The Eye of Vichy

Claude Chabrol researched footage from Marshal Philippe Pétain propaganda from 1940 to 1944 and built this chronological documentary showing the broadcast message of French collaborators during the German occupation. Pétain was considered father of France and worshiped by Frenchmen. France should work together with Germany to build a new Europe without England and de Gaulle would be a traitor. Vichy sent French workers to Germany to the factories while soldiers were sent to fight communism. One French soldier that shoot down one hundred British plane was decorated. Children were indoctrinated by Nazi teachers and citizen brainwashed. When a German soldier is murdered, fifty French citizens are killed since the members of the resistance were considered terrorists. The Jews were considered aliens and enemies and should be identified with a yellow star and them deported. The documentary omits the fate of the Jews and the reality of the occupation. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): Not Available.

Film is the closest to a time-machine that we yet know, and this remarkable compilation of authentic newsreels from the Vichy period, (and let's not forget, the Vichy regime was officially recognised as the legitimate government of France by the USA, the USSR and the Vatican), are particularly chilling since so much of what the politicians and official spokesmen of those times said is unsettlingly close to much of today's political rhetoric. We hear of a United States of Europe, "a New World Order" that is "all" Hitler is seeking to achieve, and how `patriotism' is always free of dissent or criticism. That people constantly fall for this jingoistic rubbish is a cause for mourning rather than celebration, and these films clearly illustrate the overlooked historic fact that France was not `occupied' but had reached an armistice with Germany under the terms of which Germans were allowed to operate in the Northern sector of France. It also shows that Vichy needed no prompting from the Nazis to implement anti-Jewish legislation and eventual persecution and relied on good old French anti-Semitism to get away with it. This film also makes one wonder just how France was deemed `qualified' to administer a zone in post-war Germany, and how truly dangerous it was to be heroic enough to be a member of the Resistance. History is always written by the victors, but the uncomfortable gaps in their given version are exposed when you can see these shadows from the frontline experience. A vital and exceptionally important document.

As one poster has already commented, this is a movie designed for those who already know what happened in France in World War II - a French audience, in other words. If you have that knowledge, it is indeed fascinating to see how the Vichy government used newsreels to shape French thought - a classic example of Big Brother in action. Watching this movie also requires that you put yourself back in the era to an extent, to realize the impact these newsreels would have had. Today, we get our news from endless different sources. In World War II, there were newspapers, radio, and what was shown at the local movie house. Since the government could control all three of those, it did. (Yes, there was also short wave radio, which was how the French got news from England.) What I would have liked at the end is a few sentences telling us what became of each of the big figures in the newsreels: Pétain, Doriot, etc.

French documentary charting Marshall Petain's shameful administration in France during the Second World War.

Excellent documentary, especially if you are studying this period. In French.