1940: Taking over French Cinema
1940, main basse sur le cinéma français
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.
Production Countries
Production Companies
Cast
Danielle Darrieux
as Self (archive footage)
Max Douy
as Self (archive footage)
Marcel Carné
as Self (archive footage)
Jean-Paul Le Chanois
as Self (archive footage)
Michel Duran
as Self (archive footage)
Henri-Georges Clouzot
as Self (archive footage)
Sarah-Jane Sauvegrain
as Self (voice)
Charles Spaak
as Self (archive footage)