Recommend me FRENCH RESISTANCE films

[Spymaster]

The Statement starts in Vichy France and jumps forward to modern times. It's got Michael Caine in it but sounds terrible. The Statement (film) - Wikipedia.

It's a superb film.

Nazi-hunt rather than French resistance though.

 

[Sue]

A Nun's Story (tangentially towards the end but Belgium rather than France).

It's got Audrey Hepburn. As a nun. And Africa and tropical diseases and resistance. And based on a true story. Jeez, you're a tough audience.

DaveCinzano may have pooh-poohed this one but but notice it's on BBC 2 this afternoon (13:15) and no doubt then on iPlayer. There are worse ways to spend a cold and miserable lockdown afternoon...

 

[mojo pixy]

Current state of play:
...

NO TV

• 'Allo, 'Allo
• Das Boot S2
• Secret Army s.1, 2 & 3 (also, Belgium not France but it needed adding and is worth seeing on its own terms. I believe it was the main inspiration for Allo Allo, but serious drama not comedy, and actually pretty good)

...so yeah, sorry

 

[T & P]

As my question does not merit its own thread, I thought I could stick it here: in the same spirit as the OP in this thread, can anyone recommend films or ficitonal TV series depicting life in the Channel Islands under German occupation in WWII?

 

[Sue]

As my question does not merit its own thread, I thought I could stick it here: in the same spirit as the OP in this thread, can anyone recommend films or ficitonal TV series depicting life in the Channel Islands under German occupation in WWII?

There was that Guernsey Potato Peel film a couple of years ago. Haven't seen it though and IIRC got crap reviews.

 

[Indeliblelink]

I watched this Claude Chabrol one the other day "Line of Demarcation" [La ligne de démarcation] (1966) no masterpiece but it had some OK performances and was worth a watch. Resistance smuggling people over the southern demarcation line to the free zone.

 

[DaveCinzano]

As my question does not merit its own thread, I thought I could stick it here: in the same spirit as the OP in this thread, can anyone recommend films or ficitonal TV series depicting life in the Channel Islands under German occupation in WWII?

There was an episode of Bergerac dealing with the issue

 

[DaveCinzano]

Transit. Modern day ish setting but based on a novel written during WW2. A wanted man escapes occupied Paris and heads to the south (Marseille?) to try to find a boat out. (Quite a recent film -- thought it was excellent.)

Good call - found that exhilarating

 

[Magnus McGinty]

High brow posturer.

 

[Sue]

Good call - found that exhilarating

Oh good. I really liked it.

 

[Sue]

"Le Bataille du Rail" - superb recounting of how the cheminots messed up the rail network. Compliments "The Train".

Happened to notice this is on at the Cine Lumiere in a few weeks-- hoping to catch it then.

La Bataille du rail | Institut français du Royaume-Uni

René Clément’s breakthrough film relates the exploits of French railway workers who supported the activities of the French Resistance during Nazi occupation. Starring non-professional actors, La Bataille du rail received both the Best Director prize and the Jury Prize at the 1946 Cannes festival.

www.institut-francais.org.uk

 

[DaveCinzano]

Happened to notice this is on at the Cine Lumiere in a few weeks-- hoping to catch it then.

La Bataille du rail | Institut français du Royaume-Uni

René Clément’s breakthrough film relates the exploits of French railway workers who supported the activities of the French Resistance during Nazi occupation. Starring non-professional actors, La Bataille du rail received both the Best Director prize and the Jury Prize at the 1946 Cannes festival.

www.institut-francais.org.uk

Very des temps

 

[Magnus McGinty]

Expressing delight in foreign films must be done using their language dahhhling.

 

[davesgcr]

Happened to notice this is on at the Cine Lumiere in a few weeks-- hoping to catch it then.

La Bataille du rail | Institut français du Royaume-Uni

René Clément’s breakthrough film relates the exploits of French railway workers who supported the activities of the French Resistance during Nazi occupation. Starring non-professional actors, La Bataille du rail received both the Best Director prize and the Jury Prize at the 1946 Cannes festival.

www.institut-francais.org.uk

Go for it - like "The Train" - they did not mess with models , they wrecked actual rolling stock. Should be good on the big screen.

Being a hopeless railway man (retired) -the Train has to be the best bit for atmosphere and realism - the night shots when they divert the art train just could not be repeated , particularly the shot at Verdun signal box when the key (coded) message "Hello Metz - it's on time" is passed on.

 

[Sue]

Go for it - like "The Train" - they did not mess with models , they wrecked actual rolling stock. Should be good on the big screen.

