Seventy years after the beginning of the Second World War, it seemed both exciting and important to tell the story of the war in a different way. Many documentaries tell the story of the Second World War with a national or even nationalist point of view, whereas we take an international perspective. We have also tried to be as close as possible to the famous or ordinary men and women, who experienced or became the victims of the war.
How long did it take to find and identify the footage included in Apocalypse?
We began the research and the deciphering of the archives at the beginning of 2007 and completed the editing in May 2009. Overall, it has taken us two and a half years to collect and identify 600 hours of archival footage from more than 100 sources in 17 countries.
Where is the most unusual or bizarre place some of this footage was found?
The never released images come from collections, which are not digitized or even indexed in the big film archives. These archives have many incredible resources that are very valuable for researchers. For example, Nara of USA, ECPAD (the film archive of armies) in France, NHK in Japan, and the film archive of Krasgonorsk in Russia.
Many of the images also come from the "home movies" that we found in the private German or French collections or in the English regional film archives. The descendants of the people who lived through the war recently found these amateur color films in family houses.
What was the most challenging aspect of reviewing this much footage?
The most difficult part has been making the heart-rending decisions not to use some incredible images, which unfortunately cannot serve the narration. The dramatic intensity of the history being our top priority.
What is an example of memorable footage that did not make it into the series and why was it not included?
We had to reject the most unbearable images, and also many excellent sequences, for instance:
- Heads of the Japanese soldiers in the mesh bag that the people
of Papua New Guinea hold proudly.
- Waffen SS school where we see the soldiers learning quietly.
how to fight the war (courses of military strategies and of mathematics...).
- Young undressed women who dance in a music hall, in one propaganda film made for the American soldiers in Asia Pacific to celebrate Christmas.
- The young Italian resistance fighters making great amateur war plans. Their daily interactions discussing weapons, making plans and laughing.
What is the colorization process like? How long does it take to colorize just one minute of film?
Before the colorization, we had to restore the images that could be damaged. Then we did the research with French and international historians on the colors of the uniforms, the airplanes, the tanks, the vehicles, the locations, etc. You cannot imagine the number of different uniforms in all of the armies during wartime! Such research could not have been done without the Internet and the dozens of passionate Second World War collectors and historians. Once the colors were decided, the colorization was made at the pace of one minute per day.
How has working on this series changed your understanding of WWII?
To describe the entire Second Word War in only 6 episodes of 52 minutes was a true challenge. The film directors Isabelle Clarke and Daniel Costelle have seized the essential parts. The chain of events through which the war developed into a worldwide war is very clear.
What is the one thing you hope viewers take away from watching this series?
This series shows the most devastating war of all times and human tragedy. The soldiers from all countries have suffered severely from the violence of the battles, but for the first time, there were more civilian victims than military ones. The images of the suffering of ordinary people will definitely stay in our memory.
Watch videos from the cameras of the unarmed heroes of the Second World War. Rediscovered and restored, these images document a world permanently altered by war.
