Based on the best-selling book by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre, Is Paris Burning? was adapted to the screen by Gore Vidal and the young Francis Ford Coppola and directed by vet French director, Rene Clement.
The title of the film, which is three-hour long, refers to the question posed by Hitler, who ordered the destruction of the City of Light in 1944.
Billy Frick plays Adolf Hitler, Kirk Douglas is General patton, Glenn Ford is General Bradleyin an illustrious cast that includes Jean Paul Belmondo, Charles Boyer, Leslie Caron, George Chakiris. Yves Montant, Simone Signoret, Anthony Perkins and Orson Welles.
Too episodic and lacking a discernible POV, this wannabe historical epic is a major disappointment
Oscar Nominations:
Cinematography (b/w): Marcel Grignon
Art Direction (b/w): Wily Holt; Marc Frederix and Pierre Guffroy
Oscar Awards
Oscar Context:
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? won the Cinematography Oscar for Haskell Wexler and Art Direction for Richard Sylbert and George James Hopkins.