1940: Taking over French Cinema

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.

• Pierre-Henri GibertWriter
• Arnaud GuillemantOriginal Music Composer
• Pierre-Henri GibertDirector

• Sarah-Jane SauvegrainSelf (voice)
• Louis-Émile GaleySelf (archive footage)
• Claude HeymannSelf (archive footage)
• Jean DrévilleSelf (archive footage)
• Marcel CarnéSelf (archive footage)
• Raoul PloquinSelf (voice) (archive footage)
• Henri CalefSelf (archive footage)
• Jean-Paul Le ChanoisSelf (archive footage)
• Michel DuranSelf (archive footage)
• Henri-Georges ClouzotSelf (archive footage)
• Hans BorgeltSelf (archive footage)
• Danielle DarrieuxSelf (archive footage)