Traces the origins and actions of World War I, from the funeral of Britain's King Edward VII to the Versailles Treaty.

Nicole Védrès' chronicle of Paris from 1900 to 1914 is brought to life through the use of original material, all authentic, secured from more then 700 films belonging to public and private collections. A few of the celebrities of the time shown are Enrico Caruso, Sarah Bernhardt, and Maurice Chevalier.

A compilation of newsreels shot between 1913 and 1917 - the years leading up to the Russian Revolution.

On October 24, 1940, Philippe Pétain met Adolf Hitler in Montoire and led the French into collaboration with the Nazis. A black page in the history of France, written by a man whom many then considered a hero: the winner of Verdun.

Originally called World '68, later retitled The World of Today Romm’s film was conceived as an impassioned, large-scale essay on the origins of the 20th century and the subsequent reality the disappointed director felt slipping away from him. The film itself slipped away from him and was left unfinished at the time of his death. His younger colleagues, Marlen Khutsiev, Elem Klimov and German Lavrov, completed the film from the elements he left behind in addition to segments from Ordinary Fascism, closing the film with Romm’s ultimately optimistic outlook: "And still I believe that man is sensible..."