The Sorrow and the Pity

Long out of distribution (and until this year unseen theatrically in its original language), Marcel Ophuls' epic documentary is perhaps best known as Alvy Singer's favorite movie in Annie Hall. More than just, in Annie's words, "a four-and-a-half hour movie about Nazis," this profoundly moving film is a staggering and shattering chronicle of life under Nazi occupation in a single French town, Clermont-Ferrand. Through interviews with residents as well as government officials, writers, artists, and former Nazis (some of whom have not exactly renounced their past), this non-judgmental film belies a once widely-held assumption that besieged French citizens either joined or aided the Resistance. Some did resist, but some collaborated with the Nazis, and many others were apathetic. Nominated for an Academy Award (incredibly, it lost to the insect documentary The Hellstrom Chronicle), The Sorrow and the Pity ranks with the greatest documentaries (or films, for that matter) ever made, and, along with the Holocaust documentary Shoah, is absolutely essential for any library collection. Highly recommended. Editor's Choice. (K. Lee Benson)