The Sorrow and the Pity

In the aftermath of World War II, the French clung vehemently to a belief that they--and their Vichy government--had resisted the Nazi occupation of France. However Marcel Ophuls' seminal documentary finds that when the small city of Clermont-Ferrand is examined closely, the myth of French resistance slowly begins to crumble in the face of overwhelming evidence that the Vichy government willingly collaborated with German forces, for reasons ranging from fear to apathy to blatant anti-Semitism.