1940: Taking over French Cinema

1940: Taking over French Cinema

Documentary|

History|

TV Movie|

9/10

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.

Sarah-Jane Sauvegrain

Louis-Émile Galey

Claude Heymann

Jean Dréville

Marcel Carné

Raoul Ploquin

Henri Calef

Jean-Paul Le Chanois

Michel Duran

Henri-Georges Clouzot

Hans Borgelt

Danielle Darrieux

Max Douy

Louis Cochet

Charles Spaak