Is Paris Burning? Details

English version

Too bad it is not the French version but the dubbed one. So if you're French, do not rent it you're going to be very disappointed.

[Highly rated reviewer]

Companion to The Longest Day

Not a documdrama about Ms Hilton with an STD but a 1966 film about the liberation of Paris from the Nazis. Very much in the same vein as The Longest Day, with excellent black and white photography showing the city at its best and in unfamiliar light - deserted with some old cars rushing around during the occupation. This is the main reason I'm giving it four stars.

It picks up right after Valkeryie, as a German general visits the Fuhrer and sees the remnants of a failed assasination. That general is played by Gert Frobe aka Auric Goldfinger and he is soon given control of Paris, with strict orders to burn it down should the Allies advance. Hitler is in his mad ranting Downfall mode.

It's a good-ish film. However, it fails a bit because it can't be a war movie like The Longest Day in structure and films about the Resistance work best if only from their point of view, imo. Sadly, the head of the Red Cross (played by Orson Welles) and even the German general himself are easier to relate too. And if anything, it appears the efforts of the Resistance make it more likely the Germans will react and set alight to 1000 years of art and architecture. I must admit I had to pause the DVD to allow my mind to wander a bit. The second half is more along the lines of The Longest Day and is let down by Anthony Perkins as a dopey US soldier rapsodising about getting to see Paris for the first time.