La Continental: Le mystère Greven

This is an extraordinary documentary on the Continental, german production society responsible of "Le Corbeau" and "La Main Du Diable". Continental was directed by Alfred Greven, long time friend of Göring, and was a true lover of french cinema. Bertrand Tavernier, Jean Ollé Laprune, Pascal Mérigeau, Pierre Barillet and others testify on that mysterious tycoon. And maybe some day, we'll learn more about Continental ...

This is an absorbing doc,dealing with the cinema of the dark years of French occupation ,and the legend which surrounds "la continental" , a film production firm ,managed by Alfred Greven ,at Goebbels' request ,to provide the French audience with harmful entertaining comedies .

In fact , the French-German collaboration in the field of cinema did not begin with the Continental ; studios in France and Berlin were used by the directors in the thirties ;many movies ( Robert Siodmak ,Julien Duvivier....)were filmed in both languages .

Greven was an educated man who knew the French cinema quite well ; he would remain a mysterious man ,his attitude towards Hitler was downright ambiguous ,and some movies produced by La Continental were unexpected .

Two movies were adapted from Zola (Cayatte's "Au Bonheur Des dames " ) and Maupassant (Cayatte's "Pierre et jean" );now, Zola championed captain Dreyfus ,falsely accused of espionage ; Maupassant was blacklisted by the nazis ,because of the vision of 1870 war he gave in his short stories (such as "Boule De Suif").

That a film as scandalous as "Le Corbeau" -which depicted ,in its infamous way , informing which was frequent in the occupation days - could have been produced in those troubled times is a mystery (it was not ,as it has often been mooted a propaganda movie to show the German people how filthy the vanquished were .°) After writing a screenplay for La Continental ("le dernier des six") ,Henri -Georges Clouzot was given an opportunity to become a director and he became an all-time French film noir favorite , whose fame has spread far and wide .Another scandalous movie,the unsung "La vie de plaisir" by Albert Valentin was also a milestone in the French cinema.Both this film and Clouzot's ran into trouble after the liberation.

By the 1943 ,the wind had shifted ,and German military setbacks had begun; but Alfred Greven had Pharaonic plans :he wanted to build "La Cité Du cinéma " a huge studios complex which never saw the light of the day.

Told by famous director Bertrand Tavernier and French historians of cinema ,the doc includes many film extracts and ends with a big question mark : who really was this Greven?