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Title:PARIS CELEBRATES THE END OF THE GERMAN OCCUPATION [Allocated Title]
Film Number:A70 136-1
Other titles:
Summary: Scenes in Paris on the day of de Gaulle's big parade down the Champs Elysées.
Description: In the fuel-less Paris of the summer of 1944 the bicycle is the universal mode of transport; a small team of British AFPU cameramen drives up the Champs Elysées past hundreds of cyclists. At the foot of the Arc de Triomphe, spectators applaud as three AFPU sergeants place floral tributes on the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior before a colour party from the 2nd French Armoured Division and representatives of the FFI. Two AFPU cameramen fraternise with Parisiennes. Huge crowds form up along the length of the Champs Elysées before General de Gaulle, his political and military associates and CNR chiefs lead a procession consisting of truckloads of Allied press and cameramen, jubilant members of the FFI and the 2nd French Armoured Division, the police and ordinary Parisians down the Champs Elysées towards the Place de la Concorde past wildly cheering crowds lining the pavements and leaning from balconies and windows overlooking the route. Similar scenes take place outside the Hotel de Ville.
Production Details: Directorate of Public Relations, War Office (Production sponsor)
Army Film and Photographic Unit (Production company)
Acland, A W (Production individual)
Personalities, Units and Organisations: Bidault, Georges Augustin (person)
Gaulle, Charles André Joseph Marie de (person)
Tollet, André (person)
Chalban-Delmas, Jacques (person)
Parodi, Alexandre (person)
Juin, Alphonse P (person)
Leclerc, Philippe (person)
Argenlieu, Georges Thierry d' (person)
Koenig, Pierre (person)
Troquer, Andre le (person)
Free French Forces, Div, Armoured, French, 2 (regiment/service)
British Army, Army Film and Photographic Unit (regiment/service)
Forces Francaises de l'Interieur (regiment/service)
Keywords: transport, United States military - utility: Dodge 3/4-ton 4x4 command car (object name)
transport, United States military - truck: Dodge 3/4-ton weapons carrier (object name)
armour, United States - halftrack: M3 (object name)
armour, British - armoured car: Stuart V (object name)
armour, British - armoured car: Greyhound (object name)
memorials and monuments (object name)
celebrations, French - liberation: liberation (object name)
transport, French civilian - 2/3 wheel: bicycle (object name)
society, British military - friendship: fraternisation (object name)
society, French - friendship (object name)
journalism and record, British - cameraman (object name)
Paris, Département de Ville de Paris, France (geography)
Notes: Note: In the front row with de Gaulle are Generals Juin, Koenig and Leclerc, Admiral d'Argenlieu, Le Troquer, Parodi and Chaban-Delmas (the last 3 being Gaullist ministers) and the Comité National de la Resistance chiefs, Bidault and Tollet. The parade down the Champs Elysées was the moment of de Gaulle's political apotheosis. Apropos this point the mass of journalists, etc. is of significance.
Remarks: Excellent shots of de Gaulle's big parade and of the huge crowds lining the route. Best seen with A70 136-2, 3, 4, 5, 137-1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 and 140-9 for footage taken during the liberation of Paris.
Documentation/associated material: for a journalistic account of the events that led up to the liberation of Paris, read 'Is Paris Burning?' by Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins and see the film 'Journal de le Resistance' based on footage taken by the FFI during the uprising before the liberation.
