First, the movie itself. It is filmed theater, complete with Grand Guignol (secret passages) and a few clumsy attempts to open up the play with outside shots. It is an extended (and mostly imagined) conversation between General Dietrich von Choltitz (military governor of Paris) and Raoul Nordling, Swedish consul in Paris shortly before the liberation of Paris in August 1944; the subject is the destruction of historical monuments ordered by Hitler but not executed. Since Niels Arestrup and André Dussollier are accomplished actors, the movie keeps your attention. On this basis only, it would deserve a medium good rating.
The problem is distortion of history. The dialogue lends nobility to Choltitz and minimizes the Free French contribution to the liberation (the Resistance is not present in this movie, except for a few fighters being executed or engaging German soldiers in firefights without taking cover, like the Japanese in wartime American movies). Choltitz, as most of Hitler's generals, was a scoundrel and a war criminal who at the time was trying to find ways to avoid execution at the hand of partisans or a postwar trial for war crimes followed by hanging. No need to worry; he was treated with kid gloves in postwar America and West Germany. He was freed in 1947 after some mock repentance, and he even wrote a memoir where he named himself the Savior of Paris. This was thereafter echoed unthinkingly by the mainstream press.
In this movie, Choltitz is allowed every excuse. He posits the standard Nazi defense ("I am following orders") and compares the proposed destruction of Paris with the Allied bombing of German cities. Dubious call. True, Allied bombings of German aimed to kill civilians (although most cities were heavily defended). However, terror bombing from the air was proudly introduced by Germany in Guernica (and other Spanish cities) during the 1936-1938 civil war, and perfected in Warsaw and Rotterdam.
The movie contain falsities as well as omissions. Examples of both.
Falsity: some of the soldiers that take Choltitz prisoner wear American uniforms. They did not: all were Frenchmen and Spaniards and served in the 2nd Free French Armored Division under general Leclerc's command, the first force to enter Paris well ahead of the Americans.
Omission: The beginning of the movie shows Warsaw after the Nazis destroyed 90% of the city. It does not clarify why this was not contested by the Polish underground. Reason: they had been crushed as a result of the Warsaw Uprising of August 1944.
One wonders where the director's sympathies fall. One wonders less after the end titles. Schlöndorff dedicates the movie to "his friend Richard Holbrooke," a neocon and one of the the architects of the disintegration of Yugoslavia at the hands of NATO, in which Germany was an accomplice.
A far more balanced and truthful account of the liberation of Paris can be found in a popular 1966 movie by René Clement, "Is Paris Burning?" It's a lot more entertaining too.
The problem is distortion of history. The dialogue lends nobility to Choltitz and minimizes the Free French contribution to the liberation (the Resistance is not present in this movie, except for a few fighters being executed or engaging German soldiers in firefights without taking cover, like the Japanese in wartime American movies). Choltitz, as most of Hitler's generals, was a scoundrel and a war criminal who at the time was trying to find ways to avoid execution at the hand of partisans or a postwar trial for war crimes followed by hanging. No need to worry; he was treated with kid gloves in postwar America and West Germany. He was freed in 1947 after some mock repentance, and he even wrote a memoir where he named himself the Savior of Paris. This was thereafter echoed unthinkingly by the mainstream press.
In this movie, Choltitz is allowed every excuse. He posits the standard Nazi defense ("I am following orders") and compares the proposed destruction of Paris with the Allied bombing of German cities. Dubious call. True, Allied bombings of German aimed to kill civilians (although most cities were heavily defended). However, terror bombing from the air was proudly introduced by Germany in Guernica (and other Spanish cities) during the 1936-1938 civil war, and perfected in Warsaw and Rotterdam.
The movie contain falsities as well as omissions. Examples of both.
Falsity: some of the soldiers that take Choltitz prisoner wear American uniforms. They did not: all were Frenchmen and Spaniards and served in the 2nd Free French Armored Division under general Leclerc's command, the first force to enter Paris well ahead of the Americans.
Omission: The beginning of the movie shows Warsaw after the Nazis destroyed 90% of the city. It does not clarify why this was not contested by the Polish underground. Reason: they had been crushed as a result of the Warsaw Uprising of August 1944.
One wonders where the director's sympathies fall. One wonders less after the end titles. Schlöndorff dedicates the movie to "his friend Richard Holbrooke," a neocon and one of the the architects of the disintegration of Yugoslavia at the hands of NATO, in which Germany was an accomplice.
A far more balanced and truthful account of the liberation of Paris can be found in a popular 1966 movie by René Clement, "Is Paris Burning?" It's a lot more entertaining too.