Paris, 1940. German occupation forces create a new film production company, Continental, and put Alfred Greven – producer, cinephile, and opportunistic businessman – in charge. During the occupation, under Joseph Goebbels’s orders, Greven hires the best artists and technicians of French cinema to produce successful, highly entertaining films, which are also strategically devoid of propaganda. Simultaneously, he takes advantage of the confiscation of Jewish property to purchase film theaters, studios and laboratories, in order to control the whole production line. His goal: to create a European Hollywood. Among the thirty feature films thus produced under the auspices of Continental, several are, to this day, considered classics of French cinema.
Sarah-Jane Sauvegrain
Louis-Émile Galey
Claude Heymann
Jean Dréville
Marcel Carné
Raoul Ploquin
Henri Calef
Jean-Paul Le Chanois
Michel Duran
Henri-Georges Clouzot
Hans Borgelt
Danielle Darrieux
Max Douy
Louis Cochet
Charles Spaak