Review by Gary Tooze

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• Interview with director Marcel Ophuls, filmed in 2004 (30:11)
• Le Nouveau Vendredi: The Sorrow and the Pity, a 55-minute debate that followed the film's belated 1981 French television premiere, in which Ophuls and historians Henri Amouroux and Alain Guérin discuss the film and the issues that it raises with an audience of students from Clermont-Ferrand (1:02:07)
• Reversible sleeve featuring new and original artwork.

Bitrate:

Part 1 : The Collapse

 

Part 2 : The Choice

 

 

Description: Marcel Ophuls four-and-a-half hour portrait of the French town of Clermont-Ferrand under German occupation from 1940-44 is one of the greatest documentaries ever made, as important as Claude Lanzmann's Shoah in its value not just as a film but as an essential historical record in its own right not least since its interviewees are all long dead.

Describing the fall of France and the rise of the Resistance, with the aid of newly-shot interviews and eye-opening archive footage including newsreels and propaganda films, Ophuls painstakingly crafts a complex, nuanced picture of what really happened in France over this period. He also demolishes numerous self-serving national myths to such an extent that, although he made the film for French television, they wouldn't show it for over a decade.

But, as he demonstrates again and again, the overwhelming majority of French citizens during this period weren't heroes, villains or cowards, but simply ordinary people trying to make the best of an impossible situation. And it s Ophuls portrayal of these people, their hopes, their fears and their appalling moral quandaries, that remains unmatched in film history.

 

 

CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Audio :

There are two main extras. Although originally made from French television, The Sorrow and the Pity would not be broadcast in France for twelve years. After its first screening, at the end of October 1981, Le Nouveau Vendredi hosted this discussion programme, in which director Marcel Ophuls and historians Henri Amouroux and Alain Guérin discuss the film and the issues that it raises with an audience of students from Clermont-Ferrand. The full vieo runs 1-hour 2-minutes. There is also a 1/2 hour interview with director Marcel Ophuls, filmed in May of 2004 after a screening of The Sorrow and the Pity at London's National Film Theatre where its director Marcel Ophuls discusses the film with critic ian Christie.

BOTTOM LINE:
The Sorrow and the Pity is masterfully compiled documentary - the interviews put such a human face on the history - being a microcosm of the entire country and war effort. The length - 4 hours 20-minutes - instills and bonds you to the era, the people, the memories  and the lifestyle. The 2nd half takes a more hard-lined interpretive stance as many of those interviewed relate personal anecdotes on how the political climate affected them. Disturbing incidents are related in a frank fashion as previous interviewees are revisited as a new topic is brought to the forefront.

For history buffs this is a truly fascinating film, imbedding deeply the often unspoken and unseen affects that Germanys military sweep through Europe had made on the entire country of France, this small city and many of the individuals who lived there, before, through and after the occupation. I think the story was relatively objective, giving air time to German officials and infantrymen as well as French and English high ranking politicians gaining their insights on similar topics.