The Heart of a Nation
A Feature film of
Produced by
Production year1940
French release09/10/1945
Runtime1 h 53 min
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
