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The Sorrow and the Pity (Le Chagrin et la Pitié)

© John Nesbit

For years Woody Allen has entertained with some of the most thought provoking, angst ridden comedies ever created. Now his name is listed prominently at the top of the DVD edition of the Milestone Collection of The Sorrow and the Pity (Le Chagrin et la Pitié), the four-hour documentary about the French Occupation that Allen's character kept dragging Annie Hall to see. Without Allen's prominent use of the film it's unlikely that we would not now have a new version complete with subtitles for the first time, and I am sure that I would not have purchased a copy.

For appetizers the documentary helps me appreciate Allen's humorous quip about the French Resistance being really brave to listen to Maurice Chevalier's singing so much since the film depicts the famous French crooner entertaining the troops. It also gives Chevalier some screen time at the end to explain his role during the Occupation. Additionally, the film gives me a deeper understanding of the politics behind Casablanca since Occupied France and Free France play such a prominent part in this great classic.

But the main overall achievement of Marcel Ophüls' ambitious documentary is to give us primary source material from people who directly experienced the Occupation and make us wonder what we would do ourselves in such a situation. As Annie Hall wonders, "sometimes I ask myself how I'd stand up under torture." French history revisionists would like us to believe that the French people as a whole were very heroic and resisted the Germans en masse. Nothing could be further from the truth. Turns out that they act like . . . people.

Even though The Sorrow and the Pity came out 25 years after the end of WWII, French authorities banned television showings of the film because it doesn't portray the people in mythological heroic terms. Instead, Ophüls' seeks a balanced true tale of the Occupation by interviewing Resistance fighters, collaborators, veterans, government officials, and regular people who lived in and around the village of Clermont-Ferrand.

The four-hour film can be split into two separate films, yet neither is complete without the other. The first half focuses primarily on pre-War France and on the fall of France while the second half deals with the Occupation along with the French Resistance. It's one thing to read about such events in historical accounts, but Ophüls' presents actual faces and conversations with real people who went through this period along with numerous clips of relevant archival footage.

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