Directing

Marcel Ophüls

Born — Died

1927-11-01 — 2025-05-24

Place of birth

Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Known for

Directing

Credits

61 titles

Marcel Ophuls (German: [ˈɔfʏls]; born 1 November 1927) was a German-French documentary film maker and former actor, best known for his films The Sorrow and the Pity and Hôtel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie. Ophuls was born in Frankfurt, Germany, the son of Hildegard Wall and the director Max Ophüls. His family left Germany in 1933 following the coming to power of the Nazi Party and settled in Paris, France. Following the invasion of France by Germany in May 1940 they were forced to flee to the Vichy zone, remaining in hiding for over a year before crossing the Pyrenees into Spain in order to travel to the United States, arriving there in December 1941. Marcel attended Hollywoo…

Known for

Film credits

2010s · 4 titles

Ain't Misbehavin poster
6.2

18 years after his last film, (The Troubles We've Seen), Marcel Ophuls emerges from retirement as one of our last masters, the most corrosive, the funniest as well. And the most forceful. The director of The Sorrow and the Pity shares with us stories of his exceptionally rich life in this light-hearted yet bitter escapade though the century and the movies. Son of the great Max Ophuls, he is generous in his admiration. We also meet Jeanne Moreau, Bertolt Brecht, Ernst Lubitsch, Otto Preminger, Woody Allen, Stanley Kubrick and of course François Truffaut. There are no great filmmakers without a memory, so here is the memory shop of Marcel Ophuls.

Ain't Misbehavin

2013

Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah poster
6.8

Claude Lanzmann discusses the long and difficult process of researching, shooting, editing, and presenting his groundbreaking and influential documentary, "Shoah" (1985).

Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah

2015

Marcel Ophuls and Jean-Luc Godard: The Meeting in St-Gervais poster
7.0

In 2009, in a small theater in Geneva, Switzerland, the film directors Marcel Ophuls and Jean-Luc Godard met for an unusual, surprisngly intimate and sometimes contentious dialogue with each other in front of a live audience. Luckily for us, it was filmed.

Marcel Ophuls and Jean-Luc Godard: The Meeting in St-Gervais

2011

No artwork available
NR

An interview with French documentarian Marcel Ophüls about his father Max Ophüls, regarding Max's arrival in Hollywood, how he received approval for Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948) from the head of the studio, his return to France, and what Marcel has learned from his father. An extra on Olive Signature's Blu-Ray release of Letter from an Unknown Woman.

A Deal Made in a Turkish Bath

2017

2000s · 3 titles

1990s · 3 titles

1980s · 5 titles

Series credits

Behind the camera

Love at Twenty poster
6.7

Love at Twenty unites five directors from five different countries to present their different perspectives on what love really is at the age of 20. The episodes are united with the score of Georges Delerue and still photos of Henri Cartier-Bresson.

Love at Twenty

1962

Love at Twenty poster
6.7

Love at Twenty unites five directors from five different countries to present their different perspectives on what love really is at the age of 20. The episodes are united with the score of Georges Delerue and still photos of Henri Cartier-Bresson.

Love at Twenty

1962

The Memory of Justice poster
6.8

This exceptional, disturbing, and thought-provoking two-part documentary compares the atrocities committed by the Nazis as revealed during the Nuremberg trials to those committed by the French in Algeria and those done by the Americans in Vietnam. The four-hour epic questions the right of any country to pass self-righteous moral judgements upon the actions of another country.

The Memory of Justice

1976

The Memory of Justice poster
6.8

This exceptional, disturbing, and thought-provoking two-part documentary compares the atrocities committed by the Nazis as revealed during the Nuremberg trials to those committed by the French in Algeria and those done by the Americans in Vietnam. The four-hour epic questions the right of any country to pass self-righteous moral judgements upon the actions of another country.

The Memory of Justice

1976

The Memory of Justice poster
6.8

This exceptional, disturbing, and thought-provoking two-part documentary compares the atrocities committed by the Nazis as revealed during the Nuremberg trials to those committed by the French in Algeria and those done by the Americans in Vietnam. The four-hour epic questions the right of any country to pass self-righteous moral judgements upon the actions of another country.

