1940: Taking over French Cinema
Directed by Pierre-Henri Gibert
Documentary
HistoryOverview
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.
Cast
Sarah-Jane Sauvegrain
Self (voice)
Louis-Émile Galey
Self (archive footage)
Claude Heymann
Self (archive footage)
Jean Dréville
Self (archive footage)
Marcel Carné
Self (archive footage)
Raoul Ploquin
Self (voice) (archive footage)
Henri Calef
Self (archive footage)
Jean-Paul Le Chanois
Self (archive footage)
Michel Duran
Self (archive footage)
Henri-Georges Clouzot
Self (archive footage)
Hans Borgelt
Self (archive footage)
Danielle Darrieux
Self (archive footage)
