Most engaging: Pierre Mendès-France
Most charming: Anthony Eden
Most interesting: Christian de la Mazière
"I beseech ye in the bowels of Christ, think that ye may be mistaken."
To French native speakers:
How good is Anthony Eden at speaking French?
To me, he sounded veeeeery good; but I learned what I know of French, relatively recently.
JV
agreed.
I'd add the farmer.
What interested me the most was that Ophuls created a milieu wherein the Vichy supporters were made comfortable to reveal their true feelings, which must not have been so well received by 1969. I suppose the reality of the history was so apparent to the natives that reliving their experiences was made important to them, or the opportunity to share their true feelings was a welcome release.
Secondly, how philosophically resisters viewed their experience, from PM France to the farmer. I suppose there are similar tales to be told now from the balkans.
A history now vanished, then imperiled, preserved to us by the artful documentarian.