Eye of Vichy
Oeil de Vichy, L' -- First I have to admit that it's been a couple months since I saw this one - let's say I've been lax in writing my reviews though I've kept up the list of what I've been watching and reading. However, this one left an impression that's not easy to forget.
Composed of archival newsreel material, the movie tries to tell the story of the French government's Second World War. And yes, this is the collaborationist side of the equation and much of the footage was originally made and released to get the French citizenry to understand and support it's lack of opposition to Nazis. Clearly, this is powerful stuff in the sense that propaganda, when viewed from outside, is always powerful.
While less an indictment of collaborationist propaganda than one might suspect, this movie is more an allegory about the power of the mass media to shape and change opinions. This message can be applied to our own times as well as to that shown. Will our children and grandchildren wonder how we could believe the tripe we are fed daily on the evening and cable news the way we wonder how the French could believe what their government was telling them?
Still those who condemn French actions during the War and Francophobes in general will like this film because it seems to make whatever crazy message they desire to communicate, again illustrating the power of the propaganda even 60 years later and towards a different end. But if one can get past that, it also can ask serious questions about just how far one might be willing to go to avoid a war. Maybe it can even explain why certain French leaders followed the course they did.
Highly recommended for those interested in the War and understanding propaganda's power though subtitles require a bit more work than the usual movie. This is a thought provoking work, well worth the effort to track down and would be especially useful in educational settings.
Rating: 8 out of 10 (though I must admit it feels a bit odd rating a compilation of propaganda films) Buy from Amazon.com
Composed of archival newsreel material, the movie tries to tell the story of the French government's Second World War. And yes, this is the collaborationist side of the equation and much of the footage was originally made and released to get the French citizenry to understand and support it's lack of opposition to Nazis. Clearly, this is powerful stuff in the sense that propaganda, when viewed from outside, is always powerful.
While less an indictment of collaborationist propaganda than one might suspect, this movie is more an allegory about the power of the mass media to shape and change opinions. This message can be applied to our own times as well as to that shown. Will our children and grandchildren wonder how we could believe the tripe we are fed daily on the evening and cable news the way we wonder how the French could believe what their government was telling them?
Still those who condemn French actions during the War and Francophobes in general will like this film because it seems to make whatever crazy message they desire to communicate, again illustrating the power of the propaganda even 60 years later and towards a different end. But if one can get past that, it also can ask serious questions about just how far one might be willing to go to avoid a war. Maybe it can even explain why certain French leaders followed the course they did.
Highly recommended for those interested in the War and understanding propaganda's power though subtitles require a bit more work than the usual movie. This is a thought provoking work, well worth the effort to track down and would be especially useful in educational settings.
Rating: 8 out of 10 (though I must admit it feels a bit odd rating a compilation of propaganda films) Buy from Amazon.com
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