1940: Taking over French Cinema

1940: Taking over French Cinema

55 mins | Documentary, History | May 19, 2019

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.

1940: Taking over French Cinema

55 mins | Documentary, History | May 19, 2019

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.
Producers France Télévisions, Talweg Production, Histoire
Original title 1940, main basse sur le cinéma français
Directors Pierre-Henri Gibert
Writers Christine Leteux, Pierre-Henri Gibert

Cast

Sarah-Jane Sauvegrain

as Self (voice)

Louis-Émile Galey

as Self (archive footage)

Claude Heymann

as Self (archive footage)

Jean Dréville

as Self (archive footage)

Marcel Carné

as Self (archive footage)

Raoul Ploquin

as Self (voice) (archive footage)

Henri Calef

as Self (archive footage)

Jean-Paul Le Chanois

as Self (archive footage)

Michel Duran

as Self (archive footage)

Henri-Georges Clouzot

as Self (archive footage)

Hans Borgelt

as Self (archive footage)

Danielle Darrieux

as Self (archive footage)

Max Douy

as Self (archive footage)

Louis Cochet

as Self (archive footage)

Charles Spaak

as Self (archive footage)