In September 1998, Steven Spielberg’s film was released in France. We have to save the soldier Ryan. This film’s desire for realism in the way it represents the battles of the Normandy Landings is then widely discussed. On the occasion of its release, Jean Lebrun offers listeners of “Culture matin” a confrontation of Spielberg’s realism with the reality of the Landings as witnessed by some of those who experienced it firsthand. Among them, Gwenn-Aël Bolloré and Léon Gautier, members of the 177 members of the 1st battalion of Fusiliers Marins Commandos of Free France who were the first to land on the beach of Ouistreham on June 6, 1944.
They never knew fear
Questioned by Marc Voinchet, with finesse and perspective Gwenn-Aël Bolloré expresses reservations about the representation of the Landing in Spielberg’s film and describes how his comrades and himself, then aged seventeen, had experienced the fighting from Ouistreham, having previously received very rigorous training in England. In this program where the American veteran Ted Liska and the journalist, formerly of the Wehrmacht, August von Kageneck, Léon Gautier and Gwenn-Aël Bolloré both say it with simplicity and a form of astonishment: never during the terrible battles of the Landing they knew no fear.
- By Jean Lebrun, Frédéric Lavignette and Marc Voinchet
- Directed by Guillaume Baldy and Georges Kiosseff
- With Gwenn-Aël Bolloré and Léon Gautier (1st Battalion of Kieffer Marine Commandos); Ted Liska (US Army sergeant who landed in Normandy on June 6, 1944) and August von Kageneck (Wehrmacht officer during World War II, journalist, writer) –
- With extracts from the film “Saving Private Ryan” by Steven Spielberg –
- Culture matin – Testimonials from Gwenn-Aël Bolloré and Léon Gautier on the occasion of the release of the film “Saving Private Ryan” by Steven Spielberg (1st broadcast: 09/30/1998)
- Web edition: Eléonore Lanoë – Radio France documentation
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