If you compare the main films about WWII from different countries, you will be surprised to see the huge differences in perceptions and style across the cultures.
Whereas US movies are always serious, dramatic, and even tragic at times (from Saving Private Ryan to Schindler's List), French films about WWII are just the opposite. The best known French film about this period of history is La Grande Vadrouille (1966), a comedy sprinkled with adventure. In fact I can only think about comedy-adventure films in France :
- Les Bidasses en folie (1971)
- Les Bidasses s'en vont en guerre (1974)
- Les Bidasses en cavale (1976)
- Les Bidasses au pensionnat (1978)
- Les Bidasses en vadrouille (1979)
- Les Bidasses aux grandes manoeuvres (1981)
- Le Retour des bidasses en folie (1983)
- Papy fait de la resistance (1983)
British WWII films (see list) are more like American ones, fairly serious and concentrating on the military aspects of the war rather than how people lived under the Nazi regime. There are also a few satiristic ones (starting with The Great Dictator by Charlie Chaplin).
The Italian's love for tragi-comedies is best epitomised in La Vita è bella, somewhere in between Schindler's List and French comedies.
The question is, why can French people laugh at the experience of WWII while most other countries seem unable to ? There is never a single dead person in French movies about WWII. It's more like a series of hide-and-seek games with German soldiers. If you are taken, you escape anyway. It feels like the French remember the war as a period of excitement, fun, stress and adventure rather than a sad or tragic period of history. Indeed WWII was pretty light-hearted in France compared to the apocalyptic WWI. French films about the First World War are much darker indeed.
I have never seen (or heard of) major German films about WWII. I think that the feeling of shame and/or culpability was so strong after the war that few movies were made on the subject, and if there are any, they are most likely not comedies.
According to me, the French prefer to leave the serious analysis of WWII to schools, specialised magazines and documentaries. And France does not lack of history magazines and TV channels ! In the USA, movies could be seen by a certain audience as "instructive". I do not see this as a positive thing as it can be dangerous to have a few producers decide of what the population should know about history, especially in a country known for its limited emphasis on history at school.
Whereas US movies are always serious, dramatic, and even tragic at times (from Saving Private Ryan to Schindler's List), French films about WWII are just the opposite. The best known French film about this period of history is La Grande Vadrouille (1966), a comedy sprinkled with adventure. In fact I can only think about comedy-adventure films in France :
- Les Bidasses en folie (1971)
- Les Bidasses s'en vont en guerre (1974)
- Les Bidasses en cavale (1976)
- Les Bidasses au pensionnat (1978)
- Les Bidasses en vadrouille (1979)
- Les Bidasses aux grandes manoeuvres (1981)
- Le Retour des bidasses en folie (1983)
- Papy fait de la resistance (1983)
British WWII films (see list) are more like American ones, fairly serious and concentrating on the military aspects of the war rather than how people lived under the Nazi regime. There are also a few satiristic ones (starting with The Great Dictator by Charlie Chaplin).
The Italian's love for tragi-comedies is best epitomised in La Vita è bella, somewhere in between Schindler's List and French comedies.
The question is, why can French people laugh at the experience of WWII while most other countries seem unable to ? There is never a single dead person in French movies about WWII. It's more like a series of hide-and-seek games with German soldiers. If you are taken, you escape anyway. It feels like the French remember the war as a period of excitement, fun, stress and adventure rather than a sad or tragic period of history. Indeed WWII was pretty light-hearted in France compared to the apocalyptic WWI. French films about the First World War are much darker indeed.
I have never seen (or heard of) major German films about WWII. I think that the feeling of shame and/or culpability was so strong after the war that few movies were made on the subject, and if there are any, they are most likely not comedies.
According to me, the French prefer to leave the serious analysis of WWII to schools, specialised magazines and documentaries. And France does not lack of history magazines and TV channels ! In the USA, movies could be seen by a certain audience as "instructive". I do not see this as a positive thing as it can be dangerous to have a few producers decide of what the population should know about history, especially in a country known for its limited emphasis on history at school.