France 3 is broadcasting this evening “Laval, the collaborator”, a historical fiction which looks back on the trial of Pierre Laval, a politician who worked for the Collaboration of France during the Second World War.
What is it about ?
Several times president of the Council in the 1930s, Pierre Laval was the architect of Pétain’s seizure of power in 1940. He established collaboration with the Nazis and organized Montoire’s meeting with Hitler. Pétain separated from him a few months later: the Germans demanded his return.
When he returns, he has full powers, co-organizes with the Germans the round-ups of Jews, including women and children, implements the compulsory labor service, fights the resistance fighters and declares: “I wish the victory of Germany “. He will serve Hitler to the end. At the Liberation, he will be tried during a civil war trial, without respecting his rights, he will be condemned to death and shot.
Laval, the collaborator is broadcast this Tuesday, November 2 at 9:05 pm on France 3. The fiction is already available on Salto.
A dark period in French history
For its new great historical fiction, France 3 has decided to tackle the Occupation of metropolitan France by Nazi Germany and the Collaboration through the trial of Pierre Laval. During the Second World War, he was considered, along with Philippe Pétain, as the most important figure of the Vichy regime and the main architect of the policy of collaboration.
If he was first vice-president of the Council, he became head of government from April 18, 1942 to August 19, 1944. On the run at the time of the Liberation, he was arrested and then sentenced to death for high treason and conspiracy against the internal state security by the High Court of Justice. He died shot on October 15, 1045.
Jean-Claude LOTHER
Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet is the lawyer Albert Naud
Sequence after sequence, Laval, the collaborator returns to the trial of Pierre Laval through a fiction constructed like a documentary. Jacques Kirsner, screenwriter and producer who has always been keen to tell the story of the Collaboration, has carried out a real work of documentation in order to offer a story that is as close to reality as possible.
This trial, we discover it through the eyes of Albert Naud, a young officially appointed lawyer who despite his detestation of the man and the politics he embodied, will try to offer Pierre Laval a fair trial. .
Under the direction of Laurent Heynemann, Patrick Chesnais plays Pierre Laval, while Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet, seen in The Princess of Montpensier, plays his lawyer Albert Naud. Mathieu Bisson, Hande Kodja and Brigitte Catillon complete the cast.
