La Continental: Le mystère Greven (2017) - full transcript

Released during the Occupation

Clouzot's 1943 film, Le Corbeau,

shows a village desperately seeking

the author of the anonymous letters

that have been wreaking

havoc within the community.

No film

better defines Continental Studios.

The studio was created

during the Occupation.

To direct it, Joseph Goebbels,

the Third Reich minister of propaganda,

handpicked one of UFA's

most prominent executives.

The man, who had produced many films

for Germany's biggest production

and distribution company,

was named Alfred Greven.

Alfred Greven was now head

of the new production company

baptized Continental Studios.

This Nazi firm received

lavish funding from Berlin,

far more than

what other French studios had.

Alfred Greven was appointed

with precise instructions:

make unambitious films,

inconsequential films,

films that would numb viewers.

This is one of very few photos

we have of him in the archives,

which only heightens his enigmatic aura.

He was obviously a mysterious man

who disliked being seen in public.

We know little to nothing

about his personal life.

We don't know of any mistresses,

which is pretty rare.

People who worked in film

knew his name.

But the average Frenchman

hadn't heard of him.

He symbolized Occupation.

He was a Nazi.

This being said, the films

he produced were brilliant.

Greven did what he wanted.

He proved very competent.

Better yet, intelligent!

Indeed, he didn't obey

Goebbels's recommendations.

How can we explain

his disobedience?

Continental Studios:

The Greven Enigma

It is impossible to retrace

Greven's childhood.

We know he was to take over

the family hardware store.

We then lose his trace until

he became a pilot during WWI.

That's when he met Goering,

who wasn't yet commander in chief.

He was just a young officer,

just like Greven.

They became lifelong friends,

as Greven's personality

fascinated Goering.

I believe he was an intelligent,

tasteful man.

He must have been

pretty dashing.

He's difficult to pin down.

Alfred Greven was shaped

by his heroïc past.

He followed his new airforce friends

and adhered to the Nazi party.

After WWI, Greven

started to work in film.

In the 1930s, French and German

cinemas were interconnected.

Roughly 1,300 French films

were produced in the 1930s.

Among those, at least 190

were Franco-German co-productions.

Some were shot in Berlin,

others in Paris.

When the sound era began

German technicians trained

in French studios

French actors shot scenes at the UFA

studios for bilingual releases

Germans fleeing Naziism

worked on French films

People underestimate how

porous the two industries were.

On June 14, 1940,

the Germans invaded Paris.

All film shoots shut down and

most movie theaters closed

Germany had absolute control

over French cinema.

Continental Studios were founded

in Paris in 1941, with German funds.

Greven was appointed

as the studio's director.

What's unclear is why

he was moved to Paris.

Was it a punishment?

Or was it actually a promotion?

It was Goebbels's brainchild.

He appointed Greven.

To get rid of him according to some.

Goebbels allegedly

sent him to France

because they both competed

for a Czech actress's favors.

It's possible, but

we're not sure at all.

As far as we know,

Greven wasn't so much a Nazi

as he was a friend of

Goering's and other powerful Nazis

Was Goering protecting

him from his rival Goebbels?

Who knows?

Greven was a good

film technician.

He proved it prior to WWII.

As was often the case during the

Occupation, a competent man was picked.

From scientific research

to Champagne,

the Germans always appointed

Germans who spoke French

and liked France,

to supervise the French

When he arrived in France

in the Fall of 1940

Greven oversaw the entire

French film industry:

a production company

(Continental Studios)

a pre-existing distribution

company (ACE)

meant to distribute

films in France

and an operating company,

that illegally took

over networks

owned by Jewish theater owners.

This company (SOGEC)

ended up operating 40 theaters.

The Germans took over

the industry's production,.

distribution, and

operation means.

So there was a need to

structure the entire system.

Greven brought German

orderliness with him.

I'm saying this in jest.

It's a structure meant

for administrators.

And Greven was one.

It was both a promotion

and an exile for him.

And he had a mission to complete,

which he did with means at his disposal.

His psychological profile is

that of a man with latitude

with a mission, and

with a personal goal.

Continental Studios set

up shop on the Champs Élysées.

Every morning, Greven

did the same thing.

He hung his coat and hat

on a Hitler bust in his office.

After that, he would read

the screenplays he planned on producing.

Greven hanging his clothes

to the Hitler bust

can be read in many ways.

