Note: The film will show with a 15-minute intermission between Pt 1 & Pt 2. Ophuls’ searing documentary was originally made for French television but rejected as inflammatory. Using a rich blend of newsreel footage, propaganda films, and contemporary interviews, it centres on the provincial town of Clermont-Ferrand, revealing an occupied France much different than that found in previous portraits. Part 1, The Collapse (2hrs) outlines the fall of France and introduces collaborators from Maurice Chevalier to a local hairdresser. In Part 2, The Choice (2hrs 8m), the heroes of the Resistance emerge, from the high school students who gave their lives as their teachers stood by to a Jewish politician who escaped jail to become prime minister in later life.