SPECIAL SECTION

France, 1975, 118 minutes, Colour.
Michael Lonsdale, Ivo Garrani, Heinz Bennent, Pierre Dux, Michelle Galabru, Claude Pieplu, Jean Champion, Yves Robert, Bruno Cremer, uncredited cameos by Costa -Gavras and Yves Montand.
Directed by Costa -Gavras.

Special Section is another of Costa -Gavras’s political films. He made a great impact and won the Oscar in 1969 for his story of the Greek generals, Z. He followed it up with a film about the Iron Curtain, The Confession, with Yves Montand as well as making State of Siege about Latin America – a theme he was to take up in his American film, Missing, with Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek.

This is a film about France during World War Two. It focuses on political issues of right and left, sympathises with the Germans. And the Free French. It is a portrayal of the Vichy government, the officials, the judges, the military.

Costa -Gavras and his regular writer Jorge Semprun are not sympathetic to the Vichy government and its fascist principles. To this extent, the film is a vivid portrayal of the characters and the period as well as an indictment. The film shows a group of defendants in court – the victims of a particular special section which was set up to rout out subversion in the Resistance, amongst communists, amongst journalists.

1. The focus of the title and its significance, its impact? Expectation from the title?

2. The work of the director Costa -Gavras: Z, The Confession, State of Siege? Audience expectation of its insight and critique of oppressive political systems? The work of his writer Semprun? How political was the film? The critique of the past, the critique of fascism in general, the critique of the present? Impact on a French audience, memories? Non -French audience?

3. How well did the film recreate the atmosphere of France during the war? How necessary was an authentic atmosphere? The quality of the colour photography, acts and locations and costumes of the time? The use of contemporary music? Music to highlight the atmosphere? Audience involvement because of memories of the war, guilt memories about the war?

4. How clear were the political issues of Right and Left, Germans and French? The Vichy government, the Free French? How important was it that the film took stances? How could the stance of the director be described in political terms? The humanity of the critique of the Vichy government? Human issues, issues of justice?

5. How accurately did the film present the Vichy government? The people of France and their acceptance of the government? Petain? The French and their relationship with the Nazis? The hope for a compromise with the Nazis? The honesty of Petain, of the Vichy government? The potential for corruption and collaboration? Political and humane dilemmas? The speeches offered, the Minister of the Interior, the judiciary? How easy to all were the issues at the time? Now?

6. The importance of the Soviet -Nazi rift? French fear of Communists? Sabotage? The Communists embodying the Left, the Vichy government the Right and the inevitable clash? The visualizing of this?

7. Resistance, war reprisals and the issues of justice and humanity? The visualizing of the attacks on the Germans? Reprisals for the French?

8. Response to the establishment of the Section and its charter? The people involved and their credibility? Qualifications, attitudes? The arguments for the establishing of the Section, the reasons for refusal for involvement? The legalism involved, the political implications? The episodes in the film an examples of what happened? The irony that the Section remained in power throughout the tenure of government?

9. How sympathetic the director to the defendants? Biased in their favour? The importance of visualizing them in the court, in prison? Ordinary people, resistance, communists, journalists? How were they found? Disgust at the lottery for victims? The handling of the flashback sequences and their appropriate placing within the trial? The glimpses of the past - were they adequate to sketch in the characters? To explain what they were doing in court? The mixing of the guilty and the innocent? The importance of the presence of Sampaix? What did he represent? The focus of attention on him?

10. Much of the film was devoted to speeches and to argumentation. The dramatic impact? The placing of these speeches and their cogency? The effect on the French, within the court? Audience response to them?

11. The contrast of the various attitudes of the men, in prison, in the court?

12. The significance of the abandonment of the trial, the executions? The importance of the aftermath and events being more important in their consequences?

13. The importance of the fact that this government and Section wore established in a world at war, where people were taking sides, where ideologies were battling? Where justice and injustice was not clear? Where ambition in present, stupidity, corruption? Moral scruples?

14. The film's comment on the machinery of government, of the fascist power of the State, the place of individuals? The significance of the final comment? Did the film try to alter audience attitudes? Ask questions? How successful was it in the raising of social consciousness?