The Memory of Justice

1976

Hôtel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie poster
7.1

Marcel Ophuls' riveting film details the heinous legacy of the Gestapo head dubbed "The Butcher of Lyon." Responsible for over 4,000 deaths in occupied France during World War II, Barbie would escape—with U.S. help—to South America in 1951, where he lived until a global manhunt led to his 1983 arrest and subsequent trial.

Hôtel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie

1988

Hôtel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie poster
7.1

Marcel Ophuls' riveting film details the heinous legacy of the Gestapo head dubbed "The Butcher of Lyon." Responsible for over 4,000 deaths in occupied France during World War II, Barbie would escape—with U.S. help—to South America in 1951, where he lived until a global manhunt led to his 1983 arrest and subsequent trial.

Hôtel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie

1988

Hôtel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie poster
7.1

Marcel Ophuls' riveting film details the heinous legacy of the Gestapo head dubbed "The Butcher of Lyon." Responsible for over 4,000 deaths in occupied France during World War II, Barbie would escape—with U.S. help—to South America in 1951, where he lived until a global manhunt led to his 1983 arrest and subsequent trial.

Hôtel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie

1988

Ain't Misbehavin poster
6.2

18 years after his last film, (The Troubles We've Seen), Marcel Ophuls emerges from retirement as one of our last masters, the most corrosive, the funniest as well. And the most forceful. The director of The Sorrow and the Pity shares with us stories of his exceptionally rich life in this light-hearted yet bitter escapade though the century and the movies. Son of the great Max Ophuls, he is generous in his admiration. We also meet Jeanne Moreau, Bertolt Brecht, Ernst Lubitsch, Otto Preminger, Woody Allen, Stanley Kubrick and of course François Truffaut. There are no great filmmakers without a memory, so here is the memory shop of Marcel Ophuls.

Ain't Misbehavin

2013

Banana Peel poster
5.9

Two scoundrels cheat a millionaire out of a huge bankroll on the French Riviera.

Banana Peel

1963

Banana Peel poster
5.9

Two scoundrels cheat a millionaire out of a huge bankroll on the French Riviera.

Banana Peel

1963

The Troubles We've Seen poster
5.8

We follow Marcel Ophuls' two journeys to Sarajevo in 1993. He is starting a documentary about war correspondants. But this also becomes a reflexion about truth and life. The form consists in many interviews of mostly French and American journalists and reporters of television or newspapers.

The Troubles We've Seen

1994

The Troubles We've Seen poster
5.8

We follow Marcel Ophuls' two journeys to Sarajevo in 1993. He is starting a documentary about war correspondants. But this also becomes a reflexion about truth and life. The form consists in many interviews of mostly French and American journalists and reporters of television or newspapers.

The Troubles We've Seen

1994

Make Your Bets Ladies poster
5.5

A famous American secret service agent tries to rescue a German 17-year-old prodigy scientist who has been captured by the Russians.

Make Your Bets Ladies

1965

Make Your Bets Ladies poster
5.5

A famous American secret service agent tries to rescue a German 17-year-old prodigy scientist who has been captured by the Russians.

Make Your Bets Ladies

1965

November Days poster
6.8

Marcel Ophüls interviews various important Eastern European figures for their thoughts on the reunification of Germany and the fall of Communism.

November Days

1991

November Days poster
6.8

Marcel Ophüls interviews various important Eastern European figures for their thoughts on the reunification of Germany and the fall of Communism.

November Days

1991

No artwork available
9.0

From his childhood in the lowlands of northern France to his death in Nice, a look at the life of painter Matisse: his early education, his apprenticeship at the Beaux-Arts and his decades-long career as a painter, sculptor, and draftsman.

Matisse ou Le talent de bonheur

1960

No artwork available
9.0

From his childhood in the lowlands of northern France to his death in Nice, a look at the life of painter Matisse: his early education, his apprenticeship at the Beaux-Arts and his decades-long career as a painter, sculptor, and draftsman.

Matisse ou Le talent de bonheur

1960

Max par Marcel: Lola Montès poster
NR

In a series of four documentaries, Marcel Ophuls pays tribute to his father Max, and in this last one discusses his role as an assistant director on "Lola Montès".

