1940: Taking over French Cinema

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1940: Taking over French Cinema

Paris, 1940. German occupation forces create a new film production company, Continental, and put Alfred Greven – producer, cinephile, and opportunistic businessman – in charge. During the occupation, under Joseph Goebbels’s orders, Greven hires the best artists and technicians of French cinema to produce successful, highly entertaining films, which are also strategically devoid of propaganda. Simultaneously, he takes advantage of the confiscation of Jewish property to purchase film theaters, studios and laboratories, in order to control the whole production line. His goal: to create a European Hollywood. Among the thirty feature films thus produced under the auspices of Continental, several are, to this day, considered classics of French cinema.

Original Title

1940, main basse sur le cinéma français

Release Date

2019-05-19

Year

2019

Duration

55m

Status

Released

Score

9.00

#france#based-on-novel-or-book#world-war-ii#german-occupation#antisemitism#1940s#occupied-france-(1940-44)#film-industry#documentary#historical-documentary

Cast

Sarah-Jane Sauvegrain

Sarah-Jane Sauvegrain

Self (voice)

No Image

Louis-Émile Galey

Self (archive footage)

No Image

Claude Heymann

Self (archive footage)

Jean Dréville

Jean Dréville

Self (archive footage)

Marcel Carné

Marcel Carné

Self (archive footage)

No Image

Raoul Ploquin

Self (voice) (archive footage)

No Image

Henri Calef

Self (archive footage)

Jean-Paul Le Chanois

Jean-Paul Le Chanois

Self (archive footage)

Michel Duran

Michel Duran

Self (archive footage)

Henri-Georges Clouzot

Henri-Georges Clouzot

Self (archive footage)