Being a hopeless railway man (retired) -the Train has to be the best bit for atmosphere and realism - the night shots when they divert the art train just could not be repeated , particularly the shot at Verdun signal box when the key (coded) message "Hello Metz - it's on time" is passed on.

Thanks very much for recommending La Bataille du rail, davesgcr.

Just saw it and thought it was excellent. I specially liked the people working 'with' the Germans on train scheduling and routing using the info instead to plan where sabotage/attacks would prove most effective. Genuinely gripping.

 

[Sue]

Bump

The Cine Lumiere has a season of WW2 films coming up (including some mentioned on this thread).

WWII On Screen - Institut Français · Royaume-Uni

The season includes powerful dramas that still resonate today such as Agnieszka Holland’s Europa Europa, Louis Malle’s poignant Goodbye, Children, René Clément’s epic Is Paris Burning? and Roberto Rossellini’s masterpiece Rome, Open City. Explore the theme further with a selection of books and...

www.institut-francais.org.uk

Not French but definitely going to try and catch this:

Kanał at Ciné Lumière - Institut Français · Royaume-Uni

During the last days of the Warsaw Uprising a ravaged band of resistance fighters retreats into the city sewers to avoid capture by the Nazis. In this pit of darkness, engulfed by filth, they desperately strive to hang onto their lives, their hopes and their sanity. Controversial for undermining...

www.institut-francais.org.uk

 

[Elpenor]

Bump

The Cine Lumiere has a season of WW2 films coming up (including some mentioned on this thread).

WWII On Screen - Institut Français · Royaume-Uni

The season includes powerful dramas that still resonate today such as Agnieszka Holland’s Europa Europa, Louis Malle’s poignant Goodbye, Children, René Clément’s epic Is Paris Burning? and Roberto Rossellini’s masterpiece Rome, Open City. Explore the theme further with a selection of books and...

www.institut-francais.org.uk

Not French but definitely going to try and catch this:

Kanał at Ciné Lumière - Institut Français · Royaume-Uni

During the last days of the Warsaw Uprising a ravaged band of resistance fighters retreats into the city sewers to avoid capture by the Nazis. In this pit of darkness, engulfed by filth, they desperately strive to hang onto their lives, their hopes and their sanity. Controversial for undermining...

www.institut-francais.org.uk

I think I am going to be in London dog sitting for one of those weeks so will check out the timings

 

[AnnO'Neemus]

Parameters:
French résistance only - tick
Dramatic works only - tick
Broadly historically accurate (even if contested) - tick, I think
Please, they don't have to be absolute masterpieces, but don't knowingly hype utter toss - tick
Films only - TV movies are fine, but no series - it's a series, sorry. The New Look on Apple+ ostensibly about Christian Dior, but a major plotline involves Dior's sister, Christine (played astoundingly well by Maisie Williams)

Apple TV+ recommendations?

Fantastic episode this week (5th) though. Brutal stuff. Trying to find online the percentage of aircrews who completed their 25-mission tour (and wasn’t it 30 missions for the RAF?), but I can’t imagine many made it :(

www.urban75.net

"Ginette Dior (2 August 1917 – 17 June 2008), better known as Catherine Dior, was a French Resistance fighter during World War II. Involved with the Franco-Polish intelligence unit F2 from November 1941, she was arrested in Paris in July 1944 by the Gestapo, then tortured and deported to the Ravensbrück women concentration camp. Dior was subsequently forced to work in the Torgau military prison, in the Buchenwald's satellite camp of Abberode, and finally in a factory near Leipzig. After her release in April 1945, she was awarded several medals of honour for her acts in the Resistance, most notably the Croix de Guerre, the King's Medal for Courage in the Cause of Freedom, and the Legion of Honour."

Catherine Dior - Wikipedia

 

[Sue]

Une Affaire de Femmes. In Occupied France, a woman becomes a backstreet abortionist at a time when abortion is classed as a crime against the state.

Based on a true story, there's more collaboration going on than resistance but interesting nonetheless.

