An exhilarating exhibition explores the making of the film of the Liberation of Paris

Paris, France — It was August 18th, 80 years ago when calls were heard in France for a general uprising against the occupying forces. The next day the French Forces of the Interior, the armed branch of the French Resistance, staged that uprising against the German garrison and members of the police force took over Police Headquarters in the name of the Resistance, the next day they took over the City Hall of Paris. These were the key moments in the Liberation of Paris, the battle that would see the Nazi occupiers surrender on August 25th, along with the return of Charles de Gaulle to the city as the head of the Provisional Government of France. And Paris did not burn, despite Hitler’s famous orders.

The film Is Paris Burning? was released in 1966 and would become, like The Longest Day, another World War II blockbuster. But this time a French-American blockbuster, produced by the German-born French producer Paul Graetz (who would die during the production of the movie) and the Paramount. Darryl Zanuck who had produced The Longest Day unsuccessfully bid for the rights to the book. And so it was French director René Clément who turned a historical best seller (20 million copies sold) written by two journalists into an epic French-American movie featuring a host of international stars. The book, by the American journalist Larry Collins and the French journalist Dominque Lapierre, recounts the days leading up to the Liberation of Paris when the French Resistance comes out of hiding to combat the Germans while expecting the imminent arrival of the Allied Forces. The screenplay was written by Gore Vidal and Francis Ford Coppola adapted from the book by Collins and Lapierre.

The making of the film is the object of an exhibition at the Musée De La Libération De Paris – Musée Du Général Leclerc – Musée Jean Moulin located in the Denfert-Rochereau neighborhood of Paris near Montparnasse. Henri Rol-Tanguy, who held the command of the French Forces of the Interior in Paris, had his secret headquarters in the basement of the building that houses the museum. The exhibition features clips from the film and documentaries about its filming and shows how the director (Clément) used archive images and real-life testimonies. Some 70 objects linked to the Liberation of Paris and emanating from the museum’s permanent collection are also on display. The film brought the Liberation of Paris to cinema screens around the world with 5 million entrances in France alone.

The exhibition underscores how it was not an easy task to retell the Liberation of Paris just 20 years after the event as so many of the main characters were still alive and remained influential, requiring diplomacy and ingenuity. Who would play Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque, the French general who headed up the 2nd Armoured Division under American command who entered Paris on August 25, 1944? The role went to Claude Rich, who resembled the General, but he had already been cast in another minor role. He wound up playing both. But the General’s widow did not like the actor’s voice and he was dubbed for the movie. But the question of who was to play Charles de Gaulle was even more political as de Gaulle was president of France when the movie was released. In the end no one was cast even though the American production team wanted to find an actor and write fictional lines for him. Clément opted instead to use archive footage of scenes filmed during the Liberation to depict the French general.

The Franco-American blockbuster enjoyed a stellar cast that included Alain Delon, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Yves Montand, Bruno Cremer, Kirk Douglas, Orson Welles, Glen Ford, Anthony Perkins, Simone Signoret and Leslie Caron. George Chakiris and Skip Ward pop in as G.Is. Kirk Douglas portrayed General George S. Patton while Glenn Ford was cast as General Omar Bradley. Orson Welles was cast in the pivotal role of Raoul Nordling, the Swedish Consul General in Paris who during the fighting to free the city negotiated a ceasefire with the German Commandant General of Greater Paris, General von Choltitz who famously did not follow or could not follow the order to burn Paris. The dashing French film legend Alain Delon played the dashing Jacques Chaban-Delmas, the French military delegate sent by General de Gaulle to work with the Resistance during the Liberation. Chaban-Delmas, like Delon, was a legend as well but in French politics. He was the President of the National Assembly at the time of the filming and in archive footage projected at the exhibition, he seems to be delighted by the choice of one of cinema’s most handsome leading men to portray him. Delon passed away on August 18th, 80 years after the Liberation of Paris had begun. The Is Paris Burning? exhibition is on until September 22nd. ©Trish Valicenti for The Gourmet Gazette. Musée De La Libération De Paris – Musée Du Général Leclerc – Musée Jean Moulin, 4, avenue du Colonel Rol Tanguy (Place Denfert Rochereau), 75014 Paris, France. Tel: +33 (0) 1 71 28 34 70. Tues-Sun, 10am until 6pm. https://www.museeliberation-leclerc-moulin.paris.fr/en