Newsreels

France Actualités

1942-1944: the official programme of the occupation
21 hours - Pathé Collection

When the Germans set their sights on producing a programme for occupied France, they demanded that Havas relinquish control of France Actualités, and Havas had no choice but to comply .

The German single-programme policy in occupied France pushed Société Nouvelle des Etablissements Gaumont (SNE Gaumont) to counter with a programme for unoccupied France, produced with Pathé’s assistance: Le Pathé Journal de Marseille (or Journal de Vichy), which was broadcast from 1940 to 1942 .

From 1942 until 1944, however, France Actualités – produced by a Franco-German company that was founded after negotiations between the occupying Germans and the Vichy government – held monopoly broadcasting rights for the whole of France, and from the autumn of 1943, it was almost completely under the occupier's control .

Screenings of France Actualités instalments often provoked violent outbursts, and cinema managers were forced to keep theatres lit during screenings in order to avert public demonstrations .