 

[Oriole]

Not seen le Silence de la Mer but the book was pretty good so I hope you got a chance to see it

If you have gone through the existing list, here are some more, some are probably hard to find

Un Ami viendra ce soir (Raymond Bernard) - Michel Simon is supposed to be really good in it
Vivre libre (Jean Renoir) - 1943 has a reputation for laying it on a bit thick
Les Portes de la nuit (Marcel Carné) - A bit dark and probably more occupation than resistance but it's supposed to have not been well received because it doesn't have a reconciliation message which was the done thing in 1946. Features a super young Yves Montand
L'Imposteur (Julien Duvivier)

Not French film but featuring French resistance
Saboteur sans gloire / Uncertain Glory (Raoul Walsh) - Errol Flynn reported to be really good in it

Bon Voyage (Alfred Hitchcock)


Since someone mentioned Casablanca, there's another Bogart : Passage to Marseille (Michael Curtiz)

Not 100% sure this one fulfils the brief but might be easier to source
13 Rue Madeleine - Henry Hathaway ( 13 Rue Madeleine (1947) 6.9 | Action, Adventure, Drama )

TV rather than Cinema, but if you want pure fluff there's Gone with the Wind meets WW2 - there were legal wranglings - (the book sold like hot cakes when it came out in the 80s, very popular with teenage girls because sex scenes :-D) - the whole thing is available on you tube and Laetitia Casta is cast as the heroine

 

[Fez909]

Biennale Cinema 2019 | Le passage du Rhin (The Crossing of the Rhine)

Director André Cayatte Main Cast Charles Aznavour, Nicole Courcel, Georges Rivière / Restoration Gaumont / France, Germany / 1960 / 125’

www.labiennale.org

Two Frenchmen who are imprisoned by the Germans in 1940 become friends. One man is a reporter, the other a baker. The reporter is an enterprising young man. He escapes, crosses the Rhine, joins the resistance, and becomes the manager of a big newspaper. The unassuming baker is unable to escape and seems to be a victim of circumstances. But the hour of reckoning comes at the end of the war, and the freer man of the two is less than obvious.

 

[Sue]

Biennale Cinema 2019 | Le passage du Rhin (The Crossing of the Rhine)

Director André Cayatte Main Cast Charles Aznavour, Nicole Courcel, Georges Rivière / Restoration Gaumont / France, Germany / 1960 / 125’

www.labiennale.org

Aznavour was of course linked to the Manouchian group during WW2.

 

[Fez909]

Mr. Orchid de René Clément (1946) - Unifrance

en.unifrance.org

Edouard Martin lives a peaceful existence in a small French town with his wife and two children. So calm is Martin that, even in this period of German occupation, his neighbours have nicknamed him "the quiet father". guHe spends much of his time attending to his fabulous collection of orchids, which even the German soldiers come to admire. In reality, Martin is leading a double life. Secretly, he is one of the most important resistance leaders in the area. Unaware of his father’s activities, Pierre becomes frustrated by his apparent passivity and makes it known that he intends to join the resistance. By contrast, Monique has been able to read the signs and deduces that her father is an active member of the resistance. Monsieur Martin has learned that the Allies intend to bomb an oil depot in the town. He now needs his daughter’s help if he is to save the townsfolk without alerting the Germans...

 

[Fez909]

Jéricho de Henri Calef (1946) - Unifrance

en.unifrance.org

Jericho is the code name of an operation set up by the British Royal Air Force and the French Resistance to free French hostages held by German soldiers in the jail of Amiens in Northern France.

 

[Sue]

You're on fire, Fez909!

 

[Spymaster]

You're on fire, Fez909!

Speaking of fire, this is worth a watch.

As is X Company.

 

[ID47]

Don't speak or understand French myself but a quick look brought this up. Looks a bit rubbish but...

 

[Fez909]

You're on fire, Fez909!

Safe Conduct - The Criterion Channel

Directed by Bertrand Tavernier • 2002 • France Starring Jacques Gamblin, Denis Podalydès, Charlotte Kady Posing profound moral questions about the relationship between art, politics, and resistance, this heady, richly detailed historical drama unfolds during the Nazi occupation of France as two ...

www.criterionchannel.com

Posing profound moral questions about the relationship between art, politics, and resistance, this heady, richly detailed historical drama unfolds during the Nazi occupation of France as two filmmakers (based on real-life figures) attempt to navigate their careers without compromising their ideals. Facing pressure from the Vichy government, assistant director Jean Devaivre (Jacques Gamblin) uses his position at the German-controlled studio Continental Films as a cover for his resistance activities, while screenwriter Jean Aurenche (Denis Podalydès) uses his wits to keep from being involved in the creation of any collaborationist propaganda.

 

[Fez909]

Special Section (1975)

In occupied France during the WWII, a German officer is murdered. The collaborationist Vichy government decides to pin the murder on six petty criminals. Loyal judges are called in to convict them as quickly as possible.

letterboxd.com

In occupied France during the WWII, a German officer is murdered. The collaborationist Vichy government decides to pin the murder on six petty criminals. Loyal judges are called in to convict them as quickly as possible.