''The Eye of Vichy'' (french: "L'Œil de Vichy") is a 1993
French documentary film directed by
Claude Chabrol. It consists of a selection in chronological order of authentic footage, mostly newsreels and documentaries, shown on cinema screens in France between 1940 and 1944. Intertitles or a narrator occasionally add linking or supplementary information. The bulk of the material was produced under the
Vichy
Vichy (, ; ; oc, Vichèi, link=no, ) is a city in the Allier department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of central France, in the historic province of Bourbonnais.
It is a spa and resort town and in World War II was the capital of ...
régime and the aim of the film is to show the worldview which the collaborationist government of
Pétain promoted to its population.
Themes
The main messages conveyed by this Vichy propaganda were:
*That the elderly Pétain was a father to his people, incarnating the true France and heading its legitimate government. The unnamed
de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (; ; (commonly abbreviated as CDG) 22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French army officer and statesman who led Free France against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Governm ...
was therefore a traitor and his pretensions to lead an alternative government false.
*That the destiny of France lay in co-operation with the
German occupiers to build a new Europe which excluded Britain and the USA to the west and the USSR to the east.
*That
collaboration with
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
included supplying workers of both sexes to its factories and sending soldiers to fight communism on the
Eastern Front.
*That the
German armed forces
The ''Bundeswehr'' (, meaning literally: ''Federal Defence'') is the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany. The ''Bundeswehr'' is divided into a military part (armed forces or ''Streitkräfte'') and a civil part, the military part con ...
were France's protectors against the Western
Allies
An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
, who only brought destruction by bombing and invasion. Coverage of Anglo-American attacks emphasised the civilians killed and dwellings demolished.
*That after resounding victories at
El Alamein and
Stalingrad, the invincible German forces made strategic withdrawals from North Africa and Russia.
*That those who
actively resisted the security forces of Vichy and the German occupiers were terrorists to be exterminated and that for every German killed innocent hostages would be shot.
*That
Jews
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
were aliens and enemies, to be rounded up and deported. Their
grim fate once transported east was not explained.
Critical reception
From
Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who served as the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in ...
of ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'':
From ''
TV Guide
TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program listings information as well as entertainment and television-related news.
The company sold its print magazine division, TV Guide Magazine LLC, in 2008.
Corpora ...
'':
See also
*
Vichy France
Vichy France (french: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was the fascist French state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. Officially independent, but with half of its te ...
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Eye of Vichy
1993 films
1993 documentary films
Documentary films about the Holocaust
Films directed by Claude Chabrol
Documentary films about Vichy France
French documentary films
Documentary films about films
Films about propaganda
1990s French films