The Sorrow and the Pity
Encyclopedia
The Sorrow and the Pity is a two-part 1969 documentary film
by Marcel Ophüls
about the French Resistance
and collaboration
between the Vichy
government and Nazi Germany
during World War II
. The film uses interviews with a German officer, collaborators, and resistance fighters from Clermont-Ferrand
. They comment on the nature of and reasons for collaboration. The reasons include anti-Semitism
, anglophobia
, fear of Bolsheviks and Soviet invasion, the desire for power, and simple caution.
. He was jailed by the Vichy government on charges of desertion, but escaped from jail to join Charles de Gaulle
's forces operating out of England, and later served as Prime Minister of liberated France. Part Two, The Choice, revolves around Christian de la Mazière
, who is something of a counterpoint to Mendès-France. Whereas Mendès-France was a French Jewish political figure who joined the Resistance, de la Mazière, an aristocrat who embraced Fascism, was one of 7,000 French youth to fight on the Eastern Front
wearing German
uniforms.
The film shows the French people's response to occupation as heroic, pitiable, and monstrous, sometimes all at once. The postwar humiliation of the women who served (or were married to) Vichy men perhaps gives the strongest mix of all three. Maurice Chevalier
's "Sweepin' the Clouds Away" is the theme tune of the film.
, a Jewish inmate of Auschwitz who became a minister and the first President of the European Parliament, on the grounds that the film presented too one-sided a view.
magazine gave a positive review of the film, and wrote that Marcel Ophüls "tries to puncture the bourgeois myth—or protectively askew memory—that allows France generally to act as if hardly any Frenchmen collaborated with the Germans." It was nominated for an Academy Award in 1971 for Best Documentary Feature
.
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
by Marcel Ophüls
Marcel Ophuls
Marcel Ophüls is a documentary film maker and former actor.He was born in Frankfurt, Germany, the son of the director Max Ophüls...
about the French Resistance
French Resistance
The French Resistance is the name used to denote the collection of French resistance movements that fought against the Nazi German occupation of France and against the collaborationist Vichy régime during World War II...
and collaboration
Collaborationism
Collaborationism is cooperation with enemy forces against one's country. Legally, it may be considered as a form of treason. Collaborationism may be associated with criminal deeds in the service of the occupying power, which may include complicity with the occupying power in murder, persecutions,...
between the Vichy
Vichy France
Vichy France, Vichy Regime, or Vichy Government, are common terms used to describe the government of France that collaborated with the Axis powers from July 1940 to August 1944. This government succeeded the Third Republic and preceded the Provisional Government of the French Republic...
government and Nazi Germany
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The film uses interviews with a German officer, collaborators, and resistance fighters from Clermont-Ferrand
Clermont-Ferrand
Clermont-Ferrand is a city and commune of France, in the Auvergne region, with a population of 140,700 . Its metropolitan area had 409,558 inhabitants at the 1999 census. It is the prefecture of the Puy-de-Dôme department...
. They comment on the nature of and reasons for collaboration. The reasons include anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
, anglophobia
Anglophobia
Anglophobia means hatred or fear of England or the English people. The term is sometimes used more loosely for general Anti-British sentiment...
, fear of Bolsheviks and Soviet invasion, the desire for power, and simple caution.
Synopsis
Part One of the film, The Collapse, has an extended interview with Pierre Mendès-FrancePierre Mendès-France
Pierre Mendès France was a French politician. He descended from a Portuguese Jewish family that moved to France in the sixteenth century.-Third Republic and World War II:...
. He was jailed by the Vichy government on charges of desertion, but escaped from jail to join Charles de Gaulle
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....
's forces operating out of England, and later served as Prime Minister of liberated France. Part Two, The Choice, revolves around Christian de la Mazière
Christian de la Mazière
Christian de la Mazière was a journalist and former member of the 33rd Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS Charlemagne . He is known for discussing his role in The Sorrow and the Pity and also wrote a book titled The Captive Dreamer...