It could be message to

his French interlocutors:

See, I'm not a Nazi!

Was it genuine?

Or was it a way

to earn their trust?

And maybe maybe people

wanted to find him friendly?

It's easier to work

for a friendly enemy.

That's not really an enemy.

A few seasoned talents

willingly joined Continental's ranks.

Fernandel was one of them.

In Simplet, he played the role

of a simpleton who moves south

to chat with a nightingale

or a ranger.

He sang 1942's biggest hit:

"They Call Me Simpleton"

Fernandel gave Continental Studios

so many box office hits

that Greven gradually

let him direct the films himself.

The ever-present Tino Rossi

soon joined him.

People sang his songs in unison.

In Mon amour est près de toi

he played an opera singer

who lost his memory and sang

"When You're a Sailor"

in a typical pre-War

riverside café.

The press loved his extravagant

relationship with actress Mireille Balin,

who later left him

for a German officer.

Simone Printemps's husband,

movie star Pierre Fresnay

joined Continental Studios.

There he shot a number

of masterpieces

including Clouzot's first film,

L'Assassin habite au 21.

– Where are you going?

– Hmm hmm hmm.

– What are you saying?

– Hmm hmmm hmmm.

– Are you sick?

– No, mute.

Because he spoke French,

Greven felt unthreatening.

Many knew him as they

had worked in Germany in the 30s.

So he was a reassuring figure.

He didn't project Naziism's

ugly image.

How could people make films

while the country is occupied?

What kind of films could

be made?

How could one work

without losing one's honor?

People in the film industry

behaved exactly the same way

as everyone else during

the Occupation.

First, the Vichy regime

legitimized collaboration.

People also needed

to make a living.

The other option was to

leave France, as Jean Gabin did.

But unless you were fired

which happened

if you were Jewish

you stayed, or perhaps

worked in the Southern part.

Working for Continental

meant earning a lot of money.

Directors were offered contracts

to direct several films.

Usually three films.

For technicians, it meant

financial stability for a full year.

That was unheard of at the time,

even in pre-war France.

Those conditions were appealing.

and most people felt

they weren't doing anything wrong.

Artists, creators, wanted

to work.

Many in Germany were

similarly accused of Naziism.

Composers, conductors...

they just wanted to work.

It wasn't ideologically motivated.

They worked for those who let them work.

Focusing on their work allowed

them to ignore what was going on.

Working for Continental Studios

was depicted negatively

in underground

Resistance publications.

It was made explicit that

a time of reckoning

would occur come Liberation.

And Liberation came.

Those who worked

for Continental Studios

got in trouble after the war

in "épuration" committees

even if they hadn't been involved

in propaganda or caused any harm.

Greven wanted the best,

at any cost.

Because he knew

French cinema very well

he knows who the best

directors, biggest stars,

best technicians, and

best screenwriters were.

And so he pressured all of

them to join Continental Studios.

Some people were forced

to join Continental Studios

which puts a damper on

the notion that Greven was nice.

He blackmailed Edwige Feuillère.

He acquired companies

in which people were

under contract.

One of those contracts

was Mademoiselle Bonaparte.

Edwige Feuillère didn't

want to work for the Germans.

Greven threatened to send

her husband to jail.

And so Edwige Feuillère

had to make the film.

Paul Meurisse was

in a similar situation.

The French police

deported him to Germany.

He had to contact Greven

and was brought back to France.

Actors weren't the only

people he threatened.

He did the same

with technicians.

Director André Cayatte

was in that situation.

Greven knew Cayatte had

escaped and had a fake ID

So he blackmailed him

so he'd direct films for him.

He'd use coercive means

to convince actors and technicians.

He didn't leave people a choice.

He was first and foremost

a captain of industry.

What I've read is that he behaved

like a businessman.

What mattered were the quality

of the films and box office results.

He took financial risks at times.

He didn't allow

any film to be shot

before the launch of

Continental Studios,

thus undermining competition.

The first Continental film

was released in February 1941.

L'Assassinat du Père Noël

The first independent French film

was produced a few months later.

Richebé's Madame sans gêne

Over the five months

between the two films,

Greven had completely

neutralized the competition.

Continental Studios thus had free rein.

L'Assassinat du Père Noël,

his first film, may have aged

but it was anything but ordinary.

It was ambitious, poetic,

rife with literary ideas,

and visually original.

It was absolutely not

a standardized product.

