The Intimate Enemy - Algerian War and new war film

In 1945 General Charles de Gaulle the charismatic leader of a free and united France negotiated a place at the victors' table alongside the United Kingdom the United States and the Soviet Union. This strong political act reassured French citizens whose pride had been shattered five years earlier when Marshal Pétain ceded the national territory to the more powerful German conqueror. Winners (again) the French lived in a state of renewed elation and galvanized patriotism. The role of the cinema at this time was one of the most important. When Paris was taken and the Vichy government was established all theaters were systematically closed. This total shutdown explains the success of the films that were gradually reopened after 1940 even though the vast majority of the films were of German origin most of them carrying a Nazi propaganda message.