, who is something of a counterpoint to Mendès-France. Whereas Mendès-France was a French Jewish political figure who joined the Resistance, de la Mazière, an aristocrat who embraced Fascism, was one of 7,000 French youth to fight on the Eastern Front
Eastern Front (World War II)
The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of World War II between the European Axis powers and co-belligerent Finland against the Soviet Union, Poland, and some other Allies which encompassed Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945...
wearing German
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
uniforms.
The film shows the French people's response to occupation as heroic, pitiable, and monstrous, sometimes all at once. The postwar humiliation of the women who served (or were married to) Vichy men perhaps gives the strongest mix of all three. Maurice Chevalier
Maurice Chevalier
Maurice Auguste Chevalier was a French actor, singer, entertainer and a noted Sprechgesang performer. He is perhaps best known for his signature songs, including Louise, Mimi, Valentine, and Thank Heaven for Little Girls and for his films including The Love Parade and The Big Pond...
's "Sweepin' the Clouds Away" is the theme tune of the film.
Persons interviewed for the film
- Georges BidaultGeorges BidaultGeorges-Augustin Bidault was a French politician. During World War II, he was active in the French Resistance. After the war, he served as foreign minister and prime minister on several occasions before he joined the Organisation armée secrète.-Early life:...
- Matthäus Bleibinger
- Charles Braun
- Maurice BuckmasterMaurice BuckmasterColonel Maurice James Buckmaster OBE was the leader of the French section of Special Operations Executive and was awarded the Croix de Guerre. He was a corporate manager with the French branch of the Ford Motor Company, in the postwar years serving in Dagenham...
- Emile Coulaudon
- Emmanuel d'Astier de la Vigerie
- Comte René de ChambrunRené de ChambrunRené de Chambrun , was a lawyer at the Court of Appeals of Paris and of the New York State Bar Association and a descendant of Lafayette, as well as a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur, and honorary president of the Sons of the American Revolution in France...
- Christian de la MazièreChristian de la MazièreChristian de la Mazière was a journalist and former member of the 33rd Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS Charlemagne . He is known for discussing his role in The Sorrow and the Pity and also wrote a book titled The Captive Dreamer...
:fr:Christian de la Mazière - Jacques DuclosJacques DuclosJacques Duclos was a French Communist politician who played a key role in French politics from 1926, when he entered the French National Assembly after defeating Paul Reynaud, until 1969, when he won a substantial portion of the vote in the presidential elections.During World War I, Duclos fought...
- Colonel Raymond Du Jonchay
- Anthony EdenAnthony EdenRobert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, KG, MC, PC was a British Conservative politician, who was Prime Minister from 1955 to 1957...
- Marcel Fouche-Degliame
- Raphael GeminianiRaphael GeminianiRaphaël Géminiani is a French former road bicycle racer. He had six podium finishes in the Grand Tours. He is one of four children of Italian immigrants who moved to Clermont-Ferrand. He worked in a cycle shop and started racing as a boy...
- Alexis Grave
- Louis Grave
- Marius Klein
- Georges Lamirand
- Pierre Le Calvez
- Claude Levy
- Pierre Mendès-FrancePierre Mendès-FrancePierre Mendès France was a French politician. He descended from a Portuguese Jewish family that moved to France in the sixteenth century.-Third Republic and World War II:...
- Elmar Michel
- Denis Rake
- Henri Rochat
- Paul SchmidtPaul Schmidt (translator)Paul Schmidt was an American translator, poet, playwright, and essayist.He graduated from Colgate University in 1955, and studied at Harvard University.He studied mime with Marcel Marceau and acting with Jacques Charon....
- Edward Spears
- Helmut Tausend
- Roger Tounze
- Marcel Verdier
- Walter WarlimontWalter WarlimontWalter Warlimont was a German officer known for his role in the OKW inner circle .-World War I:...
