The Sorrow and the Pity

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The Sorrow and the Pity
Directed by	Marcel Ophüls
Written by	Marcel Ophüls André Harris
Release date(s)	September 18, 1969
Running time	251 min.
Language	French/German/English
IMDb profile

The Sorrow and the Pity (French: Le Chagrin et la pitié) is a two part documentary by Marcel Ophüls that concerns the French resistance and collaboration with the Vichy government and the Nazis during World War II. This 1969 film used interviews of a German officer, collaborators, and resistance fighters from Clermont-Ferrand. They comment on the nature and reasons for collaboration. The reasons include anti-Semitism, xenophobia, fear of Bolsheviks and Soviet invasion, and simple caution. Part one, The Collapse, has an extended interview with Pierre Mendès-France. He had been jailed for Anti-Vichy action and later served as Prime Minister of liberated France. Hence he had opposed the Vichy government of Pétain and also the occupying Nazis. The center of Part II, The Choice, revolved around Christian de la Mazière, who is something of a counterpoint to that. De la Maziere was one of 7,000 French youth to fight on the Eastern Front wearing German uniforms. The film shows the French people's response to occupation as heroic, pitiable, monstrous and sometimes all at once. The post-war humiliation of the women who served (or were married to) Vichy men perhaps gave the strongest mix of all three.