Continental Studios' editorial line

was to reproduce what

Greven knew of French cinema

The first film,

L'Assassinat du Père Noël,

mimicked Les Disparus de Saint Agil

Same director, same mood.

Le Dernier des Six followed

the crime film tradition of the time.

Tourneur's Pêché de jeunesse

perpetuated the tradition of post-WWI

melodrama films like Carnet de bal.

Continental Studios' editorial

policy was clearly

to prolong French cinema's

pre-WW2 tradition

which Greven found more interesting

than the German corpus of the time.

The studio produced 30 films,

not all masterpieces.

Some, like La Main du diable

and Le Corbeau are.

They are masterpieces directed

by great directors,

Maurice Tourneur and

novice Henri-Georges Clouzot.

For instance, Premier Rendez-vous and

Decoin & Darrieux's films,

epitomize the commercial

cinema of the time.

They share Battement de cœur's

levity, which the studio perpetuated.

Are you crazy?

Singing with a window open!

These people benefited from funds

they wouldn't have had,

had they worked for other

French producers.

People were given guarantees

by Continental Studios:

directors

could pick their screenwriters,

people weren't studio-bound by contract

and so could work for other studios,

and there would be no propaganda,

which was important to people,

who could legitimately fear

there might be some.

Was it a progressive approach?

Or was it simply that propaganda

films weren't successful?

Countries had to maintain

a local, national production.

Indeed, audiences tend to prefer

local productions.

The films produced in war-torn France

were distributed in occupied

and unoccupied France alike.

Either way, those features

needed to be innocuous.

Developing a discourse that didn't align

with Vichy's moralizing ethos

was frowned upon.

Continental Studios movies

did not undergo French censorship.

They were not subjected

to Vichy's control.

There may have been

an internal censorship

though I'm unaware of any.

If there was one,

it would have involved Greven

and members of the board.

However there are no examples of films

whose scenes were deleted or rewritten.

That didn't happen.

He didn't meddle with screenplays and

seems to have let people work in peace

There's a Zola adaptation

which is surprising coming

from a German company

given Zola's position

during the Dreyfus affair.

The also shot two adaptations

by Maupassant,

despite his being blacklisted in Germany

because of the short stories he wrote

about the Franco-Prussian war.

Those decisions prove that Greven

prioritized Continental Studios.

He appears to have isolated himself

and to have had a rich inner life.

Yet he was emotionally

shut out from people.

despite accounts of paranoid rages.

I believe that

he was immersed in cinema,

which was a remarkable tool

that represented occupied Paris

and the humiliations

people endured

while at the same time stimulating

people's imagination in movie theaters.

In doing so he showed that he was

anything but a dutiful Nazi.

He was at odds

with the entire French administration

and with religious lobbies.

Religious groups hated

Continental movies like Le Corbeau,

which were considered amoral.

There's something very personal

about the studio's productions.

For Le Dernier des six,

Greven asked that cabaret scenes

be added to make the film sexier.

This was contrary to everything

that was done in films at the time

especially in Vichy's film productions.

Those were puritanical, not at all sexy.

Yet he added cabaret scenes.

He produced films that wouldn't

have been made by Vichy.

Le Corbeau and La Vie de plaisir

were harsh social critiques.

They were even banned

after the liberation.

La Vie de plaisir

was released in May 44.

It was borderline, cynical.

It disparaged the elite, which

was not shown as brilliant at all.

and showed success as the result

of nepotistic connections.

It showed naked women.

It showed stupid bishops

and dim-witted aristocrats.

Such a film couldn't have

been made by a French studio.

Such a screenplay would have

been banned by the Vichy regime.

It is thanks to the Germans

that those satirical films

could be shot, paradoxically.

He chose to be a dissonant voice.

Were those extravagances possible

because he benefited

from Goering's protection?

He seems to have resisted what

Goebbels tried to impose him.

He was being disobedient.

– Do you want to become a doctor?

– I don't.

– Fine. Do you mean you can

only compose in anatomy class?

– My parents force me

to attend med school.

Continental films caused

Goebble's ire at least twice.

La Symphonie Fantastique,

by Christian-Jacque,

was one of them.

He sent Greven a memo saying it was

a remarkable film.

But people applauding

during the final concert

bothered him, as he didn't

want French nationalism excited.

He reminded Greven that

he wanted innocuous, mindless films.

