52′, directed by Jonathan Carlon.
Film of the collection “14-18: beyond the war”, co-produced by France Télévisions.
With the support of the CNC, the CNC Nouvelles Technologies, the Ministry of Defense, General Secretariat for Administration, Directorate of Memory, Heritage and Archives, the PACA region, the Procirep, the Angoa, the World War I Centennial Mission and the General Council of Bouches-du-Rhône.
Label “Centenary” of the Mission of the centenary of the 1st World War.
The formula used by the President of the Republic, Raymond Poincaré, in his speech on August 4, 1914, has remained famous. We were taught at school that the French soldiers had gone to war with enthusiasm, the flower in the gun…
But was the rallying of all to the defense of the fatherland really unanimous, without the slightest reluctance? How to explain that the CGT and the Socialist Party, unbridled supporters of pacifism, ended up joining the Sacred Union following the assassination of Jaurès? In a France under siege, how was the political system to resist, the civil and military powers to coexist, and the people to behave in the face of conflict?
After the violence of the separation of Church and State in 1905, in a strongly anti-clerical political context, could a collaboration with the French clergy take place?
This film challenges preconceived ideas and sheds new light on the consequences of this unique moment in French history.
From the testimony of the waiter who witnessed the assassination of Jaurès to that of the deputy Aristide Jobert, through the notebooks of the teacher Jean-Joseph Guieu, the secret notebooks of Abel Ferry or the accounts of Colette or Romain Rolland, we relive the events through the eyes of those who witnessed them. Carried by the fragile and subtle drawings of Sébastien Allart and the magic of new technologies, these various slices of life lead us to reflect on the difficult daily life of a country at war.
With the help of Jean-Jacques Becker, Fabienne Bock, Emmanuelle Cronier, Marion Fontaine, Noël Genteur, Jean-Yves Le Naour and Robert Poinard.
Edition of a DVD box set by France Télévisions Distribution, including the 6 films of the collection “14-18: beyond the war”.