| Chapter Intro: | Introduction |
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the 1969 referendum defeat in relation to his wartime involvements. Nuit et Brouillard established the classic photographical dichotomy of the Holocaust film, according to which the past is presented in black-and-white and the present is viewed in colour. The triadic impact of Cayrol's text and Eisler's music combined with Resnais’ editing, which juxtaposes coloured images of present-day ruins with black-and-white archival footage of the contemporary death camps, resulted in one of the most heart-wrenching and thought-provoking war documentaries ever made. The camera throughout this masterpiece tracks through, behind and beneath the apparent tranquillity of the modern landscapes. The film, in its brief allusions to the camps at Pithiviers and Compiègne and in its reference to the deportation of Jews from ‘le Vélodrome d'Hiver’ in Paris, was to mark the beginning of cinema's attempt to demythologise the deceptive versions of French history and to emphasise the need to accept the continuing potentiality of such evil. The period from 1972 until 1980 saw the return and resurfacing of that which had been repressed. In the terms of Rousso, it was a period of time characterised by ‘le retour du refoulé’. That which had been concealed under the mythical façade and fashionable veneer of national unified resistance returned with unexpected vehemence. As Rousso states: ‘Le général avait pratiqué tour à tour l'exorcisme de Vichy, et l'histoire sainte et édifiante de la Résistance’. 7 However, a substantial number of events that took place after 1968 began to challenge and shatter the heroic, unified image of France that so many had preserved and cherished. These events induced, even demanded, a certain reappraisal of history. Amongst the most important developments were the releases of the films Le Chagrin et La Pitié (Marcel Ophüls, 1971) which focuses on the choice between collaboration and resistance for the people of Clermont Ferrand (drawing an