On October 4, 2018, France celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Fifth Republic. It is a republic born in the throes of the Algerian War and one which—from the day it was founded by General de Gaulle until the presidency of a very Jupiterian Emmanuel Macron—has been assailed as a “Republican monarchy” by partisans of a more assertive parliamentarian state. By revisiting the struggle of those who dared oppose the new regime — only to suffer a crushing defeat on September 28, 1958, when they were barely able to garner 20% of the vote against the constitutional text — this film shines a powerful new light on the origins of the Fifth Republic and its consequences for the next 60 years. It is a constitutional debate that planted the seeds for a complete upheaval of the French political landscape, on the left in particular, and set the country in motion toward what would be called the Union of the Left.
Charles de Gaulle, the first president (1958-1969) of the Vth Republic, France’s current system of government, left his mark on the country . He was statesman of action and has been compared to a monarch. This film depicts the general’s personality through the great events of his presidential term, at a time when the world was undergoing considerable changes.
De 1940 a 1944 o governo de Vichy, na França, colaborou ativamente com os nazistas que ocupavam o país. Este filme expõem a história que muitos franceses preferiam continuar ignorando.
A partir de Clermont-Ferrand, o filme amplia sua factuais sobre todo o Auvergne, mas também inclui depoimentos de personalidades que desempenharam um papel importante durante a guerra (soldados, estadistas, testemunhas-chave) ou que participaram ativamente nele, não necessariamente em Clermont-Ferrand ou mesmo em Auvergne. O filme é composto por entrevistas e imagens dos noticiários da época. Estes, são apresentados sem comentários, foram realizadas sob o controle da propaganda do governo de Vichy, exceto para o penúltimo deles: entrevista com Maurice Chevalier, falando em Inglês, para o público americano , referindo-se às acusações contra ele de colaboração com os alemães.
