History Film / TheSorrowAndThePity

It is a documentary recounting the history of France's defeat in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and the following four years in which France was occupied by the Germans and governed by the Nazi-friendly "Vichy France" regime of Marshal Phillipe Petain. Ophuls centers his film around the town of Clermont-Ferrand in Auvergne. Part I, "The Collapse", prominently features Pierre Mendes-France, a Resistance leader who joined UsefulNotes/CharlesDeGaulle in Britain, fought against the Germans, and became a prominent post-war politician who was briefly Prime Minister of France. Part II, "The Choice", takes the opposite perspective and features Christian de la Maziere, an aristocratic fascist who fought for Hitler in the French division of the Waffen SS, and who later served a brief prison term.

* IconOfRebellion: Charles de Gaulle.

** It should be noted that the infamous "Status of the Jews" was actually nowhere near as harsh for French Jews as, say, the Nuremberg Laws were for German Jews, as it mainly targeted foreign Jews living in France. It all changed when the Germans invaded the Free Zone in the wake of Operation Torch (the landings in North Africa). Southern France became much less safe for French Jews as a result.

* RedemptionRejection: de la Maziere admits that he was approached by the Resistance more than once, but blew them off.
* LaResistance: Well, they ''were'' a thing, as Pierre Mendes-France proves, but very few French people made that choice, especially in the immediate aftermath of defeat. One villager says that he joined the Resistance because he got pissed off when German occupiers ate all the steaks made from local cows. They note that after the war, President UsefulNotes/CharlesDeGaulle upheld the "myth of the resistance" as [[IDidWhatIHadToDo a necessary noble lie]] to hide over the reality and heal the tensions.
* ShockingDefeatLegacy: The fall of France and the collapse of the UsefulNotes/MaginotLine is treated as this. Ophuls also takes time to interview some of the German generals behind that attack and the latter, despite Denazification cannot help but gloat about their victory.

* StockFootage: Forms the bulk of the movie, with combat footage, old newsreels, and more.

* CheeseEatingSurrenderMonkeys: DiscussedTrope. It is noted that France was the only one of the several countries that Hitler conquered to make a formal peace with UsefulNotes/NaziGermany. While all of the other countries in Hitler's Europe had governments-in-exile in London, France officially did not. This left Charles De Gaulle and the Free French in an awkward position and undercut their ability to contribute to the the anti-Nazi war effort, since they had little authority. De Gaulle had to push himself into a position as a leader by pure will and charismatic authority rather than any claim to law.

** It should be noted that the infamous "Status of the Jews" was actually nowhere near as harsh for French Jews as, say, the Nuremberg Laws were for German Jews, as it mainly targeted foreign Jews living in France. It all changed when Germans invaded the Free Zone in the wake of Operation Torch (the landings in North Africa), Southern France became much less safe for French Jews as a result.

* LaResistance: Well, they ''were'' a thing, as Pierre Mendes-France proves, but very few French people made that choice, especially in the immediate aftermath of defeat. One villager says that he joined the Resistance because he got pissed off when German occupiers ate all the steaks made from local cows. They note that after the war, President UsefulNotes/CharlesDeGaulle upheld the "myth of the resistance" as [[IDidWhatIHadToDo a necessary noble lie]] to hide over the reality and heal the tensions.
* LesCollaborateurs: Lots of them. ''Lots and lots''. De la Mazière was only one of 7,000 Frenchmen to serve in the "Charlemagne" division of the Waffen SS. Dr. Levy claims that the French regime under Laval passed laws that were even more racist than in Germany, and arrested Jewish children when the Nazi occupiers hadn't even asked them to.
--> '''Dr. Claude Levy''': France is the only country in Europe whose government collaborated.

* CheeseEatingSurrenderMonkeys: DiscussedTrope. It is noted that France was the only one of the several countries that Hitler conquered to make a formal peace with UsefulNotes/NaziGermany. While all of the other countries in Hitler's Europe had governments-in-exile in London, France officially did not. This left Charles De Gaulle and the Free French in an awkward position and undercut their ability to contribute to the the anti-Nazi war effort, since they had little authority, and De Gaulle had to push himself into a position as a leader by pure will and charismatic authority rather than any claim to law.

* TraumaticHairCut: Women who slept with Nazis were subject to post-war reprisals, where their hair was cut and they were humiliated for their "collabration horizontale".

* TheHeroDies: Jean Moulin's death in Lyon is treated and presented as this.
* IconOfRebellion: Charles de Gaulle and Jean Moulin.

* NaziNobleman: A chyron describes de la Maziere as "an aristocratic former Nazi."

-> "Collaboration is 'give me your watch, I'll give you the time.'"