1940: Taking over French Cinema (2019)

overview : 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.

Release Date : May 19, 2019

Runtime : 55m

Genre : Documentary  History  TV Movie  

Companies : Talweg Production, France Télévisions, Histoire TV

Countries : France

Keywords : france, based on novel or book, world war ii, german occupation, 1940s, antisemitism, film industry