The Sorrow and the Pity (1972)

Fascinating film

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. October 9, 2008

France against itself

'The Sorrow and the Pity' isn't light viewing. It is, for the most part, a dry, far-too-long documentary with a decidedly political slant. The editng is conspicuous. A self-satisfied ex-German officer occupies, in my opinion, an overly large part of the film. I think the producers of this film had to look some time to find such a stereotypical German.

Still, the film is of value. It depicts, through the mouths of participants, the terrible schisms that existed and still exist in France. Some Frenchmen clearly tried to live more-or-less normal lives during the occupation; others joined the Resistance; and still others collaborated or even joined the SS.

The Resistance fighters are primarily leftists and Communists, people the producers seem to be sympathetic with. The producers do not seriously question their motives i.e. were they fighting for Stalin or France? Through pointed questioning, it is possible to tell that they are less than sympathetic to people who tried to live through the occupation with as little trouble as possible.

To me, the most interesting character is a Frenchman who joined the SS. He appears to be a little less self-protective than most of the other people interviewed. He describes the French political turmoil of the early 1930's with the French Press stirring up trouble and high school battles between right and left wing students. He tells of the writhing French anti-semitism between the wars. He says that his parental roots were right wing and that he was especially impacted by films showing nuns and priests murdered by the Communists during the Spanish Civil War. He also tells of his admiration for the young German troops with their good behavior, moral and discipline. He joined up to become disillusioned as the Germans threw his French Charlemagne Divisions--with 7,000 SS Frenchmen--into rearguard battles fighting the Russians at the end of the war. Only 300 survived.

Other than these, we see many shots of Petain and Laval with discussions about their complicity and motives. We hear of Laval's, in particular, cooperation with the Nazis in their antisemitic endeavors.

Overall I think 'The Sorrow and the Pity' is worth watching as a historical document. I wish it had been more evenhanded but, unfortunately, such a documentary is impossible now. The protagonists are ancient or dead.

Ron Braithwaite, author of novels--"Skull Rack" and "Hummingbird God"--on the Spanish Conquest of Mexico

August 13, 2008

Outstanding movie. Terrible DVD

OK, I want add to the other comments about the actual movie, it is great. My complaint with this is the poor quality of the DVD. It's massively letterboxed & digitized & looks like a poor quality VHS transfer. No extras. Hideous yellow subtitles, which are poor & not complete nor removable. As expensive as this package is, you would expect much better quality. June 24, 2008

Absolutely essential

At first, I thought I wouldn't feel really involved with this documentary because it largely consisted of a bunch of talking heads, but before long I found myself really drawn into it. While there did seem to be more footage of the interviews than the wraparound segments of vintage newsreels and other historical coverage, it struck a pretty good balance between the two. A lot of times I find documentaries that have so much focus on just interviews to be kind of boring, but the way the interviews were presented, and the subjects covered, made all of the difference in the world. It also helped that this wasn't just the same story we've heard many times before, a criticism a lot of people like to level at films about the WWII and Nazi era. And when the film came out in 1969, people hadn't been bombarded with all of the films and documentaries about that era the way they have now, so one shouldn't feel jaded or unimpressed just because some of the documentary does cover what is now familiar territory.

Divided into two parts, "The Collapse" and "The Choice," the film focuses on the city of Clermont-Ferrand, which was host to quite a variety of people. Director Marcel Ophüls interviews people from numerous walks of life, not just people who were, e.g., in the Resistance, against Marshall Pétain, or supporters of the Vichy government. These people, ranging from top-ranking government officials, former collaborators and Nazi soldiers, farmers, Resistance fighters, hairdressers, spies, writers, and ordinary people, all did (or didn't do) different things during the war, held different beliefs, and made different decisions. Some have changed their opinions since the war, some still are convinced they were right to support the Vichy government or fight alongside Germans to defeat Russia. It's so wonderful to see such a wealth of experiences represented, since it really paints a fascinating picture of a multi-faceted France under both Vichy and Nazi occupation. Some of the interviewees also contradict one another (sometimes even historical facts, such as the man who unbelievably claims that only 5% of French Jewry were killed), which is also an asset, since how one person experienced or remembered something isn't going to be exactly the same as another person did so. Very rarely is history so black and white, simplistic, and clear-cut. Yet another thing going for the film is that it was made in 1969, when the survivors of the occupation were still relatively young, instead of very elderly as they are today, members of an ever-shrinking generation. It's good to be able to capture their memories and opinions from a time when WWII was still in rather recent memory instead of regarded as an ever-distant historical event.

This is a fascinating and incredible documentary, and one shouldn't be put off by the fact that it's four hours long (it's broken into two convenient sections, and they don't drag in spite of their length) or in black and white. Initially, even though I normally love black and white films, I was a bit skeptical about watching something from the modern era in black and white, but it soon came to seem very effective, giving it more of a classic, timeless, undated feel, far more so than had it been made with the type of color film that was the norm then. The only drawback is the pricetag; it seems like a rather inflated price, even for a four-hour documentary, when there aren't even any extras, and with a print that could have used a bit more digital restoration. Other than that, it's top-notch and should be viewed by anyone with an interest in not only WWII but also in how the lessons and experiences of those years are still chillingly pertinent today. December 24, 2007

The Sorrow and the Pity

A milestone of documentary film-making, "Sorrow" captures this devastating period in France's history in painfully frank, unblinking terms, and provides no easy answers, just as there were none at the time. The French people had no choice but to adapt to this oppressive new social order, since rebellion or escape was a life-or-death proposition. So, were the collaborators as guilty as the occupiers? And were those that rebelled really that heroic, if it meant their families would also suffer for their death and betrayal of the occupying forces? Watch this unnerving masterpiece, and reach your own conclusions. July 6, 2007

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