Cinema of Paradox: French Filmmaking Under the German Occupation

By Evelyn Ehrlich

From 1940 to 1944 the French cinema thrived both economically and artistically under the Nazi occupation. Despite the harsh and grim conditions of defeat, the French film industry produced many good films and a few enduring classics, including Carne's Children of Paradise, one of the most beloved of all French films.

Cinema of Paradox reveals, for the first time in English, the difficult course of French filmmaking from the declaration of war in 1939 through four years of misery to France's liberation in 1944. Evelyn Ehrlich examines the conditions of filmmaking as they reflected the larger political, cultural, and social context within occupied France. And, using previously unexamined German documents, she also looks at the French film business from the occupier's perspective, showing how the Nazis actually encouraged the French to maintain their high cinematic standards to achieve German economic and propaganda goals. Cinema of Paradox goes beyond the old cliches about resistance films versus collaborationist films and in doing so is very much in line with new sophisticated methods of viewing the French experience in World War II.

The book is filled with the famous names of the French cinema: performers such as Jean-Louis Barrault, Simone Signoret, and Harry Baur; directors including Bresson, Carne, and Clouzot; and the films themselves, including Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne and Le Corbeau.

Based on interviews with French filmmakers of the period and on considerable research into French and German sources, Cinema of Paradox will be of interest not only to film historians but to those interested in the history of modern French and Jewish studies as well.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0231059264
• ISBN13: 9780231059268
• Release Date: October 1985
• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Length: 235 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.0"
• Age Range: 22 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Insightful overview of film making in occupied France

Cinema of Paradox: French Filmmaking Under the German Occupation by Evelyn Ehrlich is an interesting overview of film making during the German occupation of France in World War Two. The book investigates the control on films by both the Germans and the Vichy Government, censorship, conditions of physical production, financing, expulsion of Jews, the retribution against collaborators upon liberation and other aspects. Also significant is how these factors affected the style of French film making until the "New Wave" in the 1960s. While numerous films are cited, to illustrate specific points, the book is by no means a film by film review. The book is clearly written and organized. I especially appreciated the depth of analysis. For example the conceit that French film makers made allegorical films, indirectly attacking the Nazis, that sneaked by stupid German censors. The author shows that the Germans were well aware of possible interpretations of films but had other objectives in allowing them to pass. The book is relatively short but represents a comprehensive overview. The subject matter could easily support a book twice as long by adding more examples or personal recollections. However I doubt that the added length would add materially to the analysis or insights contained in the existing volume. I can highly recommend this informative book to those interested in films, French cinema, the German occupation of France, Vichy etc.