On the night of August 24, 1944, the fate of Paris rests with General von Choltitz, who plans to destroy the city on Hitler's orders. As the general prepares to detonate explosives throughout the capital, Swedish consul Raoul Nordling uses diplomacy in a desperate bid to convince him to defy the orders and save Paris.
Acting
Arestrup's crumbling resolve meets Dussollier's velvet persistence
Direction
Schlöndorff traps you in a room with history itself
Writing
Every word carries the weight of a thousand lives
Director
Volker Schlöndorff
André Dussollier
Raoul Nordling
Niels Arestrup
General Dietrich von Choltitz
Burghart Klaußner
Captain Werner Ebernach
Robert Stadlober
Lieutenant Bressensdorf
Charlie Nelson
The caretaker
Jean-Marc Roulot
Jacques Lanvin
Stefan Wilkening
Caporal Mayer
Thomas Arnold
Lieutenant Hegger
Lucas Prisor
SS soldier
Attila Borlan
SS officer
Marie Dompnier
The makeup lady
Claudine Acs
The maid
Dominique Engelhardt
Hans, the guard
Johannes Klaußner
18 year old soldier
Charles Morillon
The vestibule guard
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The real Nordling never actually had this face-to-face confrontation; the meeting was dramatized from fragmented historical accounts.
This was Schlöndorff's return to the Hotel Meurice, where he shot scenes for his 1960 short—he'd been haunted by this story for over fifty years.
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