Persons present or speaking in archival footage
- Emmanuel d'AstierEmmanuel d'AstierEmmanuel d'Astier de La Vigerie was a French journalist, politician and member of the French Resistance.-Biography:Born in Paris, he attended the Naval Academy, but resigned from the French Navy in 1923...
- Junie Astor
- René BousquetRené BousquetRené Bousquet was a high-ranking French civil servant, who served as secretary general to the Vichy regime police from May 1942 to 31 December 1943.-Biography:...
- Alphonse de ChâteaubriantAlphonse de ChâteaubriantAlphonse Van Bredenbeck de Châteaubriant was a French writer who won the Prix Goncourt in 1911 for his novel Monsieur de Lourdines and Grand prix du roman de l'Académie française for La Brière in 1923....
- Maurice ChevalierMaurice ChevalierMaurice Auguste Chevalier was a French actor, singer, entertainer and a noted Sprechgesang performer. He is perhaps best known for his signature songs, including Louise, Mimi, Valentine, and Thank Heaven for Little Girls and for his films including The Love Parade and The Big Pond...
- Danielle DarrieuxDanielle DarrieuxDanielle Yvonne Marie Antoinette Darrieux is a French actress and singer, who has appeared in more than 110 films since 1931. She is one of France's great movie stars and her eight-decade career is among the longest in film history....
- Suzy DelairSuzy DelairSuzy Delair is a vivacious French entertainer who starred in many different films. Her real name is Suzanne Pierrette Delaire....
- Jacques DoriotJacques DoriotJacques Doriot was a French politician prior to and during World War II. He began as a Communist but then turned Fascist.-Early life and politics:...
- Charles de GaulleCharles de GaulleCharles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....
- Raymond Guyot :fr:Raymond Guyot
- Adolf HitlerAdolf HitlerAdolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
- Reinhard HeydrichReinhard HeydrichReinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich , also known as The Hangman, was a high-ranking German Nazi official.He was SS-Obergruppenführer and General der Polizei, chief of the Reich Main Security Office and Stellvertretender Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia...
- Pierre LavalPierre LavalPierre Laval was a French politician. He was four times President of the council of ministers of the Third Republic, twice consecutively. Following France's Armistice with Germany in 1940, he served twice in the Vichy Regime as head of government, signing orders permitting the deportation of...
- Philippe PétainPhilippe PétainHenri Philippe Benoni Omer Joseph Pétain , generally known as Philippe Pétain or Marshal Pétain , was a French general who reached the distinction of Marshal of France, and was later Chief of State of Vichy France , from 1940 to 1944...
- Albert PréjeanAlbert PréjeanAlbert Préjean was a French actor, primarily in film. He served in World War I, and was decorated with the Croix de Guerre and the Legion d'honneur...
- Viviane Romance
Release
This film was first shown on French television in 1981 after being banned for years. It is frequently assumed that the reason was French reluctance to admit the facts of French history. While this may have been a factor, the principal mover in the decision was Simone VeilSimone Veil
Simone Veil, DBE is a French lawyer and politician who served as Minister of Health under Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, President of the European Parliament and member of the Constitutional Council of France....
, a Jewish inmate of Auschwitz who became a minister and the first President of the European Parliament, on the grounds that the film presented too one-sided a view.
Reception
TIMETime
Time is a part of the measuring system used to sequence events, to compare the durations of events and the intervals between them, and to quantify rates of change such as the motions of objects....
magazine gave a positive review of the film, and wrote that Marcel Ophüls "tries to puncture the bourgeois myth—or protectively askew memory—that allows France generally to act as if hardly any Frenchmen collaborated with the Germans." It was nominated for an Academy Award in 1971 for Best Documentary Feature
Academy Award for Documentary Feature
The Academy Award for Documentary Feature is among the most prestigious awards for documentary films.- Winners and nominees:Following the Academy's practice, films are listed below by the award year...
.