A chronicle of a French city under the occupation. Director Marcel Ophüls combined interviews and archival film footage to explore the reality of the French occupation in one small industrial city, Clermont-Ferrand. He spoke with resistance fighters, collaborators, spies, farmers, government officials, writers, artists and veterans. The result is a shattering portrait of how ordinary people actually conducted themselves under extraordinary circumstances. By turns gripping, horrifying, and inspiring, Academy Award nominee The Sorrow and the Pity is a triumph of humanist filmmaking and a testament to the power of cinema.

Before Shoah and Schindler’s List there was The Sorrow and the Pity. Part One: The Collapse has an extended interview with Pierre Mendès-France, who escaped from jail to join the resitance and later became PM of liberated France.

Note: This screening is held as part of the “Cinema and Shoah in France” program