History Film / IsParisBurning

** Von Choltitz.
** Pierre de La Fouchardière who enters with his platoon in the flat of an old lady and shows her all due respect. When he leaves, he asks his soldiers to pick up the cases of their bullets.

Other actors in the AllStarCast include Creator/CharlesBoyer, Creator/YvesMontand, Creator/JeanPaulBelmondo, Creator/LeslieCaron, Creator/AlainDelon, Creator/MichelPiccoli, among many others, including many cameos by big stars.

** Creator/SimoneSignoret as the barmaid with a phone the arriving French soldiers use to call their families.

* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: Whether Von Choltitz was as high-minded and honorable in his actions as the film depicts remains disputed by historians, who note his complicity in Nazi round-ups of Jews within Paris, his past involvement in the destruction of Rotterdam and Sevastopol (albeit under different circumstances) and that most accounts of his decision-making come from Von Choltitz himself, who had obvious motivation to burnish his own reputation. The less generous interpretation is that it simply wasn't feasible for Von Choltitz either to hold the city or to carry out Hitler's demolition orders.

* TokenMinority: There are a few shots of black French soldiers, but they have very little screen time.

* TanksButNoTanks: An American [=M24=] Chaffee was mocked up as a German ''Panther'', due to the scarcity of remaining German war material after the war.

-->'''Von Choltitz''': Get these men out of here before I change my mind!

* LiteralMetaphor: As Col. Rol-Tanguy leads his men into the Paris catacombs he says "Well, now we're going underground--and I mean literally."

* RefugeInAudacity: When "Pierrelot" (Jean-Paul Belmondo) is tasked to retake Hôtel Matignon from LesCollaborateurs, he cannot get any men in insurgent Paris. So what does he do? Walk into the place with just his female aide, and ask for control of the place in the name of the temporary government. It ''works'', and he's treated like a minister.

* TitleDrop: Although in German -- toward the end, Hitler is insistantly asking "Brennt Paris?" (Is Paris Burning?) on the phone.

Other actors in the AllStarCast include Creator/CharlesBoyer, Creator/YvesMontand, Creator/LeslieCaron, Creator/AlainDelon, Creator/MichelPiccoli, among many others, including many cameos by big stars.

* DramaticGunCock: When a resistant tries to reach the American lines across a field, he hears a gun cock behind him. These are German soldiers, but they choose not to shoot him, because this would indicate the Americans their position.

Other actors in the AllStarCast include Creator/CharlesBoyer, Creator/YvesMontand, Creator/LeslieCaron, Creator/JeanPaulBelmondo, Creator/AlainDelon, Creator/MichelPiccoli, among many others, including many cameos by big stars.

* WeAreStrugglingTogether: There is a great deal of dissension among the Resistance groups in Paris, who are only loosely organized. Some want to rise up immediately, some want to bide their time, and some want to follow De Gaulle's orders and not rise up at all and instead simply wait for the Allies to arrive.

%%* LargeHam: Hitler, unsurprisingly.

Other actors in the AllStarCast include Creator/KirkDouglas, Creator/GlennFord, Creator/CharlesBoyer, Creator/YvesMontand, Creator/LeslieCaron, Creator/JeanPaulBelmondo, Creator/SimoneSignoret, Creator/AlainDelon, among many others.

* WeAreStrugglingTogether: There is a great deal of dissension among the Resistance groups in Paris, who are only loosely organized. Some want to rise up immediately, some want to bide their time, and some want to follow [=DeGaulle=]'s orders and not rise up at all and instead simply wait for the Allies to arrive.

%%* WeAreStrugglingTogether

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: Pretty much all of the historical protagonists of the event show up at some point. And there's a ''lot''.

* SpiritualSuccessor: To ''Film/TheLongestDay''. Black and white historical epic, international [[invoked]]AllStarCast, loads and loads of characters, Allied victory in WWII, French Resistance at work... you got it. It can very much serve as a {{sequel}} to it as far as historical events are concerned (if you skip the -- very grueling for the Allies -- Battle of Normandy that followed D-Day, that is). And Creator/GertFrobe played in both.

The film looks not only at the taking of Paris by French and American troops but at [[WeAreStrugglingTogether rivalries within the Resistance]]. Of the two main sections, the branch loyal to General UsefulNotes/CharlesDeGaulle was against an uprising while the branch linked to the communists, led by Henri Rol-Tanguy (Creator/BrunoCremer), believed action was necessary. De Gaulle tried to overcome communist influence during and after Liberation, [[RedScare believing the communists planned to take control of the city and then of France]].

* SpiritualSuccessor: To ''Film/TheLongestDay''. Black and white historical epic, international [[invoked]]AllStarCast, loads and loads of characters, Allied victory in WWII, French Resistance at work... you got it. It can very much serve as a {{sequel}} to it as far as historical events are concerned (if you skip the -- very grueling for the Allies -- Battle of Normandy that followed D-Day, that is).

* ThoseWackyNazis: {{Averted}} -- except for UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler, of course.

** George Chakiris, hot off the success of ''Film/{{West Side Story|1961}}'', appears as a U.S. tank sergeant racing his Sherman to the Eiffel Tower.