On the occasion of the armistice celebrations of November 11, 1918, these documentaries intended for a wide audience are offered on Planète+, France 2 or France 3.
“The Sentinels of Oblivion”, a poignant memorial film around memorials. Here, that of the Armies of Champagne, in the Marne. Mélisande movies
By François Ekchajzer
Published on November 11, 2024 at 6:30 p.m.
Ssixteen years after the death, at the age of 110, of Lazare Ponticelli, considered until March 2008 as the last living furry, the memory of 14-18 has changed status. Gone are the days of testimonies delivered in a quavering voice and presidential handshakes to the survivors of this war improperly described as “great”. What appears today as the inaugural conflict of a 20th century, which was that of genocides and mass murders, is now a purely historical object, disengaged from the life of families. The commemorations of the armistice of November 11, 1918 are an opportunity to return to this essential period, to revisit it from various and, for some, original angles, in documentaries intended for a wide audience.
“The Confiné of 14-18”, by Frédéric Monteil
From the discovery in 2018, in an Emmaüs warehouse, of the diary kept from 1914 to 1918 by a postal agent, hidden in an attic during the occupation of Douai by the German army, was born this very careful but very wise.
q Monday November 11, at 8:55 p.m., on Planète+.
“1914, and suddenly War!”, by Cédric Gruat
Another big commemorative film with colorized and noisy archives? Yes, but not only that. Because, to tell us about the year 1914, which was the deadliest of the conflict, Cédric Gruat demonstrates great formal inventiveness.
q Tuesday November 12, at 9:05 p.m., on France 2.
“When the Great War drives you mad”, by Jean-Yves Le Naour and Grégory Laville
This somewhat messy documentary evokes the poilus mentally broken by the violence of the combat. Like the Zouave Baptiste Deschamps, a peasant in civilian life, who refused to be treated by “electric torpedoing”.
p Tuesday November 12, at 10:40 p.m., on France 2.
“The Sentinels of Oblivion”, by Jérôme Prieur
A master in the art of invoking the ghosts of war, Jérôme Prieur creates a work of poignant beauty, without a face but inhabited, around the war memorials erected since the 1920s across France.
r Tuesday November 12, at 11:30 p.m., on France 2.
Discover the rating and review
“The Sentinels of Oblivion”: documentary inhabited by an invisible museum
“From Verdun to the D-Day beaches, what have we done with the places of war?”, by Emmanuelle Sudre
“What to do with the remains of war? “, asks this ordinary but not devoid of interest documentary, which takes us in particular to the ghost village of Fleury-devant-Douaumont, destroyed during the Battle of Verdun.
q Wednesday November 13, at 9:05 p.m., on France 3.
