France has long had a complicated relationship with its own history. Stanley Kubrick's "Paths of Glory" was long banned in France for its portrayal of the corrupt, out of touch and cruel generalship during the Great War. From the moment of Paris' Liberation General DeGaulle went to great lengths to create the "Myth of Resistance": that the majority of French men and women had resisted the German occupation in some way from 1940 onward. In fact barely 1% of the population actively fought against the occupiers. Even worse, large sections of French society actively assisted the Nazi occupiers in rounding up and deporting Jews, hunting down socialists, communists and other 'anti-nationalists'. Even well after the Normandy invasion and the clear prospect of Allied victory, collaboration continued unabated with the resistance fighters aiding the Allies being the main target. As James Holland's "Normandy '44" reveals, French collaborators gleefully informed on neighbors and even relatives fighting for the Allies. How do you achieve reconciliation after the war under such conditions? This series explores all those complications in great detail. The DVD version contains illuminating historical commentary from french historians and surviving eyewitnesses that that should not be missed.
Review of Un village français
