The Sorrow and the Pity (1970) review

Justly famous four-hour documentary about the German occupation of France during World War II, the go-ahead-take-over attitude of the French officials and the ensuing Resistance that formed. Its reputation is primarily based on the faultless construction of the material: Ophuls compiles so many minutes of stock footage and conducts so many interviews - all of which are meticulously spliced together (some juxtapositions purposely highlight contradictions in testimony) - you can't help but be amazed by his audacity and the picture's perspicuity. However, sometimes the film gets bogged down with too many talking heads - people speaking on and on about some detail or point in the most oblique manner - that interest tends to wane at times, most noticeably in part one (it's divided into two pieces). Besides a noted lack of drama and somewhat dry presentation, I also struggled with some of the content, confused as to who all the key role players are (Ophuls greatly overestimates what we know) and what particulars they are referring to. Ken Burns' work, in comparison, is much more accessible - Ophuls is more the intellectual than the extrovert. Despite its difficulty, I felt like I learned a bundle from it.