Max par Marcel: Lola Montès

2009

Max par Marcel: Lola Montès poster
NR

In a series of four documentaries, Marcel Ophuls pays tribute to his father Max, and in this last one discusses his role as an assistant director on "Lola Montès".

Max par Marcel: Lola Montès

2009

A Sense of Loss poster
9.0

Shot over six weeks in December 1971, and January 1972, the film consisted of interviews with Protestants, Catholics, politicians, and some soldiers, combined with TV news clips of bombings and violence. The deaths of four individuals formed the central focus of the film, which Ophüls described as ‘an old, middle-aged, humanistic, social-democratic attempt to give people an idea that life after all is not that cheap’. The BBC refused to transmit the completed film on the grounds that it was ‘too pro-Irish’ (Sunday Times, 5 Nov. 1972). (via http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/media/docs/freespeech.htm)

A Sense of Loss

1973

A Sense of Loss poster
9.0

Shot over six weeks in December 1971, and January 1972, the film consisted of interviews with Protestants, Catholics, politicians, and some soldiers, combined with TV news clips of bombings and violence. The deaths of four individuals formed the central focus of the film, which Ophüls described as ‘an old, middle-aged, humanistic, social-democratic attempt to give people an idea that life after all is not that cheap’. The BBC refused to transmit the completed film on the grounds that it was ‘too pro-Irish’ (Sunday Times, 5 Nov. 1972). (via http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/media/docs/freespeech.htm)

A Sense of Loss

1973

Munich, or Peace in Our Time poster
8.0

A television documentary directed by Marcel Ophüls examining the Munich Conference of September 28, 1938, when European leaders met to avert the outbreak of war. Through archival documents and interviews, the film reconstructs the political atmosphere surrounding negotiations between Britain and France on one side and Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy on the other, situating the agreement within the broader context of European appeasement in the face of fascism.

Munich, or Peace in Our Time

1967

Munich, or Peace in Our Time poster
8.0

A television documentary directed by Marcel Ophüls examining the Munich Conference of September 28, 1938, when European leaders met to avert the outbreak of war. Through archival documents and interviews, the film reconstructs the political atmosphere surrounding negotiations between Britain and France on one side and Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy on the other, situating the agreement within the broader context of European appeasement in the face of fascism.

Munich, or Peace in Our Time

1967

The Harvest of My Lai poster
9.0

Filmmaker Marcel Ophuls investigates the massacre of My Lai by U.S. soldiers.

The Harvest of My Lai

1970

The Harvest of My Lai poster
9.0

Filmmaker Marcel Ophuls investigates the massacre of My Lai by U.S. soldiers.

The Harvest of My Lai

1970

No artwork available
8.0

No synopsis available yet.

Zwei ganze Tage

1970

No artwork available
8.0

No synopsis available yet.

Zwei ganze Tage

1970

À la recherche de mon Amérique poster
NR

In 1970, the return of Ophuls to the United States from his adolescence, then mired in Vietnam: direct testimonies on the evolution of mentalities, between racism and generosity, reactionaries and hippies.

À la recherche de mon Amérique

1971

No artwork available
NR

German adaptation of The Dock Brief

Das Pflichtmandat

1958

No artwork available
8.0

No synopsis available yet.

Clavigo

1970

No artwork available
NR

Television film

Festspiele

1982

No artwork available
NR

Television film

Festspiele

1982

No artwork available
NR

Documentary about director Fritz Korner

Kortnergeschichten

1980

No artwork available
NR

Documentary about director Fritz Korner

Kortnergeschichten

1980

Munich poster
5.8

A segment of “Love at Twenty” is a story of an unwed mother who contrives to trap the father of her baby.

Munich

1962

Yorktown: The Meaning of a Victory poster
9.0

Commissioned by French TV, Yorktown covers the bicentennial commemoration of the Siege of Yorktown, near the end of the American Revolutionary War, where the Americans and their French allies defeated the English. The festivities celebrating Franco-American friendship give Ophüls some amusement, as he takes a gleefully ironic look at the formally “friendly” meeting between Mitterand and Reagan, or exposes the absurdity of patriotic folklore.

Yorktown: The Meaning of a Victory

1982