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Dramatic re-enactment of the battle of Verdun during World War I, as seen by both French and German sides.Dramatic re-enactment of the battle of Verdun during World War I, as seen by both French and German sides.Dramatic re-enactment of the battle of Verdun during World War I, as seen by both French and German sides.
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Did you know
- TriviaThe fort that is posing for Fort Vaux during the attack on it in the film is actually Fort Tavannes. It is not far from Fort Vaux, and has been attacked during the real battle in 1916.
- Quotes
Sundial: Today me, tomorrow you
- ConnectionsEdited into Verdun, souvenirs d'histoire (1931)
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Verdun re-enacted
"Verdun, visions d'histoire" is a dramatised account of the key World War I battle in which French troops, fighting alone and often in desperate hand-to-hand combat, had to halt the German advance at all costs. The film uses newsreel footage, Poirier's own highly realistic reconstructions of the conflict (by far the largest element of the film) and some little dramatic scenes which are fairly perfunctory compared to "The Big Parade", say, but which nevertheless add a thread of personal interest to the events. The film is told from both sides and is surprisingly sympathetic to the German point of view, considering when it was made. Poirier's pacifist stance is revealed in several moments, notably in one scene when two angels descend onto the battlefield and extract the souls of two soldiers, one German and one French, and place them together on a stretcher which they carry up to heaven.
The re-enacted battle sequences, for which Poirier used original locations and even some of the surviving combatants, place the viewer in the midst of the horror, crawling across no-man's-land, cowering in fox-holes, or being blown apart in trenches. In fact, when you watch documentary programmes with "historical" footage of trench warfare, chances are it came from this film, made 10 years after the battle. (Most actual newsreel footage of the time shows lines of smiling troops marching off to battle but avoids depicting the carnage of war, for obvious propaganda reasons.)
In 1931, a re-edited sound version, "Verdun, souvenirs d'histoire" was released with some re-shot scenes using different actors. A restoration of the best existing print of the original silent version (stolen from France by the Nazis, then grabbed by the Russians at the end of the war) has recently been issued in an English-friendly French DVD edition.
The re-enacted battle sequences, for which Poirier used original locations and even some of the surviving combatants, place the viewer in the midst of the horror, crawling across no-man's-land, cowering in fox-holes, or being blown apart in trenches. In fact, when you watch documentary programmes with "historical" footage of trench warfare, chances are it came from this film, made 10 years after the battle. (Most actual newsreel footage of the time shows lines of smiling troops marching off to battle but avoids depicting the carnage of war, for obvious propaganda reasons.)
In 1931, a re-edited sound version, "Verdun, souvenirs d'histoire" was released with some re-shot scenes using different actors. A restoration of the best existing print of the original silent version (stolen from France by the Nazis, then grabbed by the Russians at the end of the war) has recently been issued in an English-friendly French DVD edition.
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- kinsayder
- Dec 22, 2006
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- Helvetet vid Verdun
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- Runtime2 hours 31 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
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Top Gap
By what name was Verdun: Looking at History (1928) officially released in Canada in English?
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