Three weeks after receiving

this ultimatum of sorts,

Greven greenlit Le Corbeau.

The first draft of Le Corbeau

dates back to 1932.

The original working title was Snake Eye

The screenwriter, Louis Chavance,

thought the film would never be made,

"because the characters

were mean and ugly

and the story displayed the offensive

and mysterious nature of mankind."

Le Corbeau showed how sly

the French could be.

How they lied to, and were cruel with,

each other.

Some films were simply meant

as entertainment.

But many others subtly

trafficked in ideas.

Not only was Le Corbeau

about poison pen letters.

It also dealt with abortion and

petty village mentality. Heavy stuff.

The press attacked Le Corbeau.

Audiences didn't rush to the theaters

to see it either.

That was a first.

Indeed the press usually lauded

the films produced by Greven

and promoted them ostentatiously.

Behind all those hits was

Henri-Georges Clouzot.

Greven had had the good idea

of giving him his chance

by appointing him

to strategic positions.

He first supervised screenplays

and then became a director.

Can it be said that Clouzot shaped

Continental Studios' style?

At least he left his mark.

I recall the scene

in Le Corbeau.

in which Marie Corbin,

played by Héléna Manson,

is chased down the town's streets.

The moment when she comes home and

looks at her face in the broken mirror

is an extraordinary moment.

The last shot

of the film is also sublime,

in which you see the

cancer patient's mom.

Her cancerous son had cut

his own throat with a razor

after finding out

in a letter from the Corbeau,

that his cancer was terminal.

The mother finds out

who the Corbeau is

and avenges her son's death

by killing the Corbeau.

She walks away

wearing her mourning garb

in the sun-drenched deserted street.

What a wonderful moment!

The Clouzot style is also defined

by his casting.

He imposed his girlfriend,

the bubbly Suzie Delair.

He launched her career

alongside Pierre Fresnay.

The two comedians formed a sparkling duo

that would be cast in a few crime films.

In those films, Suzie Delair

always played a singer.

I'd like you to take me with you.

Every time I leave, you bring me back

into your fold with your kind words.

Of course, once you've been in a couple

of good films, it leaves a mark.

It inspires people who will try

to follow the example you set.

Tourneur's La Main du diable

stands out

as its genre differs from what

Continental usually produced.

The fantasy genre existed

before the war.

Films like La Charette fantôme

and Le Monde tremblera

dabbled in the fantastic.

Tourneur capitalized on his experience

in silent cinema in Hollywood.

This sudden outburst of fantasy

stood out in the French context.

It is an atypical film compared

to the rest of the production

La Main du diable contradicts

the German tradition of fantasy.

Its introductory scenes count among

the most unique in the fantasy genre.

They're meant to lead us

to the story of the hand.

They introduce countless characters.

While typical fantasy films

introduce one character

who will tell you the story,

here, you're shown an inn

with 50 characters introduced before

the topic of the hand pops up.

That's a big departure from

canonical fantasy films

Those usually establish a heavy,

anxiety-ridden atmosphere.

All those characters

talking over each other

postpones the introduction

of the main theme.

It makes the story skid into fantasy,

which is much more interesting.

I don't think there's an equivalent

in French cinema, before or after.

It's admirable.

Continental Studios were

a small community.

With offices on the Champs Elysées,

they attract mostly young people.

People in their twenties

and thirties.

Some of them were playing with fire

either because they partook

in the Resistance

while others were Jewish

and knowingly took risks.

Harry Baur's tragic fate is a case

in point of this playing with fire.

His story remains to this day

a unique case.

We've forgotten what a great,

prolific actor Harry Baur was.

He was very popular

and had shot many films.

Can't you pay attention?

I asked for silence!

I'll fire the first one who speaks.

Who did this?

Harry Baur was from Alsace.

It's still unclear to this day

whether he was Jewish

and had turned his back

on his heritage early on,

which was common at the time,

or whether he was

an Alsatian Catholic who,

like Charlie Chaplin,

purposefully entertained ambiguity.

This ambiguity backfired.

He played with fire

in the most extreme way

thereby crossing the line

without realizing it.

He shot a film in Germany.

He completed the shoot

but ended up being arrested.

He was officially arrested because he

had "falsely claimed he wasn't Jewish".

He can be considered a true victim.

If he was Jewish,

then the situation was

absurd and terrible.

Why throw yourself

in the wolf's mouth?

