they talk about.Marcel Ophuls, son of Max Ophuls has created a poignant potrait of french society under the Nazis occupation, and their relation to the most horible crime in human history -- he indeed is not afraid to tell the truth; that holocaust took place in France because the French citizen allowed it to happen to the least to say, and even have colaborated to it. However, this film is not a simple minded accusation, but a thoughtful study about a society under pressure, and its strugle for survival.
It certainly is a deppressing film; the viewers are constantl reminded to what they would have done if they were --we were-- living under such sircumstances. It is truthful to that extreme extent. It's an amazing film; thoughtful, inteligent, emotional.
The opening of this film steered quite a controversy in Frannce, but neverthless had led the way to fictional films about the Holocaust and the ocupation that are more mature and adult, not afraid to portray the truth; Jean-Pierre Melville's THE ARMY OF SHADOW, Francois Truffaut's THE LAST METRO, among others.
Movie Review: The proper way to make a documentary....
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the way a great documentary is supposed to be made. This film came at a time when documentaries were few and far between, it remains riveting for every minute of its 251 minute length. It succeeds by telling a coherent story as well as an enthralling one. Most documentaries these days throw everything at you (in a hasty, sloppy manner), and load up their films with endless "talking head" shots. Then when they're criticised for it, they come up with the usual adage "it's up to the viewer to decide.". While the ultimate judge is the viewer, this is not a reason for a "cut and paste" approach to the film. This approach removes the narrative flow from many recent documentaries. This film tells its story so well and brilliantly, like a grand novel, and illuminates you on the Vichy government, and how it was really like to live and how complicated it is to live under an occupation. There are some historians here and there, but the film deals mainly with those who lived and fought the Nazis, those with the most at stake. That's one of the reasons the film is so riveting. It comes across as human, something many documetaries miss entirely. It's a great film. Its length means nothing, because you're never bored. A must...
Movie Review: A brilliant look at the ordinary French views
Summary: 5 Stars
I saw this film in a theatre when it was first released. It was shown on alternate days. I'm sure that seeing it on a "big screen" was more gripping than on a normal TV. Any study of French history, beginning with and before the Dryfus(?) Affair knows how deeply ingrained the anti-semitism was in France. Even the United States, when FDR turned away a boatload of Jews from our shores to return to Germany, where they were all murdered, did so partly to satisfy American anti-semites (and himself). Many of the people's mixed feelings show the Germans were doing the thing they didn't have the guts to do themselves. This is a great film for the depth it probes into the French people. At the same time, brave Frenchmen put themselves in great danger to help the Jews, so this is an indicment of a national attitude, not its entire population. The fortune that the French gov't has made in recent years selling weapons to Arab nations while voting against anything for Isreal show that things haven't changed much in 60 yrs. I grew up in Minn., where Minneapolis was, with great justice, called the anti-semitic capital of America--something I saw with my own eyes.Movie Review: A brilliant historical account and a must see...
Summary: 5 Stars
Marcel Ophüls portrays a true and objective image of the Nazi occupation of France between 1940 and 1944. During this time France was governed by a pro-Nazi French government and Ophüls rewinds the time to the memories of the war by interviewing former Resistance members, German soldiers, collaborators, spies, and many others from all walks of the French society. Through these interviews that are supported by film documentation from World War II Ophüls reveals two distinct sides of the French occupation. One side resisted the Nazi's and the other collaborated with them, and it is the line between the two sides that causes much pain and agony to the people of France during the Nazi occupation. The film brings the audience a personal and horrific narrative of the atrocities and crimes towards humanity that took place in France during the war, which cannot make one feel sorrow and pity for the French people. In the end, Sorrow and the Pity offers a brilliant historical account of what took place in France during the war, which should be viewed by all.Movie Review: France under Nazi occupation and the lessons of appeasement.
Summary: 5 Stars
After the terrorist attacks on American soil of September 11th 2001, the question of how do we as a nation respond to enormous evil, is no longer hypothetical or avoidable. There are important lessons to be learned from Marcel Ophuls 1969 documentary masterpiece, "The Sorrow and the Pity, Chronicle of a French City Under the Occupation." This film, combining archival footage with firsthand accounts of the occupation, gleaned from interviews conducted 25 years after the end of World War II, and punctuated ironically with the singing of Maurice Chevalier, provides an essential perspective that looks beyond the early 1940's Vichy government of France. Ultimately this is a cautionary tale about the moral price of a nation's appeasement.