It Happened Here

The picture quality is what you would expect from a low budget film, shot on 16mm, 40 years ago, although it is remarkable that it works as well as it does. In trying to emulate a documentary feel, directors Kevin Brownlow and Andrew Mollo purposely exhibit a great deal of grain and use a harsh contrast setting that eliminates all shades of grey, rendering the world into strict black-and-white. The poor film quality only adds to the W W II documentary style, giving it an air of realism and believability.

Unfortunately the audio is rather poor. The combination of hiss, fluctuating volume levels and thick accents renders much of the speech unintelligible. It seems likely that the soundtrack would have greatly benefited from restoration, just as subtitles would have helped immensely.

The DVD extras are sadly not as good as the film. There is a text introduction by Kevin Brownlow that, although interesting, would have benefited being spoken rather than lying static on a page.

There is also an original cut of newsreel footage that, as far as I could work out, is a scene from the film.

One thing that does catch the imagination is the gallery of pictures from occupied Paris. They aren't of anything particularly exciting, more a depiction of everyday life, but looking at them it is clear to see just how realistic this film really is.