France Falls: May-June 1940
- Episode aired Nov 14, 1973
- 52m
IMDb RATING
8.8/10
529
YOUR RATING
French politics, the Maginot Line, the Saar Offensive, Blitzkrieg warfare and the Nazi invasion of France and the Low Countries.French politics, the Maginot Line, the Saar Offensive, Blitzkrieg warfare and the Nazi invasion of France and the Low Countries.French politics, the Maginot Line, the Saar Offensive, Blitzkrieg warfare and the Nazi invasion of France and the Low Countries.
Photos
Edward Spears
- Self - British Liason Officer to French Army
- (as Sir Edward Spears)
Siegfried Westphal
- Self - Staff Officer Western Front
- (as General Siegfried Westphal)
Walter Warlimont
- Self - German High Command
- (as General Warlimont)
Hasso von Manteuffel
- Self - German Panzer Command
- (as General von Manteuffel)
André Beaufre
- Self - French High Command
- (archive footage)
- (as General André Beaufre)
Maurice Chevalier
- Self - Entertainer
- (archive sound)
Charles Trenet
- Self - Entertainer
- (archive sound)
Charles de Gaulle
- Self
- (archive footage)
- (uncredited)
Duke of Windsor
- Self
- (archive footage)
- (uncredited)
Maurice Gamelin
- Self - C-in-C, Maginot Line
- (archive footage)
- (uncredited)
Henri Giraud
- Self - Commander, French 9th Army
- (archive footage)
- (uncredited)
Heinz Guderian
- Self - German Colonel
- (archive footage)
- (uncredited)
Adolf Hitler
- Self - Führer und Reichskanzler
- (archive footage)
- (uncredited)
Philippe Pétain
- Self - Marshal of France
- (archive footage)
- (uncredited)
Paul Reynaud
- Self - Prime Minister of France 1940
- (archive footage)
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe narrator Laurence Olivier refers to the death of King Henry V of England in 1422. Olivier played Henry V Henry V (1944), which he also directed.
Featured review
Sobering, Haunting Portrait of National Tragedy
The fate of France before and during World War Two exemplifies both tragedy and farce. Reputedly possessing the most powerful military in Europe, and with a history of technological innovation during the First World War, France was to have halted Nazi Germany's westward expansion--and in fact German military planners had feared exactly such an outcome when Adolf Hitler invaded Poland in September 1939. Instead, France had become another conquest for Hitler; to its lasting chagrin, it had been a too-quick, ignominious defeat.
With "France Falls," the third installment of "The World at War," the 26-part documentary series spanning the breadth of World War Two, writer-producer Peter Batty delivers an incisive summary of French follies and failings between the Nazis' rise to power in 1933 and their launching the war six years later that yields a telling, poignant lesson in incompetence and, ultimately, humiliation.
"France Falls" opens with the still-extant monument to its hubris and short-sightedness, the Maginot Line, the vast, largely underground complex of fortifications on the French-German border that ran from Belgium to Switzerland. A tribute to French ingenuity and engineering, just as it had demonstrated during the last war with its embrace of airplanes and tanks, the Maginot Line, as the cliché goes, was designed for fighting the last war; ironically, Germany easily overcame the still-incomplete defensive labyrinth with its blitzkrieg ("lightning war') tactics, outlined by General Heinz Guderian and executed by General Erwin Rommel, built upon fast-striking airplanes and tanks.
Underscored by Carl Davis's reflective, jazzlike incidental music accented by period pop songs, the wealth of black-and-white footage, deftly edited by Alan Afriat, illustrates the state of France following the end of the First World War as Laurence Olivier's stately narration describes a nation caught in a polemical tug-of-war between left and right that yielded constant political upheaval. With dizzying rapidity, governments rose and fell while complacency stemming from France's victory in the First World War afflicted the military; as French General André Beaufre notes in an interview segment, France suffered from "the illness of having been victorious."
As another inevitable war arrived, the national mood was one of "let's get it over with." When Germany invaded Poland, Britain and France had pledged to enter the war to stop Germany, but although France launched the Saar Offensive and actually invaded German territory on its eastern border, it was a tentative move as France, completely unaware that Germany had only token forces behind its Siegfried Line that mirrored the Maginot Line, withdrew after only a few weeks; in an interview segment, German General Siegfried Westphal acknowledges that had Britain and France applied their overwhelming military forces, Germany could have withstood the assault for only one or two weeks. Instead, the French military, its morale low and suffering from the disastrous command of General Maurice Gamelin, resembled a paper tiger.
By May 1940, it was France's turn to face the brunt of the Nazis' assault as Germany first invaded and occupied the Low Countries of Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg using the blitzkrieg tactics it had honed to a fine point, assailing France's weak point in the Maginot Line by charging through the supposedly impenetrable Ardennes Forest and seizing the vaunted Fort Eben-Emael. A campaign the French expected to last weeks if not months progressed in a matter of days as German forces, having handily subdued the Low Countries, drove toward the English Channel to cut off British and French forces while also pressing relentlessly toward Paris.