But he was the kind of actor

who couldn't resist a good part.

Harry Baur's life was not the only one

at stake at Continental Studios.

Others proved luckier.

The most extraordinary case is that

of Jean-Paul Dreyfus,

better known now

as Jean-Paul Le Chanois.

He worked closely with Greven

from whom he couldn't hide his Judaism

given his name.

Dreyfus changed his name to Le Chanois.

He managed to obtain

a certificate of non-Judaism

because he'd been secretly

baptized as a child.

During the Occupation, a list was sent

to all production companies.

Those who appeared on the list

were banned from working.

Those who tried to work exposed

themselves to violent punishment.

Despite that, Greven liked to say that

"Jews were the best at making movies."

Among the people on the list was

Jean-Paul Dreyfus, AKA Le Chanois.

He wrote screenplays and worked

for at least two and a half,

three years.

He was protected by Greven.

Everybody knew he'd been a communist

until 1940 and perhaps beyond.

And that's not all!

From 1935 to 1937,

he was Moscow's seeing eyes

in the theater and film industries.

That he should work with Greven

is simply unfathomable.

All this remains an enigma.

How to make sense of it all?

I discussed this with Le Chanois,

who thought Greven simply wanted

to make the very best films

and thus hired the best technicians.

It's true Greven protected Le Chanois

Meanwhile, the Jewish composer

of La Main du diable was fired.

Why the double standard?

It raises the question

whether Greven was trying

to cover himself.

He took risks, which hints at

a healthy psyche.

On the one hand he embraced

political ideals,

yet he made decisions

that undermined those ideals.

In 1943, the occupier

felt the tide shifting.

Germany lost a number of battles.

Hitler's dream of a third Reich

controlling the world was collapsing.

While Greven should have been planning

his return to Germany

he preferred instead to pursue

a mammoth project, close to his heart.

Namely, building physical studios.

Why imagine a future when

the Third Reich was falling apart

and the very existence of Continental

Studios seemed compromised?

Many hypotheses can be made.

Maybe it's because he was

very attached to France.

Maybe he hoped he might be able

to come back.

Or perhaps he was obsessed with the idea

of finishing what he had started.

He apparently didn't have anyone

or anything else in his life.

Continental Studios were his baby.

They probably took up all of his time.

He most likely found it difficult

to let go.

To use our psychiatric jargon, there are

monomaniacal traits to his personality.

Those studios would be larger and

involve greater means and more sets.

By persisting in building those studios

for Continental, Greven showed

he was willing to compete

against his own camp.

Let's not forget that

Babbelsberg's studios

had been the only ones in the world

able to compete against Hollywood.

Greven probably had those studios

in mind when he acquired new land.

near Mesnil-le-roi.

Continental Studios had capitalized

on Le Mesnil for its future.

But le Mesnil was a hole.

I don't even know

how he found that place.

It's probably German officers

in Army Communication

who spotted this vacation spot.

Next to Mesnil-le-Roy is the town

of Saint-Germain-en-Laye.

Marshall Von Rundstedt had set his

headquarters there with 15,000 men.

The small town was at the heart

of all Western front-related decisions.

There were a number of quarries

occupied by the Germans.

Here and here.

They bled into the forest.

They led to Von Rundstedt's

bunker in St Germain.

It was a large network, kilometers long,

underneath the forest.

You could navigate it by car,

and some areas were even paved.

Nowadays, I believe 6,000 people

live in Le Mesnil.

When I came here, there were 600.

There was a large terrasse, and

around it, miles of land.

Here, we're on the old castle's terrasse

which goes all the way down there,

and underground, you have a gallery

that collapsed in places.

Maybe you can find Continental Studios

archives in there,

but you'd better wear helmets.

A number of officers

settled near St Germain,

like at Le Mesnil where

villas were requisitioned.

Those villas belonged to exiled Jews

or to Parisians who used them

as weekend homes.

That's probably how the site

was identified as an opportunity.

Though we don't know everything

regarding the Mesnil studios

we do know Greven had

the valuable gear sent there

alongside the studio's negatives.

for fear the studios in Paris

might be bombed.

Continental Studios took over

the land of a Mr. Rheim.

Since the land belonged

to a Jewish banker,

the sale can't have been profitable

for the owner.

Here was the castle's wall.

This here is the orangery.

That's the only remaining part

of the castle.

This now belongs to the city.

