Overshadowed in the history of French cinema by towering figures such as Bresson or Melville, René Clement made three of the finest films on wartime occupation, collab... more >
Overshadowed in the history of French cinema by towering figures such as Bresson or Melville, René Clement made three of the finest films on wartime occupation, collaboration and resistance in the decade after the liberation. From La bataille du Rail (1946), heavily influenced by Italian neorealism to the brilliantly observed comedy Le Père Tranquille (1947) to the lyrical Jeux Interdits (1952), Clement worked comfortably in a variety of genres and registers.
Similar in scale to D-Day epic The Longest Day (1962), Paris brûle t-il? (Is Paris Burning?) is a massive, star-packed Franco-American co-production chronicling the final months of the German Occupation of Paris. The title refers to Hitler’s final orders to destroy the French capital through a series of bombings. Running to just under 3 hours, the film heaves with an almost endless array of French and American stars, everyone from Kirk Douglas to Alain Delon, Orson Welles to Yves Montand. It’s one of the most enjoyable of the mammoth co-productions of the 1960s so reviled by critics, beautifully shot in monochrome cinemascope by Marcel Grignon. < less
