The Sorrow And The Pity Details

Uncomfortable Master Piece!

This has to be one of the all time great documentaries!! It goes into the German occupation of France in great detail. The sources of the imformation are fascinating especially seeing Anthony Eden speaking in French with a great elloquence.

There is many painful memories to be confronted here, especially the extent of collaboration between the French and German and the terrible stories recounted by locals describing the horror which befell members of their own families.

A hard hitting classic!!

[Highly rated reviewer]

Time moves on

You'll have read in the notes how this documentary was praised when it was made, nominated for an Oscar and banned in France for twenty years. But time moves on and, nearly 40 years later, it has lost its edge.

The story moves far too slowly for modern audiences and there's a lot of assumed knowledge: consequently it can take time to get up to speed on the significance of some events (Britain sinking the French navy) and the importance of some people (French Prime Ministers).

But it still has much merit: the way collaborators were left to condemn themselves through their own words was particularly effective and probably seen as highly innovative in its day. Something also unintended but very watch able is how the film evokes the 1960s, when it was made.

If this film was re-edited to make it shorter and given more explanatory detail, I think it would be more widely appreciated, though I appreciate I’m being sacrilegious.