Cold War

With its opening graphic of hammers and sickles radiating out menacingly from Moscow towards France, this March of Time film pitches the electoral struggles between De Gaulle’s RPF party and Thorez’s Communists as a test case for the survival of Western democracy. Combining a history of France’s post-war political upheavals with a sympathetic look the austere existence of a typical middle-class family, the film is a compelling mixture of human interest and high political drama.

This film argues that the reconstruction of Europe, via the Marshall Plan, could provide the basis for a politically and economically stable world, so long as Soviet influence was kept at bay. Relentlessly anti-Communist in tone (a typical feature of post-war issues) the film provides a factually accurate, skilfully edited account of France’s postwar turmoil , as well as depicting the day to day life of a typical Parisian family, the Dubois. Living a frugal life in their Paris apartment the Dubois enjoy good wine and food at their cousins’ farm in the countryside: a rare scene of contentment in a film which captures the uncertainty and fear of the early years of the Cold War.