Cycles

World War II goes to the movies

Commemoration of May 8, 1945

11 films

French cinema has filmed the battles, resistance, and aftermath of World War II. It ranges from eulogistic, nationalist, and heroic works to critical and realistic films, spanning all forms and genres, from comedy and action to historical epics and more experimental essays.

World War II goes to the movies
  • Drama, Literary adaptation
  • 1959
  • 1h31
by Alain Resnais

A French actress is shooting a pacifist film in Japan; she has a brief affair with a Japanese architect, they talk, in a hotel room, in a bar, in the night. She talks about herself, a little girl from Nevers who once, in occupied France, loved a German soldier... She talks about herself, painful, radiant, terrified, appeased.

  • Literary adaptation
  • 1961
  • 1h30
by Henri Colpi

Therese runs a café in Paris; she lost her husband when he disappeared sixteen years earlier, and, while time has healed some of her wounds, she's still a lonely person. One day, a tramp passes by humming a familiar tune, and Therese is convinced that the vagabond is her husband. She follows him to his home, a tiny shack by the river, and tries to question him about his past. She discovers that the tramp suffers from amnesia and has no clear memory of his past. Therese brings him back to her cafe in hopes of jogging his memory and renewing the love they once knew.

  • Comedy, Classics
  • 1966
  • 2h02
by Gérard Oury

During World War II, two French civilians and a downed English Bomber Crew set out from Paris to cross the demarcation line between Nazi-occupied Northern France and the South.

  • Historical film, Classics, Literary adaptation
  • 1967
  • 1h50
by Costa-Gavras

In this WW II drama, twelve captured French soldiers await their impending executions in a German prison camp. Fortunately, a wily resistance fighter and his men come to rescue the ill-fated dozen. The rescue attempt succeeds, but the rebels become worried when they discover a thirteenth prisoner who has come with the others. This fellow carries no ID, and now the fighters must decide whether he should die on the spot or continue on with the others. One of the group members votes for immediate execution. Later the stranger accompanies the group on a raid and ends up nearly sacrificing his life to save a child from being shot. The rebel leader is not impressed and orders that one of the men kill the stranger down by the river. The dutiful soldier listens to the stranger who tells him the truth: he is a deserter and a fervent pacifist. The soldier allows the deserter to escape. That night the stranger returns and tries to warn the rebels of a Nazi ambush. The group leader heads off to warn the others, but he is too late and they are all recaptured. Later all but the pacifist are hanged.

  • Comedy-drama, Classics
  • 1980
  • 2h08
by François Truffaut

All Marion Steiner can think about is rehearsals for a new play she is staging at the Montmartre Theater, where she has taken over as director in place of her Jewish husband, who has disappeared. Everyone believes that Lucas Steiner has fled France, but he is, in fact, hiding in the basement of the theater.

  • Drama, Historical film, Classics
  • 1987
  • 1h35
by Louis Malle

1944, Julien is a boarder at a Catholic college. He discovers Jean, a proud and secret newcomer. Julien and Jean become friends little by little. However, this bond will never be able to blossom. One day, the Gestapo arrives at the school and arrests Father Jean and the three Jewish children he had hidden among his Catholic children.

  • Experimental film, Classics
  • 1996
  • 1h45
by Chris Marker

Une femme, un ordinateur, un interlocuteur invisible : tel est le dispositif à partir duquel Level Five se construit. La femme a "hérité" d’une tâche : terminer l’écriture d’un jeu vidéo consacré à la bataille d’Okinawa, une tragédie pratiquement inconnue en Occident, mais dont le déroulement a joué un rôle décisif dans la façon dont la deuxième guerre mondiale s’est achevée.

  • Literary adaptation, Drama
  • 2017
  • 2h07
by Emmanuel Finkiel

In the 1944 Nazi-occupied France, young talented writer Marguerite is an active Resistance member with her husband Robert Antelme. When he is deported by the Gestapo, she dives into a desperate struggle to get him back. She develops a chilling relationship with local Vichy collaborator Rabier and takes terrible risks to save Robert, playing a cat-and-mouse of unpredictable meetings all over Paris. Does he really want to help her? Or is he trying to dig up information about the anti-Nazi underground? Then come the end of the war and the return of camp victims, an excruciating period for her, and a long and silent agony after the chaos of the Liberation of Paris. But she continues to wait, bound to the torment of absence even beyond hope.

  • Historical film
  • 2019
  • 1h48
by Gabriel Le Bomin

1940. De Gaulle opposes Pétain because he wants to continue the military offensive. In Colombey, his wife Yvonne is forced to leave. The family knows the routes of the exodus to Brittany. As the armistice looms, de Gaulle chooses to leave for London, where Churchill, who becomes an ally, allows him to speak to the BBC on 18 June. Yvonne and Charles eventually found themselves, after a long journey, in the London capital.

  • Drama
  • 2021
  • 2h47
by Arthur Harari

Fin 1944. Le Japon est en train de perdre la guerre. Sur ordre du mystérieux Major Taniguchi, le jeune Hiroo Onoda est envoyé sur une île des Philippines juste avant le débarquement américain. La poignée de soldats qu'il entraîne dans la jungle découvre bientôt la doctrine inconnue qui va les lier à cet homme : la Guerre Secrète. Pour l'Empire, la guerre est sur le point de finir. Pour Onoda, elle s'achèvera 10 000 nuits plus tard

  • Historical film, Drama, Biopic
  • 2020
  • 1h14
by Aurel

February 1939. Overwhelmed by the flood of Republicans fleeing the Franco dictatorship, the French government parked them in camps. Two men separated by the barbed wire will become friends. One is a gendarme, the other a cartoonist. From Barcelona to New York, the true story of Josep Bartolí, anti-Franco fighter and exceptional artist.

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