With pointed, seamless clarity, the germane, sometimes bracing narrative of "France Falls" packs not only an object lesson but also sharp poignancy as stark, vivid footage of French citizens, reportedly up to 12 million, fleeing the German advance--and being strafed by Luftwaffe fighters in the process--spotlights the toll the war took on civilians, movingly described by British journalist Gordon Waterfield. Although it touches only briefly on the stark contrast between Nazi-occupied northern France and the collaborationist Vichy southern half led by Marshal Henri Philippe Petain, this absorbing installment of "The World at War" presents a sobering, even haunting portrait of national tragedy.
REVIEWER'S NOTE: What makes a review "helpful"? Every reader of course decides that for themselves. For me, a review is helpful if it explains why the reviewer liked or disliked the work or why they thought it was good or not good. Whether I agree with the reviewer's conclusion is irrelevant. "Helpful" reviews tell me how and why the reviewer came to their conclusion, not what that conclusion may be. Differences of opinion are inevitable. I don't need "confirmation bias" for my own conclusions. Do you?
With "France Falls," the third installment of "The World at War," the 26-part documentary series spanning the breadth of World War Two, writer-producer Peter Batty delivers an incisive summary of French follies and failings between the Nazis' rise to power in 1933 and their launching the war six years later that yields a telling, poignant lesson in incompetence and, ultimately, humiliation.
"France Falls" opens with the still-extant monument to its hubris and short-sightedness, the Maginot Line, the vast, largely underground complex of fortifications on the French-German border that ran from Belgium to Switzerland. A tribute to French ingenuity and engineering, just as it had demonstrated during the last war with its embrace of airplanes and tanks, the Maginot Line, as the cliché goes, was designed for fighting the last war; ironically, Germany easily overcame the still-incomplete defensive labyrinth with its blitzkrieg ("lightning war') tactics, outlined by General Heinz Guderian and executed by General Erwin Rommel, built upon fast-striking airplanes and tanks.
Underscored by Carl Davis's reflective, jazzlike incidental music accented by period pop songs, the wealth of black-and-white footage, deftly edited by Alan Afriat, illustrates the state of France following the end of the First World War as Laurence Olivier's stately narration describes a nation caught in a polemical tug-of-war between left and right that yielded constant political upheaval. With dizzying rapidity, governments rose and fell while complacency stemming from France's victory in the First World War afflicted the military; as French General André Beaufre notes in an interview segment, France suffered from "the illness of having been victorious."
As another inevitable war arrived, the national mood was one of "let's get it over with." When Germany invaded Poland, Britain and France had pledged to enter the war to stop Germany, but although France launched the Saar Offensive and actually invaded German territory on its eastern border, it was a tentative move as France, completely unaware that Germany had only token forces behind its Siegfried Line that mirrored the Maginot Line, withdrew after only a few weeks; in an interview segment, German General Siegfried Westphal acknowledges that had Britain and France applied their overwhelming military forces, Germany could have withstood the assault for only one or two weeks. Instead, the French military, its morale low and suffering from the disastrous command of General Maurice Gamelin, resembled a paper tiger.
By May 1940, it was France's turn to face the brunt of the Nazis' assault as Germany first invaded and occupied the Low Countries of Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg using the blitzkrieg tactics it had honed to a fine point, assailing France's weak point in the Maginot Line by charging through the supposedly impenetrable Ardennes Forest and seizing the vaunted Fort Eben-Emael. A campaign the French expected to last weeks if not months progressed in a matter of days as German forces, having handily subdued the Low Countries, drove toward the English Channel to cut off British and French forces while also pressing relentlessly toward Paris.
With pointed, seamless clarity, the germane, sometimes bracing narrative of "France Falls" packs not only an object lesson but also sharp poignancy as stark, vivid footage of French citizens, reportedly up to 12 million, fleeing the German advance--and being strafed by Luftwaffe fighters in the process--spotlights the toll the war took on civilians, movingly described by British journalist Gordon Waterfield. Although it touches only briefly on the stark contrast between Nazi-occupied northern France and the collaborationist Vichy southern half led by Marshal Henri Philippe Petain, this absorbing installment of "The World at War" presents a sobering, even haunting portrait of national tragedy.
REVIEWER'S NOTE: What makes a review "helpful"? Every reader of course decides that for themselves. For me, a review is helpful if it explains why the reviewer liked or disliked the work or why they thought it was good or not good. Whether I agree with the reviewer's conclusion is irrelevant. "Helpful" reviews tell me how and why the reviewer came to their conclusion, not what that conclusion may be. Differences of opinion are inevitable. I don't need "confirmation bias" for my own conclusions. Do you?
helpful•40
- darryl-tahirali
- Jul 12, 2023
Details
- Runtime52 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
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