World War II · Film · 1966
Is Paris Burning?
Paris brûle-t-il ?
In August 1944 Hitler orders his new governor of Paris to leave the city in ruins, while rival Resistance factions rise up and a messenger races to convince the Allies not to bypass the capital.
Where it happened
Follow the story across 3 places.
Stop 1: Wolf's Lair, East Prussia
Days after surviving the bomb plot, Hitler hands Choltitz command of Paris, trusting him to destroy it rather than lose it.
Stop 2: Hotel Le Meurice, Paris
From his headquarters on the Rue de Rivoli, Choltitz weighs Hitler's orders against the Swedish consul's pleas as the uprising spreads.
Stop 3: Hôtel de Ville, Paris
Key location
A handful of Free French tanks slips through the suburbs and reaches the city hall as church bells ring across Paris.
What really happened
General Dietrich von Choltitz took command of Greater Paris in early August 1944 after meeting Hitler at his headquarters in East Prussia. As the Allies broke out of Normandy, Paris police went on strike on 15 August, and from 19 August the Resistance, led in the city by the communist Colonel Rol-Tanguy, seized the Prefecture of Police and other buildings.
Eisenhower had planned to bypass Paris, but pressed by de Gaulle he sent General Leclerc's French 2nd Armored Division; its first tanks reached the Hôtel de Ville on the evening of 24 August and Choltitz surrendered the next day. The film, adapted from Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre's book, mixes black-and-white drama with newsreel footage. Its portrait of Choltitz as the savior of Paris rests largely on his own postwar account, which historians still debate.
Where to watch
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Full details
- Original title
- Paris brûle-t-il ?
- Directed by
- René Clément
- Countries
- France, United States
- Languages
- French, English, German
- Released
- 1966
- Period
- –
- Theaters of war
- Western Europe
- Themes
- Resistance
- True story
