HotToastyRag What happens when you put Leslie Caron, Charles Boyer, George Chakiris, Kirk Douglas, Glenn Ford, Yves Montand, Anthony Perkins, Simone Signoret, Robert Stack, and Orson Welles all in the same film? Unfortunately, you don't get a very good movie. Is Paris Burning? is a black-and-white French film with lots of French stars and a few American ones, about Paris's liberation in WWII. While Gert Froebe has been ordered by Hitler to burn the city of Paris if Allied forces approach, the French resistance tries to liberate the city from the inside out. The subplots and countless characters were pretty confusing, and while I understood the stark directing style, it didn't do much to keep me from falling asleep. Unless you're particularly interested in watching a movie about this part of the war, you're better off choosing something else from the abundance of WW2 films out there.

Claudio Carvalho In August 1944, Adolf Hitler assigns General Dietrich von Choltitz (Gert Froebe) to be in the military governor of Paris and to burn the city in case of the Allied forces arrival. Meanwhile, the French resistance has internal fights of the different factions and leaderships. One French major convinces the Allied forces to liberate Paris from the Germans. General von Choltitz disobeys Hitler's orders and spares Paris from destruction."Paris brûle-t-il?", a.k.a. "Is Paris Burning?", is an underrated French super production about the liberation of Paris in World War II. It is impressive the number of stars in this movie, directed by René Clément; screenplay by Francis Ford Coppola; music by Maurice Jarre. There are many cameos of great actors and also a huge number of bit players. Unfortunately the dubbing in English is awful. Fortunately this German general did not destroy one of the most beautiful cities in the world. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): "Paris Está em Chamas?" ("Is Paris Burning?")

Enchorde Is Paris Burning is the description of the fall of Paris, and Hitler's order in such an event to destroy the city. It is a detailed description, giving point of perspectives from all participants, from German Commander Choltitz, French Resistance Leader Rol and the advancing Allied Army. Thus it is quite long, approaching almost three hours, and feels like a combination of a drama and documentary. Even though some events and actions may be disputed, it feels plausible. And if you like me, like war movies Is Paris Burning is interesting despite its length. It actually never became dull, but not really entertaining either because of the documentarian feel. There was little suspense or surprising developments. We just tagged along with the story, with neither we or characters being able to change anything.It is quite interesting that the movie was filmed quite recent after the fact, when measured up with seriousness and the trauma of the event. Also that German officers are portrayed by Germans, most notably Fröbe. Also check the trivia why it was filmed in black and white.The movie is also augmented by its cast list, it is almost worth watching because of it, which among many others include Alain Delon, Kirk Douglas, Orson Welles, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Anthony Perkins, Yves Montand , Jean Pierre Cassel and along with Fröbe (Goldfinger) Michel Lonsdale (Sir Hugo Drax (Moonraker)) is the second Bond villain to appear. Also written by Gore Vidal and Francis Ford Coppola.5/10

pete36 Big-budgeted multi-story retelling of the liberation of Paris in 1944.Some spoilers aheadMovie starts off with firmly stating who the bad guys are (as if we didn't know) showing the German occupation forces at their most brutal : sending of wagon loads of prisoners to the concentration camps and the cold-blooded killing of dozens of young resistance fighters.Movie structure consists of two main segments, first the Parisian uprising then followed by the actual liberation by Free French and US troops. Due to the many characters and storyplots it all comes over rather incoherent and sometimes muddled as often quite important characters appear and disappear without no particular reason. Every major French star of the sixties is in this. Delon( as the later famous politician Chaban-Delmas), Belmondo (who still can't keep a straight face) but also Michel Piccoli, Claude Rich, JP Cassel, Yves Montand (as a tank driver) and so on. Some US actors get also thrown in but, besides Orson Welles, they have really no more then an extended cameo appearance. The one pivotal character, who also holds together the 2 main segments of the movie is General Von Choltitz, the German governor of Paris,excellently portrayed by Gerd Froebe. Von choltitz is right in their-from the start and keeps being on the screen continuously until the very last minutes, his surrender of course. By the way, the screenplay (based on the bestseller of Collins/Lapierre)was written by none other then Francis Ford Coppola and Gore Vidal.But this is of course mainly a French show, besides the actors it has a French producer and a French director and last but not least Paris itself, so there is quite a lot of French flagwaving going on, giving the impression that 95 % of the Parisians were in the "Resistance'. In reality it was more of the opposite, at least until the liberation. Keep also in mind that a few months prior to these events large numbers of Parisians were cheering Marechal Pétain, the leader of the Vichy collaboration government. But despite all its many plot lines and overall length it is competently directed and features quite some well-staged and realistic battle scenes, from numerous firefights in the Parisian streets, blowing up German vehicles, tanks crashing into each other and culminating in the storming of the German 'Kommandantur'. All in all, this is like "The Longest day" 'à la française', featuring many stars and stories, filmed in black-and-white, in 70 mm (it really needs to be seen on the big screen) and essentially a propaganda piece on one of the few exploits of the French during WWII.(I saw the letterboxed version on French TV with everybody speaking French. The best version is of course with everybody speaking their own language.