Marcel Ophuls, the Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker who compelled France to confront its collaboration with Nazi Germany during World War II, died peacefully on Saturday, May 24, at age 97. His grandson, Andreas-Benjamin Seyfert, confirmed the death on Monday.
Born in Frankfurt in 1927 to German actor Hilde Wall and renowned German Jewish director Max Ophuls, Marcel experienced the horrors of Nazi persecution firsthand as a child. The family fled Germany for France after the Nazi party came to power in 1933, then fled again as the Nazis invaded France, crossing the Pyrenees into Spain before traveling to the United States, where they arrived in 1941.
Ophuls completed high school and college in Los Angeles and served in a U.S. Army theatrical unit in Japan in 1946. In 1950, the family relocated to France, where Ophuls took on the role of assistant to filmmakers Julien Duvivier and Anatole Litvak. Through François Truffaut, he directed part of the 1962 film “Love at Twenty,” followed by the 1964 detective film “Banana Peel” starring Jeanne Moreau and Jean-Paul Belmondo.
His breakthrough into documentary filmmaking came in 1967 with a 32-hour series on the Munich crisis. A French government-run television station then commissioned him to create a documentary about France under Nazi occupation. However, when Ophuls submitted “The Sorrow and the Pity” in 1969, a four-and-a-half-hour documentary exposing the extent of French collaboration with the Nazis, the station refused to broadcast it and banned the film.
A network head later told a government committee that the film “destroys myths that the people of France still need.” The documentary was not screened on French television until 1981, 12 years after its completion.
Ophuls consistently rejected criticism that he had unfairly targeted France. In a 2004 interview with The Guardian, he expressed frustration at having to endure decades of accusations that his film was prosecutorial in nature. He argued that the documentary did not attempt to prosecute the French and questioned who could claim their nation would have behaved better under similar circumstances.
The “Sorrow and the Pity” received an Academy Award nomination in 1971 for best documentary feature and gained cultural recognition when it was immortalized in “Annie Hall” as the film Woody Allen’s character invites Diane Keaton to see on a date. The documentary forced French society to grapple with uncomfortable truths about the Vichy government’s collaboration during the war.
Ophuls continued exploring themes of conflict and wartime atrocities throughout his career. He created “A Sense of Loss about the Troubles in Northern Ireland, The Memory of Justice” examining wartime atrocities, “The Troubles We’ve Seen” about war reporting filmed in Sarajevo during the siege, and “November Days,” which featured interviews with East Germans about the fall of communism and reunification.
His most acclaimed work came with the 1988 documentary “Hotel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie,” which examined the Nazi war criminal. This film earned Ophuls an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, cementing his reputation as one of the most important documentary filmmakers of his generation.
Throughout his career, Ophuls demonstrated an unwavering commitment to uncovering difficult truths about wartime behavior and human nature during periods of extreme conflict. His work consistently challenged official narratives and forced audiences to confront uncomfortable historical realities.
The filmmaker spent his final years in southern France, where he continued working on documentary projects until his death.
Ophuls’ legacy extends beyond his individual films to his broader impact on documentary filmmaking and historical discourse. His willingness to tackle subjects that governments and societies preferred to avoid established him as a fearless chronicler of human behavior during wartime.
His personal experience as a Jewish refugee who fled Nazi persecution twice during childhood provided him with a unique perspective on the subjects he explored. This background informed his approach to documenting wartime atrocities and collaboration, lending authenticity and urgency to his investigative work.
Marcel Ophuls leaves behind a body of work that fundamentally changed how France and other nations understand their wartime past. His documentaries continue to serve as essential historical documents and examples of fearless journalism that refuses to accept comfortable myths over difficult truths.