Famed documentarian Marcel Ophuls has died at age 97. One of the leading filmmakers to capture the political atrocities of the 20th century, Ophuls famously directed “The Sorrow And The Pity” and the Oscar-winning “Hôtel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie,” both depicting the rise of the Nazi regime.
Ophuls “died peacefully” on Saturday, May 24, as his grandson Andreas-Benjamin Seyfert confirmed to The Guardian on Monday, May 26. Ophuls was born to German filmmakers, director Max Ophuls, and his wife, actress Hildegard Wall. At age 11, the Ophuls family fled France after Germany was invaded by the Nazis; they later settled in Hollywood. Ophuls served in the U.S. army theatrical unit in Japan for WWII in 1946.
Ophuls later returned to France and worked as an assistant to his father and other filmmakers such as Julien Duvivier and Anatole Litvak. He also famously was an AD on John Huston’s “Moulin Rouge” and directed part of the 1962 film “Love at Twenty” thanks to François Truffaut, as The Guardian stated. Ophuls also helmed 1964 detective film “Banana Peel” starring Jeanne Moreau and Jean-Paul Belmondo.
It was in 1969, though, that Ophuls made his seminal work, documentary “The Sorrow And The Pity.” The film was originally intended to air on television and was commissioned by a French government-run network. Ophuls was tasked with directing a documentary about the history of France under Nazi occupation; however, the four-and-a-half-hour “The Sorrow And The Pity” instead depicted the French Vichy regime collaborating with the Nazis. The film was banned from airing, but went on to be released in theaters.
Ophuls continued to direct more documentaries about political conflicts and genocides, including “Hôtel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie” about the titular Nazi war criminal. Ophuls won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for the 1988 film. Additional documentaries include “A Sense of Loss” about the Troubles in Northern Ireland, “The Memory of Justice,” the Sarajevo-set “The Troubles We’ve Seen,” and “November Days” that had interviews with East Germans about the fall of communism and reunification.
According to The Guardian, Ophuls was working on a documentary about Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories at the time of his death. The film had a working title of “Unpleasant Truths.” Ophuls spent his final years living in southern France.
