During WW2, very few French people fought against the Nazi occupant, I mean from the beginning to the end. Many of them collaborated till 1943-44 and began to "turn their coats" against the Nazis, going forward to the resistant nets.... Typical French, opportunistic...French trademark, and I AM FRENCH MYSELF. I know what I talk about. But that doesn't remove anything to the sacrifice of those who gave their lives for our freedom. Nothing at all. But, I repeat, there were very few, compared to the bulk of French population who at first "admired" the clean, disciplined Nazi occupant, folks who suffered insilence, BUT NOTHING TO COMPARE WITH THE POOR RUSSIAN people. France was a vacation village for French, compared to the Soviets, whom Hitler wanted to annihilate, exterminate or at best make them slaves. So, back to this TV movie about the French Gestapo, the boss Henri Lafont was at first a gangster, an orphant who suffered hell all long his childhood, a man who fought against a society who wanted to destroy him. So when the Germans arrived in 1940 and offered him an opportunity to become some one powerful, of course, Lafont took the advantage and he was very skilled, charismatic, a real man, with the sense of leadership. He was only an opportunist. He was not genuinely Nazi, he helped many Jews, it was his human side, he punished many of his men who tortured innocent people. He could have been a resistant if this could have brought him wealth and power. But at his trial, no one defended him, I mean those people he helped, people he helped to get out occupied France. Those people did not come at his trial because they were afraid to be accused of friendship with Lafont.... Because after the French freedom in 1944, it was a real human slaughterhouse because of the people who collaborated tried to escape from their fate. And there were many of them,including powerful folks, from politics to bankers, artists, ministers.... Many people who eventually made it, and continued after the war. Because, In France, the new government wanted to forget and there were so many blackmail cases related to this dark side of French history. Shame side of France. This feature is very daring and rare.
Review of 93, rue Lauriston
