'En Dirigeable sur les champs de bataille' is a 78-minute film recently discovered in the archives of the French army in Paris. The pilot was Jacques Trolley de Prévaux. His cameraman was Lucien Lesaint. In August and September 1919 they filmed the remains of the Western front, from Nieuwpoort, on the North Sea in Belgium, to the Swiss Alps.
The filmmakers and lead actors of The Remains of the Day (1993) discuss how they came to make the film, and the subtle power of its execution.
At the end of WWI, the treaty of Versailles established the conditions for peace in Europe. The aim for the victorious powers was to make Germany pay reparations, and to guarantee a future without war. Yet a decade later, the denunciation of 'Versailles' became a powerful lever for the nazis to obtain power as these reparations would mark the beginning of the humiliation of the German people, and nurture a feeling of having been bestowed a hopeless future. In the 20 years that follow the end of WWI, the issue of reparations and responsibility will effectively poison international relationship. The treaty negative impact goes well beyond WWII as the new European borders it implemented led to many conflicts during the twentieth century. This documentary shines a light on the causality between the decisions taken with the treaty of Versailles, and the ensuing events of the century.
An account of the last two centuries of the Anthropocene, the Age of Man. How human beings have progressed so much in such a short time through war and the selfish interests of a few, belligerent politicians and captains of industry, damaging the welfare of the majority of mankind, impoverishing the weakest, greedily devouring the limited resources of the Earth.
After the World War I, Mussolini's perspective on life is severely altered; once a willful socialist reformer, now obsessed with the idea of power, he founds the National Fascist Party in 1921 and assumes political power in 1922, becoming the Duce, dictator of Italy. His success encourages Hitler to take power in Germany in 1933, opening the dark road to World War II. (Originally released as a two-part miniseries. Includes colorized archival footage.)
100 years ago Mata Hari faced the firing squad as a convicted Dutch spy. It was at this moment that the legend of Mata Hari, the seductive spy, was born. Newly-discovered documents cast doubt on her guilt and reveal startling truths about her life. Mata Hari was a self-made woman whose boldness and sexuality threatened the male establishment. Most of what we've known about her until now has largely been myth. Mata Hari's challenges as an abused wife, single mother and a creative independent woman are familiar to women around the world. At the turn of the century, her struggles to attain sexual freedom, artistic expression, and liberation from the constraints of conventional society are the same ones women face today. She graced the cover of Vogue, performed all over Europe and left a coterie of smitten admirers in her wake.
A country torn apart by the First World War. A people mourning over 650,000 fallen in the trenches. Politicians humiliated at the Versailles peace table. A poet-soldier who draws crowds to every rally. A city that becomes an emblem of irredentist and nationalist claims. It was in this Italy that the Fiume enterprise began on 12 September 1919: the adventure of Grabiele d'Annunzio and a handful of legionnaires who set out from Ronchi in Friuli, against the will of the established power, to occupy the Adriatic city and annex it to Italy, establish the Regency of Carnaro, and found a 'myth' destined to influence Italian and international culture and politics, aesthetics and vocabulary, well beyond the Twenty Years of Fascism.
Set in 1920, Inge travels from Germany to rural Minnesota in order to meet the man destined to be her husband.
In 1921, we follow two women - Marie and Grete - from the same poor Viennese neighborhood, as they try to better the lives of themselves and their families during the period of Austrian postwar hyperinflation.
Karoline, a young factory worker, finds herself abandoned and pregnant while striving to climb out of poverty in post WW1 Copenhagen. Amidst her struggles, she meets Dagmar, a charismatic woman running a hidden adoption agency within a candy store, helping poor mothers in finding foster homes for their unwanted children.
In November 1918, a few days before the Armistice, when Lieutenant Pradelle orders a senseless attack, he causes a useless disaster; but his outrageous act also binds the lives of two soldiers who have nothing more in common than the battlefield: Édouard saves Albert, although at a high cost. They become companions in misfortune who will attempt to survive in a changing world. Pradelle, in his own way, does the same.
Just after World War I, Major Foster is incorporating new recruits into his French Foreign Legion platoon when he is sent to his former remote outpost located in the French Morocco to protect an archaeological excavation from El Krim, a Rifian leader who intends to unite all local tribes to fight the colonial government…
A two-part historical film covering the years of the First World War and the post-war period up to 1919 - until the signing of the peace treaty in Versailles near Paris. An attempt to show the great and complicated process of regaining an independent existence by a nation within its own state. The screen shows characters from history textbooks: Józef Piłsudski, Ignacy Paderewski, Roman Dmowski, Wojciech Korfanty as well as representatives of the world political scene, incl. David Lloyd George, Woodrow Wilson, Georges Clemenceau, Vladimir Lenin and others.
The First World War is over. Britain claims a victory, but for the casualties of war the fight for a normal life is far from over. An unhappy reunion will force two lost souls to come to terms with the damage they've done to each other.
In 1919, Australian farmer Joshua Connor travels to Turkey to discover the fate of his three sons, reported missing in action. Holding on to hope, Joshua must travel across the war-torn landscape to find the truth and his own peace.
The story of Ace Eli Walford, a 1920s stunt flyer who barnstorms around the country, taking his eleven-year-old son Rodger with him as he goes from town to town. The place is rural Kansas, and the time is midsummer in the early nineteen-twenties, not long after World War I. Eli (Cliff Robertson), a barn storming pilot who has the emotional make-up of an 11-year-old, and Rodger (Eric Shea), his 11-year-old son who possesses the wisdom of the ancients, set off to see the world, which means flying all the way to San Willow. To Eli, San Willow seems to be as fabled as Xanadu and quite as remote. In essence, "Ace Eli and Rodger of the Skies" is about the adventures of Rodger and Eli getting from nowhere to nowhere. Eli, a killer with the ladies at first, always leaves them unsatisfied. He seems to have a sex problem. Rodger spends a lot of his time getting his dad out of scrapes. He also drinks, smokes and goes to sleep at night crying for his deceased mom.
January, 1920. 350,000 French soldiers remain missing in action. Major Dellaplane tirelessly matches the dead and the wounded with families' descriptions. Honor and ethics drive him; he hates the idea of "the unknown soldier." Into his sector, looking for her husband, comes a haughty, politically connected Parisian, Madame Irène de Courtil. Brusquely, Dellaplane offers her 1/350,000th of his time, but as their paths cross and she sees his courage and resolve, feelings change. After he finds a surprising connection between her missing husband and a local teacher, Irène makes Dellaplane an offer. This man of action hesitates: has he missed his only chance?
The story begins in 1917 with Stan and Ollie being drafted into the U.S. Army to fight in World War I. While in the Army, the pair befriend a man named Eddie Smith, who is killed by the enemy during a battle. After the war is over, Stan and Ollie venture to New York City, where they begin a quest to reunite Eddie's little daughter with her rightful family. The task proves both monumental and problematic as the boys discover just how many people in New York have the last name Smith.