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