Collaborators on film

February 24, 2009 12:11 PM

Films about war time collaboration?

I'm searching for a list of films which deal with the idea of war time collaboration. More specifically about those that collaborated with their aggressors/colonizers and how they were treated by their countrymen.

A recent example which fits this theme would be "Lust, Caution". Other examples might be "Casablanca". The genre, war, and nationalities do not matter so much as the theme or the premise. It seems like there must be quite a few set in WW2, but I'm drawing a blank at the moment.

Thanks hive mind.

posted by cazoo to media & arts (17 comments total)

A Midnight Clear
posted by bondcliff at 12:17 PM on February 24

The Sorrow and The Pity (no link, sorry on iPhone) is a great 2 part documentary about France under German rule in WW2, with interviews with those who resisted and the collaborators as well. It's documentary and not historical fiction, but otherwise it's exactly what you're looking for.
posted by yellowbinder at 12:17 PM on February 24 [1 favorite]

Not sure if *any* of these quite help, but:

Pan's Labyrinth

The English Patient

Barry Lyndon

The Wind That Shakes the Barley

Major Dundee

The Counterfeiters

It seems like I'm blanking on the most obvious ones. I'm sure I'll see everyone else's suggestions and feel even more brain dead.
posted by theefixedstars at 12:32 PM on February 24

Paul Verhoeven has dealt with the Dutch Resistance from time to time:
The Black Book
Soldier of Orange
posted by rhizome at 12:43 PM on February 24

Lacombe, Lucien by Louis Malle
posted by runincircles at 12:47 PM on February 24

Hiroshima Mon Amour, by Alain Resnais, has a heart rending flashback about this.
posted by _dario at 12:53 PM on February 24

The Good German
posted by greekphilosophy at 1:04 PM on February 24

Evidently the play Copenhagen has a TV movie version.
posted by nat at 1:29 PM on February 24

Mother Night

And the ever favorite softcore film [Spoiler?]
posted by Pollomacho at 1:32 PM on February 24

It Happened Here
posted by Dr.Pill at 1:33 PM on February 24

"Listen, Spielbergo, Schindler and I are like peas in a pod! We're both factory owners, we both made shells for the Nazis, but mine worked, damn it!" - from A Star Is Burns

Anyway Schindler's List is technically about a Nazi collaborator.

Also, not sure if this counts, but The Believer is about a Jew who joins an anti-semitic hate group.
posted by Kiablokirk at 1:53 PM on February 24

Zentropa by Lars Von Trier uses the metaphor of werewolves, and deals with collaboration from an unusual historical vantage point of occupied Germany directly after the war. It's a really excellent movie about shifting alliances and by setting it immediately after the war, a lot of the conventional assumptions about collaboration's relationship with greater culture are reversed.
posted by klangklangston at 1:54 PM on February 24

Les Miserables, by Claude Lelouch. however, it may be tough to find depending on your region.
posted by mkb at 2:23 PM on February 24

Seconding Zentropa (AKA Europa), which is also superb for stylistic excess, unlike the man's subsequent films.

Also: Shoah, another one in the vein of The Sorrow and the Pity, has interviews with collaborating Jews. Bonus: it's ten hours long.

All the rest I can think of are novels.
posted by Beardman at 6:44 PM on February 24

Army of Shadows
posted by MLIS at 6:52 PM on February 24 [1 favorite]

Joyeux Noel totally sounds like what you are looking for.
posted by atmosphere at 6:59 PM on February 24

Hou Hsiao-Hsien's The Puppetmaster deals with accommodation with the Japanese occupation of Taiwan.
posted by Abiezer at 2:37 AM on February 25