HotToastyRag What happens when you put Leslie Caron, Charles Boyer, George Chakiris, Kirk Douglas, Glenn Ford, Yves Montand, Anthony Perkins, Simone Signoret, Robert Stack, and Orson Welles all in the same film? Unfortunately, you don't get a very good movie. Is Paris Burning? is a black-and-white French film with lots of French stars and a few American ones, about Paris's liberation in WWII. While Gert Froebe has been ordered by Hitler to burn the city of Paris if Allied forces approach, the French resistance tries to liberate the city from the inside out. The subplots and countless characters were pretty confusing, and while I understood the stark directing style, it didn't do much to keep me from falling asleep. Unless you're particularly interested in watching a movie about this part of the war, you're better off choosing something else from the abundance of WW2 films out there.

JasparLamarCrabb Despite it's enormous length, René Clément's telling of the 1944 liberation of Paris is still really just a Cliff's Notes version of that historical moment. Lacking a cohesive narrative as well as one specific person's point of view, this is a very distant film. There's too much going on. While scenes of Allied tanks rolling into Nazi-occupied Paris are extremely moving, much of the film, despite myriad cameos by the likes of Anthony Perkins, Simone Signoret, Charles Boyer and Kirk Douglas, is not particularly involving. Certainly it's exciting and full of action, but it's also far too hectic for its own good. It's as if Clément was afraid to leave ANYTHING tied to the Resistance out. Still, there's much to recommend. Clément is mostly successful at blending documentary footage with his film and some of the performances are terrific. Claude Rich is a standout as the deceptively clever Général Leclerc and Jean Paul Belmondo adds a lot of color as a none too bright freedom fighter. Orson Welles has some moments as the Resistance-friendly Swedish Consul and Gert Fröbe's portrayal of German Général Von Choltitz avoids the one-dimensional crazed Nazi route (unfortunately, Günter Meisner takes that prize as a very ornery SS goon). Maurice Jarre's music score is suitably patriotic and Marcel Grignon's cinematography is excellent. Yves Montand, Alain Delon, Leslie Caron and Robert Stack also appear.

zardoz-13 I have read all the user comments about "Is Paris Burning?" and I think that I understand the movie better now, but I still argue that it was an inferior opus. No, I have not read the book, but I will put it on my list of books to read. Nevertheless, good history doesn't always guarantee classic movies, and "Is Paris Burning" remains hopelessly questionable in my opinion. Before I generate a laundry list of flaws, let me tote up the assets. First, Maurice Jarre's orchestral soundtrack qualifies as nothing short of brilliant because he captures the atmosphere and the drama in the events. Second, Marcel ("Taxi to Tobruk") Grignon's black & white widescreen cinematography rivals Jarre's score in the epic scope that it confers on the film. The producers clearly filmed this movie on location in the City of the Lights and the filmmakers may be applauded for giving the film a documentary flavor. The performances raised no concerns for me, except for Kirk Douglas, looking like he was on vacation when the casting director caught him and convinced him to portray General Patton, did raise an eyebrow. "Is Paris Burning" is a professionally mounted motion picture and there is no evidence of a shoe-string budget. Ultimately, however, what undoes "IS Paris Burning" is the overlong Gore Vidal & Francis Ford Coppola screenplay, along with the other acknowledged contributions from other scenarists, because there are no truly sympathetic character--just too many to keep track of, the storyline is episodic to the point of incoherence, and the entire movie wears out its welcome by the time that it pauses nearly two hours later for an intermission. There is no quotable dialogue and I felt like a lot of information that I learned on IMDb.COM should have been in the film itself. At the intermission, I wish that Paris had burned in the movie, BUT NOT IN REAL LIFE. As a World War II military history scholar, I can now appreciate the historical contribution that "Is Paris Burning" makes in its cinematic context, but as a film consumer, this bland, obtuse yarn just makes me yawn.

bkoganbing About 350 years earlier Henry of Navarre had captured just about all of France, but Paris and had been ruling as Henry IV for about five years but he decided he wasn't really king without his capital. He converted to the Catholic religion and Paris became united with the rest of the country. Henry decided that Paris was indeed worth a mass.Fast forward to 1944. Maybe militarily Paris wasn't worth that much in defeating Hitler, but for the morale of a people being liberated from a brutal conqueror it was invaluable. When the forces of the Resistance in its many branches could no longer be contained with Allied armies only days from Paris, battle plans got changed and a Free French Division under General Phillippe Leclerc went in and helped the Resistance take the city.Paris brule-t-il is the French cinema's answer to The Longest Day. It is dotted with cameos from French, German, and American film players and makes very effective use of newsreel footage blended into the finished product. You really do think you are watching an actual filmed record of the events as they happened.The lead in this film is German actor Gert Frobe, better known to audiences as James Bond nemesis Goldfinger. The film opens with him being given command of the city by Hitler himself and given very specific orders to destroy the city before it was recaptured.Frobe knows it and finally admits that the war is lost. He's concerned about what history will think of him should he do this terrible thing. He gets a direct order from Hannes Messemer playing Alfred Jodl and a reminder of what Hitler does to those who disobey him. Frobe's character General Von Choltitz died shortly after this film debuted and Jodl was executed after being tried at Nuremberg. Jean-Paul Belmondo, Alain Delon, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Yves Montand are all playing roles of Resistance members. Leslie Caron has a poignant small part as a woman trying unsuccessfully to get her husband freed before the Nazis ship him off to Germany before retreating. Americans in this film are Kirk Douglas as General Patton, Glenn Ford, as General Bradley and Robert Stack as General Siebert. Those three were put in briefly to insure some American box office in a French story. Funny no one thought of Douglas for the Patton biographical film classic four years later.Orson Welles has a much bigger part as the Swedish consul general in Paris who negotiates between the Nazis and the Resistance before the Free French Division arrives. Another one of those brilliantly executed parts by Welles he did to get money for his own projects.Director Rene Clement really made the people of Paris the star of this film. It is their tribute picture and a terrible reminder to people in every nation what it is like to live under a tyranny.