The Sorrow and the Pity

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The Sorrow and the Pity
Directed by	Marcel Ophüls
Written by	Marcel Ophüls André Harris
Release date(s)	September 18, 1969
Running time	251 min.
Language	French/German/English
IMDb profile

The Sorrow and the Pity (French: Le Chagrin et la pitié) is a two part documentary by Marcel Ophüls that concerns the French resistance and collaboration with the Vichy government and the Nazis during World War II. This 1969 film used interviews of a German officer, collaborators, and resistance fighters from Clermont-Ferrand. They comment on the nature and reasons for collaboration. The reasons include anti-Semitism, anglophobia, fear of Bolsheviks and Soviet invasion, and simple caution. Part one, The Collapse, has an extended interview with Pierre Mendès-France. He had been jailed for Anti-Vichy action and later served as Prime Minister of liberated France. Hence he had opposed the Vichy government of Pétain and also the occupying Nazis. The center of Part II, The Choice, revolved around Christian de la Mazière, who is something of a counterpoint to that. De la Maziere 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, monstrous and sometimes all at once. The post-war humiliation of the women who served (or were married to) Vichy men perhaps gave the strongest mix of all three. Maurice Chevalier's 'Sweepin' the Clouds Away' is the theme tune of the film. The film is referenced a number of times in Woody Allen's film, Annie Hall.

[edit] Persons interviewed for the film

• Georges Bidault
• Matthäus Bleibinger
• Charles Braun
• Maurice Buckmaster
• Emile Coulaudon
• Emmanuel d'Astier de la Vigerie
• Comte René de Chambrun
• Christian de la Mazière [1]
• Jacques Duclos
• Colonel R. Du Jonchay
• Anthony Eden
• Marcel Fouche-Degliame
• Raphael Geminiani
• Alexis Grave
• Louis Grave
• Marius Klein
• Georges Lamirand
• Pierre Le Calvez
• Claude Levy
• Pierre Mendès-France
• Elmar Michel
• Denis Rake
• Henri Rochat
• Paul Schmidt
• Edward Spears
• Helmut Tausend
• Roger Tounze
• Marcel Verdier
• Walter Warlimont

[edit] Persons present or speaking in archival footage

• Emmanuel d'Astier
• Junie Astor
• René Bousquet
• Maurice Chevalier
• Danielle Darrieux
• Suzy Delair
• Jacques Doriot
• Charles de Gaulle
• Raymond Guyot [2]
• Adolf Hitler
• Reinhard Heydrich
• Pierre Laval
• Philippe Pétain
• Albert Préjean
• Viviane Romance

[edit] External links

• The Sorrow and the Pity at the Internet Movie Database
• French language Wikipedia entry Le Chagrin et la pitié