The Sorrow and the Pity (1969) Le chagrin et la pitié (original title)

Director:

Marcel Ophüls

Writers:

André Harris (writer)
Marcel Ophüls (writer)

Release Date:

25 March 1972 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary | History | War

Plot:

From 1940 to 1944, France's Vichy government collaborated with Nazi Germany. Marcel Ophüls mixes archival...

Plot Keywords:

Interview | Clermont Ferrand | 1940s | Collaborator | Collaboration

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 6 wins

Cast

Georges Bidault	...	Himself
Matthäus Bleibinger	...	Himself - Wehrmacht Soldier in the Auvergne (as Mathaus Bleibinger)
Charles Braun
Maurice Buckmaster	...	Himself - Former Head of the British Underground
Emile Coulaudon	...	Himself - Former Head of the Auvergne Maquis
Emmanuel d'Astier de la Vigerie	...	Himself - Founder of the Liberation Movement
René de Chambrun	...	Himself - International Lawyer (as Count René de Chambrun)
Christian de la Mazière	...	Himself - Aristocratic Former Nazi
Darquier de Pellepoix	...	Himself - Handshake with Heydrich (archive footage)
Jacques Doriot	...	Himself - Head of the French Popular Party, 1942 (archive footage)
R. Du Jonchay	...	Himself - Head of the Resistance Movement (as Colonel R. du Jonchay)
Jacques Duclos	...	Himself - Former Secretary of the Clandestine Communist Party
Anthony Eden	...	(also archive footage) (as Lord Avon)
Sgt. Evans
Marcel Fouche-Degliame	...	Himself - Director of the Combat Movement (as Marcel Degliame-Fouche)
Raphael Geminiani	...	Himself - Champion Professional Cyclist
Alexis Grave
Louis Grave	...	Himself - Resistance Fighter
Marius Klein
Georges Lamirand	...	Himself - Minister of Youth, 1941-43
Pierre Laval	...	Himself - French Minister of State (archive footage)
Pierre Le Calvez	...	Himself - Theater Owner
Mr. Leiris	...	Himself - Former Mayor of Combronde
Claude Levy	...	Himself - Author and Biologist (as Dr. Claude Levy)
Pierre Mendès-France	...	Himself - Former Prime Minister of France
Cmdt. Menut
Elmar Michel
Mr. Mioche	...	Himself - Hotelier in Royat
Marcel Ophüls	...	Interviewer
Denis Rake	...	Himself - British Secret Agent
Henri Rochat	...	Himself - Defense Lawyer
Paul Schmidt
Mme. Solange	...	Herself - Beautician
Edward Spears	...	Himself
Helmut Tausend	...	Himself - Former Wehrmacht Captain (as Helmuth Tausend)
Roger Tounze
Marcel Verdier
Walter Warlimont
Junie Astor	...	Herself (archive footage) (uncredited)
René Bousquet	...	Himself - with Laval (archive footage) (uncredited)
Maurice Chevalier	...	Himself - Denies Making Tour of Germany (archive footage) (uncredited)
Danielle Darrieux	...	Herself (archive footage) (uncredited)
Charles de Gaulle	...	Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)
Suzy Delair	...	Herself (archive footage) (uncredited)
Reinhard Heydrich	...	Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)
Albert Préjean	...	Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)
Philippe Pétain	...	Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)
Viviane Romance	...	Herself (archive footage) (uncredited)

Directed by
Marcel Ophüls

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
André Harris		writer
Marcel Ophüls		writer

Produced by
André Harris	....	producer
Alain de Sedouy	....	producer

Cinematography by
André Gazut
Jürgen Thieme

Film Editing by
Claude Vajda

Production Management
Wolfgang Theile	....	production director

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Claude Vajda	....	assistant director

Sound Department
Bernard Migy	....	sound
Wolfgang Schroeter	....	sound mixer

Camera and Electrical Department
Alain Demartines	....	assistant camera

Editorial Department
Heidi Endruwelt	....	assistant editor
Wiebke Vogler	....	assistant editor

Other crew
Woody Allen	....	presenter (2000 version)
Suzy Benhiat	....	documentarist: UK
Eliane Cochi	....	documentarist: France (as Eliane Filippi)
Christoph Derschau	....	documentarist: Germany

Production Companies

• Télévision Rencontre
• Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR)
• Télévision Suisse-Romande (TSR)

Distributors

• Cinema 5 Distributing (1972) (USA) (theatrical) (dubbed)
• Milestone Film & Video (2001) (USA) (DVD) (re-release) (subtitled)
• Oscilloscope Pictures (2011) (USA) (DVD)

Also Known As:

"Le chagrin et la pitié" - France (original title)

Runtime:

251 min

Country:

France | Switzerland | West Germany

Language:

French | German | English

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:M | France:U | UK:12A | USA:PG

Company:

Télévision Rencontre

Trivia:

Sky Hiatt in his book book 'Picture this! - a guide to over 300 environmentally, socially, and politically relevant films and videos ' states that this, Marcel Ophüls's film, "sorts out the roles of communism, Marxism, fascism, and German nationalism as they crossed paths in France" during the Second World War.

Quotes:

Georges Bidault:Some people are resistants by nature. In other words, some people are naturally headstrong. Others on the contrary, try to adapt to the circumstances, and get what they can out of it. If you are a resistant over everything and nothing, you're exaggerating. But if you accept everything, you're lying.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Cheers: If Ever I Would Leave You (#3.20)" (1985)

The Best World War II Film I've Seen

I bought the DVD version of THE SORROW AND THE PITY not so much because I wanted to watch it, but because, as with many other classic films, I felt I should. At 4 hours long, I could never quite muster the will to screen it, with the end result that this film sat on my shelf for months before I finally gathered the courage to watch it last night. My original plan had been to screen the first disc one night then watch the rest after a decent interval of recovery. I quite frankly expected to be bored to death watching hours on end of interviews in French.

Boy was I wrong. This turned out to be one of the most engrossing films I've seen. Yes, it is too long. But you're willing to forgive it that. This is simply the best film I've seen on World War II. Numerous interviews with French politicians, teachers, shop keepers, peasants, hoteliers, and more along with ones of Germans and Englishmen gave one of the most revealing and human portraits of World War II - and of the French people - I've seen. Combined with included archival footage from the war, this made for what is clearly one of the great all time documentaries and greatest WWII films I've seen.

TSATP draws you in right away and really never lets up. Almost every interview enlightens in some way. Everybody talking has their own agenda - spin in modern parlance - but the director is able to combine these in a way that exposes the most blantant of falsehoods and also paints a realistic composite portrait. The Nazi propaganda films were also chilling. One early example is a film of black and arabic French soldiers captured by the Nazis with the implication that racial impurity led to the French demise.

I could go on and on about this but I think I'm running out of room and need to talk about the DVD. I highly recommend this film for anyone who wants to go beyond history book versions of the war.

As for the DVD version itself, there are several flaws, starting with the $50 price tag. Beyond that, the print used was a poor one. The quality of the interview scenes was not much better than that of the archival footage spliced in. The subtitles were also not that great. Interestingly, much of disc two appeared to have a remixed soundtrack. For interviewees in English and German, the director dubbed over a partial French translation with the original language reduced in the background. This partial French translation was then subtitled in English (and not always well). On disc two, quite a few of the English sections did not have French dubbing or subtitles, which is where I suspect the sound remix comes in. The ending was also quite abrupt and choppy (Maurice Chevalier in English?) and didn't have the feel of being original, though let me stress I've no real knowledge to substantiate this.