• Director(s):

    MUXEL (PAULE), DE SOLLIERS (BERTRAND)

  • Producer(s):

    ARTE FRANCE, JULIANTO

  • Territories:

    Worldwide.

  • Production year:

    2008

  • Language(s):

    German, English, French

  • Rights:

    NON-THEATRICAL, TV, VOD, DVD, INTERNET

Recalled by its inhabitants, and imprinted on its landmarks, the collective memory of Vichy - the ephemeral capital of the "French state" from 1940 to 1944 - recounts the Collaboration and the Resistance on a human level. It also reveals the unsuspected strength of the myth of Pétain.

The new "French State" was created on 10 July 1940 in Vichy, in the theatre of the Grand Casino. In the space of a few days, the Hotel du Parc, the Majestic, and the Portugal - pre-war luxury hotels typical of Vichy - became the headquarters and symbols of a regime that took its name from the little spa town. The hotels became ministries and parliamentary residences, before the Gestapo and its auxiliary, the Milice, established their prisons in the Portugal and the Petit Casino. On location, the directors met with men and women who, in their childhood or youth, witnessed the way the sticky circle of the "National Revolution" lived. Their testimonies reveal the history of the Collaboration and the Resistance, telling of its ambiguities and commitments.