When the French collaborated with the Nazis

It was 70 years ago. On October 24, 1940, Pétain met Hitler at Montoire, and led the French into collaboration with the Nazis. A black page in the history of France, written by the man everyone considered a hero: the winner of Verdun. Who was Pétain? A handsome man with beautiful blue eyes, a mythical but inscrutable war leader, cold, distant, economical with words, keeping his share of mystery... Until 1914, an officer with an ordinary career. At the outbreak of the First World War, he almost retired as a colonel before being named general at the last minute. For a bit, we would never have heard of him. A man also who carefully hid his private life, a libertine who liked to sleep with several women as his intimate correspondence shows. It was not until the Battle of Verdun, in April 1916, at the age of sixty, that he became famous. This documentary recounts the life of Pétain: from this battle until his death on the island of Yeu, in 1951. A narration which is based on chronology and asks many questions. How was the legend of the "marshal", the man of defense, the one who had the reputation of having won the First World War by sparing the blood of the soldiers? How did his prestige allow him, a quarter of a century later, to become the French head of state? Why did this old “anti-Boche” warlord collaborate with the Nazis? Why did it sweep away the Republic and take France back several centuries? What is its responsibility in the Shoah? What is the role of old age and that of criminal intent in the drift of the Vichy regime? So many questions that this documentary addresses without complacency, neither for Pétain, nor for the vast majority of French people who supported him
Director Serge de Sampigny