The Heart of a Nation
A Feature film of
Produced by
Production year1940
French release09/10/1945
Runtime
1h 53m
Synopsis
The story of how the people of Paris cope with the strains and struggles of war, from the siege of the city by the Prussians during the Franco-Prussian War of 1871 to the invasion by the Germans in World War II.
Credits
Director (1)
Actors (34)
Production and distribution (2)
- Executive Producer : Transcontinental Films
- Film exports/foreign sales : Paramount Pictures S.A. (Catalogue de droits)
Full credits (7)
- Screenwriters : Marcel Achard, Julien Duvivier, Charles Spaak
- Director of Photography : Jules Kruger
- Music Composer : Jean Wiener
- Editor : Marthe Poncin
- Costume designer : Rosine Delamare
- Producer : Paul Graetz
- Production Designer : Guy De Gastyne
Media Gallery
Technical details
- Type : Feature film
- Genres : Fiction
- Sub-genre : Drama
- Themes : History
- Production language : French
- Production country : France
- Original French-language productions : Unspecified
- Nationality : 100% French (France)
- Production year : 1940
- French release : 09/10/1945
- Runtime : 1 h 53 min
- Current status : Released
- Visa number : 859
- Visa issue date : 28/08/1945
- Approval : Unknown
- Production formats : 35mm
- Color type : Black & White
- Aspect ratio : 1.37
- Audio format : Mono
News & awards
About
When the Nazis became privy to the existence of Heart of a Nation, they ordered its director (Julien Duvivier) arrested and the negative destroyed. Both director and negative managed to escape to the U.S., where a dubbed version of Heart of a Nation was finally made available in 1943. Intriguingly enough, the man responsible for the salvation of the film was a German officer who happened to be a fan of Duvivier's work.
© Hal Erickson, Rovi
