3

SUNDAY

The myth that all of France valiantly resisted the Nazi occupation died hard. Marcel Ophuls’ The Sorrow and the Pity (1971) was commissioned for French TV, whose executives refused to air it once they saw what the director had made: a four-and-a-half hour investigation that skillfully weaves contemporary interviews with vintage footage to devastating effect. As its title indicates, the documentary’s tone is not angry, but by detailing the extent of his countrymen’s collaboration with the Nazis, Ophüls forever changed France’s national self-image and made possible films as diverse as Louis Malle’s Lacombe Lucien and Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah. This screening, which concludes the National Gallery’s series of classic films distributed by Milestone Film & Video, is of the new reissue of the original French-language version (subtitled in English). At 4 p.m. at the National Gallery of Art’s East Building Auditorium, 4th and Constitution Avenue NW. Free. (202) 737-4215. (Mark Jenkins)