''Colette'' is a 2020 French-language American
documentary film
A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...
directed by
Anthony Giacchino and produced by
Alice Doyard, Annie Small and Aaron Matthews.
Accolades
It won the
Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject
This is a list of films by year that have received an Academy Award together with the other nominations for best documentary short film. Following the Academy's practice, the year listed for each film is the year of release: the awards are annou ...
at the
93rd Academy Awards
The 93rd Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored films released from January 1, 2020, to February 28, 2021, at Union Station in Los Angeles. The ceremony was held on April 25, 2021 ...
.
Co-produced by
Oculus Oculus (a term from Latin ''oculus'', meaning 'eye'), may refer to the following
Architecture
* Oculus (architecture), a circular opening in the centre of a dome or in a wall
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''Oculus'' (film), a 2013 American ...
and
Respawn Entertainment
Respawn Entertainment, LLC is an American video game development studio founded by Jason West and Vince Zampella. West and Zampella previously co-founded Infinity Ward and created the '' Call of Duty'' franchise, where they were responsible for ...
as part of the documentary gallery for the virtual-reality video game ''
Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond'', ''Colette'' is the first film produced by a video-game studio to win or be nominated for an Academy Award.
Plot
Together with aspiring historian Lucie Fouble, 90-year-old
Resistance fighter
Colette Marin-Catherine travels to
Nordhausen Nordhausen may refer to:
* Nordhausen (district), a district in Thuringia, Germany
** Nordhausen, Thuringia, a city in the district
**Nordhausen station, the railway station in the city
* Nordhouse, a commune in Alsace (German: Nordhausen)
* Narost ...
to visit
Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp
Mittelbau-Dora (also Dora-Mittelbau and Nordhausen-Dora) was a Nazi concentration camp located near Nordhausen in Thuringia, Germany. It was established in late summer 1943 as a subcamp of Buchenwald concentration camp, supplying slave labour fr ...
. Until then, she had avoided visiting the place where her brother, Jean-Pierre, died. The whole family was active in the resistance. She wrote down the registration numbers of passing trucks. Her brother had collected weapons for the resistance and was arrested in the process. He died in the concentration camp at the age of 19 as a result of forced labor combined with malnutrition.
Because of her experiences, she avoided traveling to
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
. Fouble contacted her after researching her brother.
When they first meet, Fouble asks if they could take Jean Pierre's photo on the trip. Colette tells how her father had hid a camera under his shirt while visiting in order to take the photo. While on the train to Nordhausen, Colette talks about how she felt distant from her brother, and describes how she felt guilty when her mother wished that she had been taken in place of Jean-Pierre. At Nordhausen, the former mayor wants to say a few words to Colette, but she interrupts him, saying that she wasn't feeling well. The next day, they visit the concentration camp's memorial site. They see the prison block that her brother likely slept in, as well as the tunnels where prisoners were forced to build
V-2 rocket
The V-2 (german: Vergeltungswaffe 2, lit=Retaliation Weapon 2), with the technical name ''Aggregat 4'' (A-4), was the world’s first long-range guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was developed ...
s. While looking over the ruins of the prison block, Colette bursts into tears as she had forgotten to bring flowers for her brother. After visiting the camp's crematorium, she presents Fouble with a ring Jean-Pierre had made for her mother.
Background
The film was directed by Anthony Giacchino and produced by Alice Doyard, Aaron Matthews, and Annie Small. It was released by ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
''. The idea came to the team when they were filming a documentary about a U.S.
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
veteran
A veteran () is a person who has significant experience (and is usually adept and esteemed) and expertise in a particular occupation or field. A military veteran is a person who is no longer serving in a military.
A military veteran that has ...
who made an emergency landing in
Normandy
Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...
during
Operation Overlord
Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allies of World War II, Allied operation that launched the successful invasion of German-occupied Western Front (World War II), Western Europe during World War II. The operat ...
. Their guide introduced them to Colette Marin-Catherine. An interview ensued, but the filmmakers didn't want a simple portrait. At first, they seemed unable to persuade Marin-Catherine to visit Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp because of her strong aversion to the place, or to Germany in general, and because she had spent 70 years trying to forget the past. During their research, however, they came across Lucie Fouble, a budding historian, who was doing research on her brother. With the young woman's support, they succeeded in making the film.
The filmmakers paid attention to reverence and gave Marin-Catherine the opportunity to determine when the camera should stop filming. Before each scene, they outlined how they would film that scene, but gave the woman control over the scene and the freedom to express her feelings, as well as the final word.
References
External links
Official website''Colette''at ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Colette
2020 films
2020 documentary films
2020s French-language films
2020s short documentary films
American short documentary films
Best Documentary Short Subject Academy Award winners
Documentary films about the Holocaust
Films scored by Nami Melumad
Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp
2020s American films