Arte - Mysteries in the Archives Series 1 (2009) Part 5 1944 De Gaulle in Liberated Paris

Mysteries in the archives, ten investigations into ten events of the twentieth century that have marked our memory and our imagination. What do the archival images tell us? What are their origins, their hidden meaning? The documentary collection “Mysteries in the Archives”, directed by Serge Viallet, airs in Arte to satisfy our curiosity. Ten unpublished surveys reveal the secrets of audiovisual archives. “Images tell stories, we tell the story of images.” Viallet examines films that are often forgotten or ignored, shot during historical events Marilyn Monroe's tour of Korea in 1954, the American atomic tests at Bikini in 1946, the crossing of the Atlantic by aviator Charles Lindbergh in 1927, the entry of General de Gaulle into Paris in 1944, the funeral of John F. Kennedy in 1963 … All of them fulfill a decisive function in the great evolutionary narrative of the television epic. Viallet skips over and over again the sequences, zooms in on details, explains the meaning of this or that object, draws the eye to what to see behind the facade. By highlighting the deceptions, staging and editing, these documentaries are also an opportunity to review technical means and their evolution. Mysteries in the archives is a collection aiming to uncover and rediscover known or unpublished images that bear witness to our history. The audiovisual document becomes a piece of evidence that it is up to us to question, to make people talk. The image is scrutinized, dissected, and often, Mysteries in the archives takes our gaze away from what the camera operator had seen or expected. Each episode is constructed as an investigation. Some are about cheerful and amusing topics, others are about more solemn, momentous events. Serge Viallet, a true detective of the image, reveals a multitude of new elements and significant anecdotes hidden behind the story as it was shown to us in cinemas and then on television. Meticulous investigations are undertaken - film is rummaged, sifted through and sorted, examined frame by frame and analyzed until it finally reveals its secrets. This collection includes all 10 episodes of season 1.

Part 5 1944 De Gaulle in Liberated Paris

This episode of the “Mysteries in the Archives” collection is devoted to the triumphal disembarkation by General Charles de Gaulle on the event of the Liberation of Paris. In the early afternoon of August 26 1944, after four years of German occupation de Gaulle strides gallantly down the celebrated Avenue des Champs Elysees. Arriving in front of Notre Dame Cathedral, shots ring out. Renowned cameraman Gaston Madru filmed several minutes of the fire fight in front of Notre Dame and the start of panic in the crowd, but most of his footage was long forgotten, or lost. Or had they been intentionally forgotten? These unpublished images were recently found, testifying to this event that General De Gaulle had wished to downplay at the time. How could that have happened? What does his footage reveal of the gun fire – as well as other moments during that famous day?

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