Next door an condo residence has

replaced the castle and its outbuildings

That's the house!

That's what it looked like

when the Germans arrived.

And it stayed like this for a while.

They didn't destroy it

when they built the studios.

The chateau was here, and I suspect

there was quite a bit of space,

light and nature ideal to shoot films,

though maybe not of all genres,

and lots of land to build studios.

What they built was huge.

Two sets, indoor pools,

outdoor pools

gas stations for their trucks...

When they came to make movies,

people were psyched.

When I was going for a stroll nearby,

I'd see actors.

I recognized actors who were there

for the weekend.

Executives were probably showing them

where they'd be shooting soon.

They were showing them around.

But the studios were only used once.

Only one film was shot at Le Mesnil.

And it wasn't even

a Continental production.

The studios Greven had imagined

were never finished.

It was meant to be part

of an even larger project, though.

A project that haunted Greven

as History was about to stop him.

Greven spent a lot of time in Lisbon

while he was stationed in Paris.

Did he have the ambition to create

some sort of European film industry

that could challenge Hollywood while

maintaining national productions.

The consortium would be located

in Southern Europe.

A Mediterranean cinema

would have involved

fascist Italy,

Franco's Spain,

Salazar's Portugal,

(not quite democracies)

and Germany-occupied France.

The project perfectly epitomizes

Continental Studios' ethos.

As Greven's film alliance

seemed compromised,

Director of La Règle du jeu

Jean Renoir reached out to Greven.

La Règle du jeu had been a financial

disaster in 1939.

but he had an even more ambitious

film project in mind,

one that would make him a star director.

Renoir got the idea in the late 20s

as he was shooting Le Bled in Algeria.

That's when he first thought of

establishing film studios in Algeria.

One of Renoir's inspirations was Pagnol,

who had created his own film studios.

Author and director Pagnol built

a studio in southern France

meant to become a Provence Hollywood.

The experience of shooting a film

in Pagnol's studio inspired Renoir.

Renoir first floated the idea by Spain

in the late 30s.

Once France was defeated and occupied

Renoir shopped the idea to Vichy

and, more importantly, to Greven.

I learned that Greven had reached out

to Pagnol, too.

Neither Pagnol nor Renoir ever

worked for Greven

but they all contacted each other.

Was Greven thinking about it? Maybe.

But Renoir certainly was.

But Renoir was also thinking

about Hollywood. A great opportunity.

During a few months, he was both

preparing his move to Hollywood

negotiating with US studios, and writing

to Greven at the same time.

Renoir's departure for Hollywood

put an end to Greven's ambitious project

for French cinema.

In Europe, things didn't

look good for Germany.

In 1943, Germany faced severe defeats

on the Eastern and North African fronts.

On June 6, 1944,

the Allies deployed the largest landing

in history on the beaches of Normandy.

They took the Germans by surprise.

The leaders of the Resistance

encouraged Parisians to rebel.

Barricades were erected, weapons

gathered, and shoot-outs began.

Charles de Gaulle, the chief

of the Resistance, freed Paris.

Germany was defeated.

Continental Studios shut down.

Le Mesnil's construction site

stopped work.

The Champs Elysées offices closed down.

Greven had the studio's archives

moved to Nancy.

That's where we lost track

of those documents.

Some people cleaned house.

And pretty well,

since you're still looking!

Part of the French-based archives

may have been destroyed.

Because some wanted to hide

what had happened

between Continental and

the French film industry.

It's a big mystery,

though I don't think all of the

archives have disappeared.

I can't imagine the Germans

getting rid of them.

Germany was very organized at the time.

Copies were made of everything.

That's just not the German way.

We may find them.

Archives never disappear entirely.

Surprises always occur.

Maybe documents will turn up

in the Russian archives?

Maybe not.

Maybe something will turn up in Germany

that explains Greven's strange freedom.

Greven was long gone.

He's said to have snuck out of Paris

wearing civilian clothes.

He reappeared in Germany where

he went back to an obscure film career.

Post-war German cinema barely existed,

so his career could only be obscure.

I wasn't able to identify but

a single film worthy of interest.

To my knowledge, nobody

ever interviewed him.

Maybe he wouldn't have talked anyway.

It's a shame.

What followed perpetuated

what happened in Paris at Continental.

He was very discreet, as many producers

can be, who hide behind their films.

It further intensifies our curiosity.

In memory of André Samareg