Has anyone else seen these excellent recent Second World War films?

[ExOptimist]

I'm a 62 year old woman and over the past couple of weeks I've seen the best 3 films I've seen in years.

They are all about WW2 - Pressure was really good but the best were a double bill of French films ( subtitled) about Charles De Gaulle which were only shown a couple of times in one cinema in my city, but which I thought were really excellent.

Brilliant acting, scenery, atmosphere plus seeing the war from a French point of view in the de Gaulle films was very interesting. I'm surprised those haven't been on wider release to be honest. I'd highly recommend all three.

I saw Pressure this evening and loved it!

Pressure was good, but not great. Andrew Scott was adorable, but Brendan Fraser was merely a shouty yank, and Damien Lewis over-egged Monty to almost General Melchett proportions.

The other film sounds good and I am off to Google. My favourite WW2 films are Downfall and Der Tiger (both German, coincidentally!) - highly recommended.

But what were the de Gaulle films called?

Andrew Scott is the only reason I have gone to the cinema in the last couple of years I think 😂

I haven’t seen this yet though, and I don’t think I’ll be able to, but it might be on Amazon already. I’m not sure. I have heard that it’s really good and I heard it from people who are not as massive fans as I am!

They are De Gaulle : Resistance and De Gaulle: Liberté.

Liberté is on release now( in my city one showing a day till Thursday), Resistance only had 2 showings. There were only a handful of people in the cinema when I went, despite The Times on Saturday doing a very good review.

Eisenhower was a pretty shouty General. And he was under incredible pressure to make the right decision about when to launch the operation. I thought Fraser did a good job portraying him.

I’m a U.S. Army veteran and military history buff, and I really enjoyed the film.

I'm seeing Pressure today. I saw it on the stage about 8 years ago and it was fabulous.

I saw the trailer for the De Gaulle : Resistance film and was really excited to see it.

Now I've read your post I'm a bit worried I've missed it! The trailer was amazing, the flag flying under the by the Arc De Triomphe made me all a shiver I tell you!

I saw Pressure at the weekend and really enjoyed it. Were the De Gaulle ones on at a chain, if so which one?

My favourite war film is Das Boot, about the crew of a German U boat. I'd seen the TV series as a teenager, then the film version on TV and a Director's Cut version on a one-off cinema showing which was stupendous. I've never watched the recent follow-on series though.

Oh I’m sure it was accurate, I just found the lack of character development - beyond bulging forehead veins and barking at people - disappointing. Why did he have such a close relationship with his aide, for example? What happened in the “disastrous” trial run and what was the personal impact on him? (They alluded to this, but I found it lacking). It felt very much like it was stuck in “play” mode rather than a film to me - a bit of a wasted opportunity to develop some of the themes.

But I’d watch Andrew Scott in any old turkey of a film tbh, and I still really enjoyed it.

The de Gaulle films were/are at the Odeon with very limited showings in my city, finishing tomorrow.

I do love mark rylance in Dunkirk

What happened in the “disastrous” trial run and what was the personal impact on him?

The disastrous trial run was a rehearsal for D Day and was held in Devon at Slapton Sands. There were hundreds of casualties resulting from friendly fire and an attack by an E boat on a convoy taking part in the rehearsal. Over 700 soldiers died.

It was a very graphic illustration of what would happen on a larger scale if D Day went wrong. Eisenhower was Supreme Allied Commander and in charge of the invasion plans - as he said before D Day launches, if it failed, the failure was his and his alone.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exercise_Tiger

Thanks @MrsDanversGlidesAgain - yes am aware of what happened, I just found its depiction in the film a bit lacking. It was during the title sequence iirc, a dead young soldier washing up on a beach, panning to a GWTW style line of bodies. It seemed a little disconnected from the main “plot” (and I was also irritated when the dead boy popped up very much alive in one of the LCVP sequences, but that’s by the by…) 😊

I even love him in the BFG, which is worrying.

You should add Conspiracy, the HBO film, staring Kenneth Branagh to your viewing list. It is based on the true event where the Final Solution' was planned.