The Sorrow and the Pity

An investigation into the nature, details and reasons for the collaboration between France’s Vichy government and Nazi Germany from 1940 to 1944.

Banana Peel

Two scoundrels cheat a millionaire out of a huge bankroll on the French Riviera.

Munich, or Peace in Our Time

September 28, 1938, war is about to break out. Tension was mounting, as Chamberlain and Daladier on one side, and Hitler and Mussolini on the other, met in Munich. This conference marked the culmination of the weakness of European democracies in the face of the rise of fascism. Through period documents and interviews, author Marcel Ophüls recounts this meeting and recreates the European climate of 1938.

Place Your Bets, Ladies

A famous American secret service agent tries to rescue a German 17-year-old prodigy scientist who has been captured by the Russians.

The Harvest of My Lai

Filmmaker Marcel Ophuls investigates the massacre of My Lai by U.S. soldiers.

November Days

Marcel Ophüls interviews various important Eastern European figures for their thoughts on the reunification of Germany and the fall of Communism.

Max par Marcel: Lola Montès

In a series of four documentaries, Marcel Ophuls pays tribute to his father Max, and in this last one discusses his role as an assistant director on "Lola Montès".

A Sense of Loss

Shot over six weeks in December 1971, and January 1972, the film consisted of interviews with Protestants, Catholics, politicians, and some soldiers, combined with TV news clips of bombings and violence. The deaths of four individuals formed the central focus of the film, which Ophüls described as ‘an old, middle-aged, humanistic, social-democratic attempt to give people an idea that life after all is not that cheap’. The BBC refused to transmit the completed film on the grounds that it was ‘too pro-Irish’ (Sunday Times, 5 Nov. 1972). (via h...

The Sorrow and the Pity

From 1940 to 1944, France's Vichy government collaborated with Nazi Germany. Marcel Ophüls mixes archival footage with 1969 interviews of a German officer and of collaborators and resistance fighters from Clermont-Ferrand. They comment on the nature, details and reasons for the collaboration, from anti-Semitism, xenophobia, and fear of Bolsheviks, to simple caution.