Overview

This almost 8 hour humongous 1973 documentary by two of the filmmakers who made The Sorrow and the Pity recounts fifty years of the history of France from the 1920s to 1972. It is particularly thorough in documenting the significance and rise to power of Charles De Gaulle. The film's most valuable contributions are its interviews with all sorts of people who lived through this period of history, from Marshall Petain's lawyer (Petain headed the Vichy government of occupied France) to resistance figures, and Frenchmen who fought on the side of the Nazis in Russia.

Top Cast

Noël Favrelière

Self

Mohamed Boudia

Self

Paul Teitgen

Self

Léopold Sédar Senghor

Self

Jacques Duclos

Self

Pierre Mendès France

Self

Benoîte Groult

Self

C

Colonel Argoud

Self

Pierre-André Boutang

Self

A

André Dewavrin

Self

J

Jacques Isorni

Self

S

Serge Ravanel

Self