The negotiations and the peace treaty that ended the first world war were one of the most important historical events of the 20th century. There are surprisingly little documentary films made about this event, despite the fact that it was one of the first well photographed and audio recorded extravaganza in history. A documentary about this event is of high interest for everybody who is interested in history or politics, but 'Paris 1919' deeply disappointed me.
It is not that there was not enough screen time - at around 90 minutes the film is the average length of a fiction film length, but yet there is surprisingly little information in 'Paris 1919'. At start after a good introduction of the events that ended the war in November 1918, the film fails to introduce properly the principal characters of the political drama it describes - the leaders of the nations engaged in negotiations, their background and personalities. It is left to the actors to bring these personalities to screen, but the docu-drama part is flatly acted, the leaders have no personalities, but just declaim historical memories or meeting minutes text without feelings or any personal characterization. It would have been much better to leave all this acting stuff out, there is enough filmed material, and photos or documents would have given a better image of the events.
Worse is the informational part. While the film focuses on the conflict between Germany on one side, England, France and the US on the other, and the issue of the amount of reparations, all other aspects of the peace conference are almost completely left out or mentioned in one or two phrases that make bad service to history. At Paris in 1919 have been drawn the borders of Europe for the rest of the century or longer, here lie the origins of the Balkan and Middle East conflicts. Nothing or almost nothing is said about those. The fate and positions of countries like Turkey and especially the Bolshevik Russia (who did not participate in the negotiations but was in the minds of all participants) are not mentioned at all.
'Paris 1919' is a bad documentary about an important event. Who ever wants to learn about it should rather read books like the one authored by Margaret McMillan. As it stands somebody knows nothing or too little about the peace negotiations that ended the Great War risks to be highly confused by seeing this film, and somebody who does know something about the historical events will learn nothing new from the film.
It is not that there was not enough screen time - at around 90 minutes the film is the average length of a fiction film length, but yet there is surprisingly little information in 'Paris 1919'. At start after a good introduction of the events that ended the war in November 1918, the film fails to introduce properly the principal characters of the political drama it describes - the leaders of the nations engaged in negotiations, their background and personalities. It is left to the actors to bring these personalities to screen, but the docu-drama part is flatly acted, the leaders have no personalities, but just declaim historical memories or meeting minutes text without feelings or any personal characterization. It would have been much better to leave all this acting stuff out, there is enough filmed material, and photos or documents would have given a better image of the events.
Worse is the informational part. While the film focuses on the conflict between Germany on one side, England, France and the US on the other, and the issue of the amount of reparations, all other aspects of the peace conference are almost completely left out or mentioned in one or two phrases that make bad service to history. At Paris in 1919 have been drawn the borders of Europe for the rest of the century or longer, here lie the origins of the Balkan and Middle East conflicts. Nothing or almost nothing is said about those. The fate and positions of countries like Turkey and especially the Bolshevik Russia (who did not participate in the negotiations but was in the minds of all participants) are not mentioned at all.
'Paris 1919' is a bad documentary about an important event. Who ever wants to learn about it should rather read books like the one authored by Margaret McMillan. As it stands somebody knows nothing or too little about the peace negotiations that ended the Great War risks to be highly confused by seeing this film, and somebody who does know something about the historical events will learn nothing new from the film.