The Sorrow and the Pity

The Sorrow and the Pity
The Sorrow and the Pity
Directed by Marcel Ophüls
Written by Marcel Ophüls
André Harris
Running time 251 min.
Language French/German/English

The Sorrow and the Pity (French: Le chagrin et la pitié) 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.

Contents

Synopsis

Part One of the film, The Collapse, has an extended interview with Pierre Mendès-France. 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.

Interviewees

Persons interviewed for the film

Persons present or speaking in archival footage

Production

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 Veil, 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.[1]

Reception

TIME 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."[2] It was nominated for an Academy Award in 1971 for Best Documentary Feature.[3]

References

  1. ^ Simone Veil, Mémoires, Paris, 2008
  2. ^ [1] TIME magazine: Truth and Consequences'
  3. ^ "NY Times: The Sorrow and the Pity". NY Times. http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/45714/Le-Chagrin-et-la-Pitie/details. Retrieved 2008-11-12. 

External links


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно сделать НИР?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Pity — implies tender or sometimes slightly contemptuous sorrow for one in misery or distress. By the nineteenth century, two different kinds of pity had come to be distinguished, which we might call benevolent pity and contemptuous pity (see Kimball).… …   Wikipedia

  • The Sacrament of Penance —     The Sacrament of Penance     † Catholic Encyclopedia ► The Sacrament of Penance     Penance is a sacrament of the New Law instituted by Christ in which forgiveness of sins committed after baptism is granted through the priest s absolution to… …   Catholic encyclopedia

  • The Book of Sorrows — is the sequel novel to Walter Wangerin, Jr. s The Book of the Dun Cow. Published by Zondervan in 1985, it was received quite well by such known publications as the Washington post, who called it, A beautifully written fantasy anchored starkly in… …   Wikipedia

  • pity — ► NOUN (pl. pities) 1) a feeling of sorrow and compassion caused by the sufferings of others. 2) a cause for regret or disappointment. ► VERB (pities, pitied) ▪ feel pity for. ● for pity s sake …   English terms dictionary

  • The Countess Kathleen and Various Legends and Lyrics — (1892) is the second poetry collection of William Butler Yeats. It includes the play The Countess Kathleen and group of shorter lyrics that Yeats would later collect under the title of The Rose in his Collected Poems . This volume includes… …   Wikipedia

  • pity — n. & v. n. (pl. ies) 1 sorrow and compassion aroused by another s condition (felt pity for the child). 2 something to be regretted; grounds for regret (what a pity!; the pity of it is that he didn t mean it). v.tr. ( ies, ied) feel (often… …   Useful english dictionary

  • pity — noun (plural pities) 1》 a feeling of sorrow and compassion caused by the sufferings of others. 2》 a cause for regret or disappointment: what a pity. verb (pities, pitying, pitied) feel pity for. Phrases for pity s sake informal used to express… …   English new terms dictionary

  • The Holocaust in art and literature — As one of the defining events of the 20th century, and one of the most stark examples of human brutality in modern history, the Holocaust has had a profound impact on art and literature over the past 60 years. LiteratureSome of the more famous… …   Wikipedia

  • pity — [pit′ē] n. pl. pities [ME pite < OFr pitet < L pietas: see PIETY] 1. sorrow felt for another s suffering or misfortune; compassion; sympathy 2. the ability to feel such compassion 3. a cause for sorrow or regret vt., vi. pitied, pitying [ …   English World dictionary

  • The Theory of Moral Sentiments — was written by Adam Smith in 1759. It provided the ethical, philosophical, psychological and methodological underpinnings to Smith s later works, including The Wealth of Nations (1776), A Treatise on Public Opulence (1764) (first published in… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”