Eye Of Vichy (documentary)
Picture: C
Sound: C Extras: D Film: B+
Claude Chabrol has been one of the less-known directors of
the French New Wave, even with films like The Bitches and The Butcher,
but one of his greatest triumphs is co-ordination of Eye Of Vichy
(1993). This is a unique documentary
about World War II in that it uses the propaganda film of the French government
of that era under Field Marshall Petain and his co-conspirators, to prove that
France was extremely perpetuating Fascism, the Nazis, the Axis powers,
anti-Semitism, the death camps, and knew it!
Having seen so much material on the era, it almost causes
an adjustment disorder to see the same ugly images, but preached in French over
German. The film footage is effectively
lined up in chronological order, but Chabrol’s twist is in the new material
written by Jean-Pierre Azema & Robert Paxton, which makes certain the
viewer knows how they are relentlessly being had by Axis propaganda. The French version had been narrated by the
great character actor Michel Bouquet (Truffaut’s The Bride Wore Black),
but this English version is read by Brian Cox.
Cox, the also-great character actor was recently seen in X-Men 2,
but is also known as the original Hannibal Lecter (spelled Lektor for his
appearance) in Michael Mann’s adaptation of Thomas Harris’ Red Dragon: Manhunter
(1986).
After watching this, you will not be under the dangerous
misimpression that France just happened to be occupied by the Nazis, but really
loved freedom and simply started a resistance that kept fighting until the
Allies won. They turn out to be as
innocent as the Swiss, long thought erroneously to be “neutral” in all
political matters.
The picture is letterboxed at 1.66 X 1, but is really
full-screen/1.33 x 1 with the way the English black-block subtitles spill into
the bottom bar. The footage has great
video black, but also has the same various picture quality throughout that
documentaries such as these tend to have.
In this case, it builds into a dense world of a living hell not enough
people realize extended outside of Germany, Italy, and Austria. The French have had their moments of
fighting for freedom, but this is far from one of them. We freed them, but how much can we say they
brought much of this on themselves? It
is a tough question the film does present.
The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is also just fine, with
expected background noise from the old footage, but the Cox reading has the
best sound. Some of these images are so
disturbing, however, that sound becomes irrelevant.
There are a few trailers from First Run about their other
DVDs, and ten stills, but that is the extent of the extras, though its too bad
Chabrol could not have added something new for this DVD release.
Eye Of Vichy is one of those key WWII
documentary works, up there with Paragraph 175, that are both must-see
films and necessities for any serious history library.
- Nicholas Sheffo
