● A page of glory , Léonce Perret, 1: 00 am (1915)
This is the first film of the Great War, shot while the fighting is still raging and France bogged down in a war of position. The film tells the story of the rose water of a woman joining her husband on the forehead to show him her new-born. Signed Léonce Perret, an emblematic figure of the company Gaumont, A page of glory is in the vein of films patriotic of the time and does not escape through the propaganda films of the period.
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A page of glory, is part of the movies patriotic products by Gaumont during the «Great War». Screen Capture – Gaumont
● To the West, nothing new , Lewis Milestone, 2h13 (1930)
based on the novel by Erich Maria Remarque published a year earlier, this movie immerses us in the German enemy. The young Paul Bäumer and his friends from high school join the military, following the advice of a professor, a patriot. The band encountered a series of disappointments, which highlight a conflict absurd, cruel and unsustainable. Censored by the nazis to power in Germany at the time of its release, it is part of the National Film Registry in addition to-Atlantic, in the collection of films kept at the Library of Congress.
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● The Great Illusion , by Jean Renoir, 1h54 (1937)
At the dawn of the Second world War, the conflict with Germany seems inevitable. In this climate, despairing, Jean Renoir delivers a message of peace and hope in this tale inspired by the story of a fighter pilot made prisoner of war by the Germans seven times (and escaped many times). With Jean Gabin as lieutenant, Pierre Fresnay in the skin of the aristocrat Boëldieu and Erich von Stroheim in the role of the commander, von Rauffenstein, the filmmaker portrays a «war of gentlemen» in a film that is deeply humanistic. « The Great Illusion , this is the story of people like you, like me, embarked on this adventure unsettling that it calls a war», says its director.
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● Paths of glory , Stanley Kubrick, 1h28 (1957)
the First war film from the director of Full Metal Jacket (1987) and Doctor dr folamour (1964), Paths of glory , we plunge into the battle of the Somme in 1916, while the war of movement gave way to trench war. Kirk Douglas plays colonel Dax, a lawyer in the civil, defender of soldiers on trial for their «cowardice» at the court martial after refusing to obey an unjust order. Paths of glory is inspired by the novel by Humphrey Cobb, itself inspired by the case of the corporals of Souain, to be shot for disobeying by refusing to engage in an assault suicidal.
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● Lawrence of Arabia , David Lean, 3: 36 am (1962)
This is a film that takes us well away from the trenches of Verdun and to the East of the Hexagon. Towards the arid desert of the arabian peninsula in this masterpiece of David Lean. The young british officer, Thomas Edward Lawrence (Peter O’toole) is sent to the Middle East to investigate the arab revolts against the Turks of the ottoman Empire. The Welsh range, then, from the side of the insurgents. An epic of over three hours, highlighting the campaign in Sinai and Palestine, that is too often forgotten.
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● The red Baron , Roger Corman, 1h37 (1971)
In The red Baron , we will fly in heaven with John Phillip Law, which embodies the legend of the German aircraft of Manfred von Richthofen. The film is centered around the struggle of this terror of the air and its Fokker Dr.I against the as canadian Roy Brown, who would eventually shoot her in the skies of the Somme in April 1918. The story has been given a taste of the day in 2007, in a film with Matthias Schweighöfer and Joseph Fiennes.
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● Gallipoli , Peter Weir, 1h51 (1982)
Archy Hamilton and Frank Dunne, two australian friends played by Mark Lee and Mel Gibson, are committed to go and fight with the allies on the european front. The duo is thrown in the midst of the horrors of the battle of the Dardanelles at Gallipoli, in Turkey. This great film about the loss of innocence has been voted eight times for the AACTA Awards, the Oscars of australian.
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● The Life and nothing else , by Bertrand Tavernier, 2h15 (1989)
Philippe Noiret goes in search of the unknown soldier in this film from the director of The Watchmaker of Saint-Paul which takes place two years after the end of the fighting. Tribute to the dead of the First world War, the producers had initially thought the project was too sad and morbid, before be persuaded by the argument of Bertrand Tavernier: «it is above all a film about the return to life». Well they took. The film was praised by critics and the actor Philippe Noiret was awarded the César for best actor in 1990 for his performance in the role of the hard-line commandant Dellaplane.
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● un long dimanche de fiançailles , Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2h14 (2004)
in 1919, Mathilde (Audrey Tautou), search for Manech (Gaspard Ulliel), his fiance left him for dead on the field of battle. Based on his intuition, the young woman goes up the track, which will allow him to find the trace of her future husband. This movie on the hope is adapted from a novel by Sébastien Japrisot from the director of Amélie .
● Merry Christmas , by Christian Carion, 1.55pm (2005)
in The middle of the butchery of the trenches, a little bit of humanity. Based on the Christmas Truce on the Western front in 1914, the director Christian Carion delivers a film full of benevolence. Fraternization with the enemy the time of day. With an international cast four stars: Diane Kruger, Gary Lewis, Daniek Brühl and Guillaume Canet.
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● goodbye up there (2017), Albert Dupontel, 1h57
Edouard Péricourt and Albert Maillard, respectively, a draughtsman of genius and a modest book. They come from two social environments radically opposed. However, a bond of friendship will unite the two soldiers who fought together in the trenches. These two survivors of the First world War, performed by Nahuel Perez Biscayart and Albert Dupontel (which is also in the making), will up the the scam of the century just the fighting ended. Based on the novel by Pierre Lemaître, the film has been voted five times for the Césars this year.
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