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1940: Taking over French Cinema

1940: Taking over French Cinema

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Status

Released

Release Date

May 19, 2019

Runtime

0h 55m

Genres

Documentary, History, TV Movie

User Score

90%

Original Title

1940, main basse sur le cinéma français

Production Companies

Talweg Production, France Télévisions, Histoire TV

Director

Pierre-Henri Gibert

Description

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.