French Cinema Turns to WWII’s Moral Ambiguities Amid Rising Right-Wing Concerns

On August 5, *The Guardian* published an editorial noting that several upcoming French films will revisit the Second World War. The pieces are expected to move beyond the traditional “great-men” narrative and instead foreground the everyday choices faced by ordinary citizens—policemen, local administrators, and members of the Resistance—during the German occupation.

The Guardian

The editorial draws on personal research to illustrate how local gendarmes sometimes arrested Jewish neighbors and handed them to the Nazis, while other community members joined the armed Milice to betray the Resistance. Memorials in rural areas, it observes, list both Jewish and, in one case, a Black Resistance fighter, underscoring the heterogeneous nature of collaboration and defiance. Post-war outcomes varied: some Milice members were summarily executed, whereas many administrators who had cooperated with the occupiers were tried, sentenced, and later released under state-ordered amnesties.

The Guardian

According to the editorial, the resurgence of these wartime stories is linked to current anxieties about the French extreme right. Charles de Gaulle is portrayed as a symbol of resistance not only to the Nazi occupation but also to any external force perceived as threatening French autonomy—whether military, economic, or cultural. The piece suggests that French audiences may interpret the new films as a commentary on present-day challenges to democracy and national identity.

The Guardian

The *Guardian* editorial frames the upcoming cinematic focus as a reflection of “present anxieties” that drive a renewed interest in France’s wartime past. It argues that the films will invite viewers to grapple with the moral choices made by their grandparents and great-grandparents, thereby connecting historical memory to contemporary debates over the nation’s democratic future.

The Guardian