Is Paris Burning?, directed by Renee Clement (The Battle of the Rails), chronicles the efforts of the French resistance before and during the liberation of Paris. It is clearly influenced by The Longest Day (1962), as are later films like The Battle of Britain, Tora! Tora! Tora! and A Bridge too Far. It is, however, not as entertaining as any of those films though some people who are not me may rank it above Tora! Tora! Tora!

It is the only one of these films that I would call too long, though plenty of people have called all of them too long. It does not have the outstanding signature battle scenes of The Longest Day, though it has some perfectly good battle scenes and uses archival footage well during them and throughout the film. Its dialogue is not as strong as A Bridge Too Far (I think–the version I saw was dubbed); however, there are some excellent set pieces. These elements do not coalesce into something greater than their seperate parts . Finally, it is sometimes quite good but all too often isn’t.

It promises to be in part about the struggle, “after four years of bitter occupation,” among the “many divergent groups.” Resistance movies have this layer of conflict other war movies often don’t–or at least shouldn’t. There isn’t as rigid a command structure—or much of a structure at all, so there are conflicts for power inside the resistance itself along with the conflict with the Germans (see Anthropoid, Flame and Citreon, and Ashes and Diamonds).

But I don’t see much of a struggle here, and that is one problem with this film; it whitewashes the history to glorify the French resistance and France, I think—this is not a history site. It has a number of strong set pieces and great shots, but I get lost—Is that famous French actor I sort of recognize a Gaullist or a communist?

If the two on the right are members of the communist resistance, then this shot is some sort of political commentary, but I’m not sure they are communists.

Here the Gaullists, the communists and other groups have varying levels of impatience and fealty to the government in exile—and not as many guns or bullets as they would like. But everybody dresses the same and meets with everyone else for official voting and consultations, so I have a real problem with who’s who.

Like The Longest Day, it is significant challenge to swing a dead cat in any scene and not strike a major star. There are French stars everywhere—and American stars too, including Orson Welles in a major role as the Swiss Consul Raoul Nordling. Many Americans have very little screen time. You could very easily miss Glenn Ford (Torpedo Run, Imitation General) as Omar Bradley or Robert Stack (To Be or Not to Be (1942), 1941 (1979)) as General Edwin L. Sibert, and it wouldn’t really hurt your enjoyment of the movie if you did.

Kirk Douglas (Heroes of Telemark, In Harm’s Way) has one or two scenes as George S. Patton, which is fine. Okay it’s weird, but maybe four years before George C. Scott defined Patton for moviegoers it wasn’t weird.

Understandably Is Paris Burning? features mainly French actors, and my unfamiliarity with the French actors may hurt me; I may enjoy The Longest Day more because I do know who John Wayne, Robert Mitchum and Richard Burton are already; I even know who Roddy MacDowall and Red Buttons are, while I only vaguely recognize Alain Delon and Jean-Paul Belmondo, which makes it more difficult to understand who’s who.

The versions I’ve seen are dubbed, and I don’t think you can get one where every character speaks the appropriate language–although the actor playing Adolf Hitler (Billy Frick, who has six credits on IMDB, and four of them are as Hitler) speaks German and actors who are dubbed into English in other scenes speak German in his presence. This suggests an interesting reluctance or distaste by the filmmakers to have Hitler speak French. There is also more than one suggestion available on the Internet that Charles De Gaulle–who was French Prime Minister when the movie was made–made  a number of demands on the filmmakers if they wished to film in Paris. This is very likely why their bitter struggle is not particularly bitter and the Communists aren’t that important to the liberation.

The final celebration of Paris’ liberation is mainly archival footage but is nonetheless stirring and includes an affecting recreation of cobweb-heavy bells of Notre Dame being laboriously restarted, as well as scenes of celebration around the Arc de Triomphe and some shots of De Gaulle being appropriately tall and self-effacing among the adulation of the crowd. Here, as in most of the film, the music is well done. It may not have a signature motif that stays with you like The Great Escape, but it never oversteps while being often stirring and cinematic.

At one point Orson Welles’ Swiss Consul is helping Françoise Labe (Leslie Caron, Father Goose) try to free her husband who is about to be taken by train to Germany, but the SS officer in charge, who is the biggest moustache-twirling stereotypical villain you could want to find, refuses and finally one prisoner is shot while Labe looks on. There is an excellent shot of the train pulling away in the rain while a file of German guards stands at attention, seemingly oblivious to the body behind them.

This very strong sequence reminds me of an even stronger sequence in The Battle of the Rails, but not in a particularly good way. In both movies there are some very strong or even excellent parts, but there are many other parts as well that lead to films that are in total unsatisfying.

Gert Fröbe (The Longest Day, Goldfinger) as Dietrich von Choltitz, the new military governor of Paris, is the most interesting and distinctive character. He is ordered by Hitler to defend the city and destroy it if it can’t be held, and he doesn’t want to destroy one of the great cities of Europe, or maybe he doesn’t want to be known as the person who did. His interactions with the SS, including Karl-Otto Alberty (Kelly’s Heroes, The Great Escape, The Battle of Britain), show his dilemma clearly. It’s a little odd for the major German character to be so reasonable and sympathetic. He honestly struggles between his duty and the morality of his orders—and maybe doesn’t even struggle that hard. I can’t say if this is historical accuracy or some sort of gratitude from the producers for him not burning Paris to the ground (Spoiler alert—Paris does not burn to the ground). whatever the reason, he is a very sympathetic German character for the time, and his conflicts, internal and external, are interesting.

Frobe and Welles get to eat cake because the Germans are decadent.

The action in this movie is good, but there is too much around it that is muddy and unsatisfying. Much of the dialogue is just exposition and doesn’t carry any drama, but some scenes do. Caron and Frobe are worth watching, while other stars aren’t compelling.

Clement is an interesting director who does cool things, but both this film and The Battle of the Rails aren’t entirely satisfying–but watch them both at least once–they just won’t become movies you watch every year.

Recommendation

Buy the Steelbook of The Longest Day and treasure it forever.

Is Paris Burning? as of this writing, is available on Blu Ray and for free on Prime Video