Howard Jaeckel

Perhaps the most outstanding television series I have ever seen. For those previously inclined to one-dimensional views of history -- seeing the Resistance as uniformly representative of courage and morality, while any degree of collaboration with the Germans stemmed from cowardice and self-seeking -- the series shows us that things were sometimes not so simple. Some resisters were fanatics, placing all value on their cause, and little or none on individual people. Some "collaborators" were doing their best to help others and their communities survive. And in either case, one could become involved with the resistance, or be drawn into collaboration, by a series of seemingly small decisions, dictated by circumstance, and to which most people would see no alternative. Of course, given the central role of Nazis in the drama, absolute evil does not go unrepresented. SD officer Heinrich Muller is as psychopathic a sadist as any devotee of Nazi movies could desire. On the French side, police officer Jean Marchetti seems to be without any redeeming qualities,other than non-discriminatory skirt chasing. Speaking of skirt chasing, the locale of the series being France, there is no shortage of sex, love affairs and adultery in the drama. The personal stories are well done and involving, but the history is still the thing. I know a fair amount about World War II and the Holocaust. I knew about the roundup of (supposedly) foreign Jews in July 1942. I know about the terrible conditions under which people often waited days to be deported to their deaths. I knew about the Nazi separation of parents and children before deportation. But it is one thing to know or have read about this and another to see a superbly done depiction of what it must have been like. The relevant episodes of "A French Village" contain a masterly depiction of the deportation. It will remind viewers of what the Nazis were, and that is all to the good.

I saw this movie when it first came out. I remembered the general story, but not the details. I did remember I loved it, and I watched it again tonight on TCM . I hadn't remembered that Roary and Louise ultimately got together. The fact that they did made me love the movie all the more!