Le Chagrin et la Pitié (The Sorrow and the Pity) (1971)
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100% of critics liked it
(24 reviews) -
92% of users liked it
(1,145 ratings)
Made for French television, Marcel Ophüls' four-hour-plus documentary explores the average French citizen's memories of the Nazi occupation. Just how large and effective was the fabled resistance movement? Is cooperation the same thing as collaboration? And how did one's… More Made for French television, Marcel Ophüls' four-hour-plus documentary explores the average French citizen's memories of the Nazi occupation. Just how large and effective was the fabled resistance movement? Is cooperation the same thing as collaboration? And how did one's up-close-and-personal experiences with the occupation troops impact one's postwar life? These questions are probingly posed (but not all are answered) by Ophüls, who also acts as offscreen interviewer. The first half of the film is a mosaic of sights and sounds from the years 1940-1944: Maurice Chevalier singing for the German troops, clips of propagandistic newsreels, appalling vignettes from the scurrilous anti-Semitic film drama Jew Suss (1940), and the like. Ophüls' interpretation of history as the "process of recollection, in things like choice, selective memory, rationalization" is fully illustrated in the film's long second half, which is devoted almost entirely to interviews, in which the subjects display emotions ranging from mild embarrassment to abrupt rage. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Directed By
- Marcel Ophüls
- Written By
- André Harris, Marcel Ophüls
- Genres
- Documentary, Art House & International, Special Interest
PG,
- In Theaters
- Jan 1, 1970 Wide
- Studio
- Cinema 5 Distributing
Critic Reviews
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Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
It's valuable mainly as a brilliant assemblage of documents and testimonies.
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, Time Out
The mosaic is comprehensive, the documentation overwhelming, particularly regarding the nature and extent of collaboration.
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Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
In its complexity, its humanity, its refusal to find easy solutions, this is one of the greatest documentaries ever made.
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A.H. Weiler, New York Times
It soberly spotlights history -- impressively human, not pedantic, levels.
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Peter Rainer, New York Magazine
It remains the preeminent documentary about historical tragedy and one of the most exhilaratingly demanding experiences the movies have ever offered.
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