Fables of Time and Fables of Time First the good stuff. The authors managed to create an atmosphere of mass fuss, panic, uncertainty, confusion. A huge bridge over Gironde filled with a crowd of refugees, children sleeping on mattresses spread on the floor. Crowds of people, blocked streets, crowded hotels. The bourgeoisie, the aristocrats, the speculators who reason whether to flee further or to surrender to their enemies. The Ministers-capitulants are weaklings and scoundrels who sell their homeland.
Today, none of the French (let alone others) know anything about those times. Back in the 60s, the film Who is Hitler? appeared, about a generation that knows nothing about what happened 20 years ago. And here's over 60 at the time of the movie. And the authors had to convey not only the atmosphere, but also the outline of the political events of that time. And at the same time, his contempt for the “cream” of society, who disgraced France, threw it to plunder the barbarians. Many of the characters in the film are historical quotes. The Minister is easily recognized immediately Laval, Flanden and Bischlonne (about the latter we will say a few words). A ridiculous, unscrupulous actress is a cultural collaborator like E. Piaf. The general who will be in London by the evening is de Gaulle. The rotten bourgeoisie is a lady ready to return to Paris even with the Germans. Those who still have pride say without me! All this is a bitter and very vivid tangible reminder of the time that modern pettens and lavals try to give to oblivion.
The story revolves around heavy water. And that's where the fable begins. It is difficult to blame the authors for this - you need intrigue that will make the modern amorphous viewer watch a film about events that do not bring joy at all. But the epitome of this story is a mountain of stamps. Ministers are ready to surrender the water to the Nazis, and the German spy climbs over his skin to intercept the cargo (which should already go to the aggressors). Then more clichés: a crooked patriot, a stencil professor (of course, a Polish Jew – France did not know her physicists from birth), an even more template assistant in glasses and with a mandatory folder in a hug. The latter, by the way, with its failed eyes-beads (not her fault, but the sediment remained) does not fit into the landscape at all. Finally, a lover (and what about) a non-writer who looks like our contemporary, despite the fact that all other characters are authentic to the claimed era. He is first unrequitedly in love with the actress, then in his homeland, for which he leaves her - of course, all the patriots gathered in London, the Maquis and the Resistance did not exist, Jean Moulin, Henri Vallon, Francis Jourdan, Peer Philippe, Henri Roll-Tangi did not risk their lives and did not give her for France. Finally, the writer falls in love with the assistant and meets her at the monument to Claude Bernard, in front of the gates of the Collège de France. Vaudeville.
What really happened to the heavy water? Shortly before the events mentioned in the film, Frederick Jogliot-Curie, the great French physicist (son-in-law of another great French physicist - Pierre Curie, husband of Irene Curie - the third great French physicist, and friend of the fourth - Paul Langevin) was the first to receive a chain reaction, bought, with the assistance of Minister of Armaments Raoul Dautry, all Norwegian heavy water - 26 bidons of 5 liters. Not only did he buy, he took the water from under the nose of the Krauts, for which they attacked Norway. What's wrong with this heavy water? Is it that hard to synthesize? No, it's not hard. But the nearest deuterium synthesis laboratory is 150 million kilometers away, in the center of the Sun. And on the ground it can only be extracted by filtering electrolysis from the usual, in which it is always present ... in the amount of 0.0015%. Why do you need it? To maintain the division reaction, not to prevent it, as the assistant in the film foolishly explained. Simply put, without heavy water, research in the field of nuclear fission and, as a result, the development of an atomic bomb is impossible (even if it is not used in the bomb itself). He who has water has a bomb. And the French had water. As soon as the front at Sedan broke, Jogliot-Curie sent his assistants Abish and Kowarski with all the water to Bordeaux, where they plunged on the English spike "Broompark", and brought water to England (and the Krauts were left without a bomb). Jogliot-Curie himself, as a true patriot, refused the British offer to evacuate, remained in his homeland, joined the Resistance, joined the Communist Party, and fought the enemy. He prevented the export of his laboratory to the Reich, snatched Paul Langevin from the clutches of the Gestapo, and made for the partisans a "Jogliot cocktail" - lighter bottles that did not require a fuse. With help, the Resistance threw the Fritzians out of Paris in the summer of 1944. Yes, no Americans liberated Paris, they didn't even intend to do so. And this person in the film is replaced by an underwriter, a stencil “professor” and a girl with bead eyes.
Promised a few words about Bishlonne - scoundrel, scoundrel and traitor. He ended badly, putting “the victory of the Reich” – the Nazis themselves killed him in Berlin, removing an unnecessary witness to their crimes. I shouldn't mention him, but he got into heavy water history when he was secretary of the ministry. Raoul Dautry instructed him to write an order allowing Jogliot-Curie to evacuate heavy water, which Bichelonne personally handed over to Frederick. And now the right-wing Internet dumpsters, such as the French (and not only) pedias, write that he alone saved heavy water from his future owners! He only obeyed his commands (if he did, he would not).
What about the movie? For atmospheric entourage is very good. Be sure to look. Especially now you know what it is.
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fable - fable
faible