The Organisation armée secrète was a far-right French dissident paramilitary and terrorist organisation during the Algerian War. The OAS carried out terrorist attacks, including bombings and assassinations, in an attempt to prevent Algeria's independence from French colonial rule. Its motto was L’Algérie est française et le restera.
The Algerian War was a major armed conflict between France and the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN) from 1954 to 1962, which led to Algeria winning its independence from France. An important decolonization war, it was a complex conflict characterized by guerrilla warfare and war crimes. The conflict also became a civil war between the different communities and within the communities. The war took place mainly on the territory of Algeria, with repercussions in metropolitan France.
Maurice Papon was a French civil servant and Nazi collaborator who was convicted of crimes against humanity committed during the occupation of France. Papon led the police in major prefectures from the 1930s to the 1960s, before he became a Gaullist politician. When he was secretary general for the police in Bordeaux during World War II, he participated in the deportation of more than 1,600 Jews. He is also known for his activities in the Algerian War (1954–1962), during which he tortured insurgent prisoners as prefect of the Constantinois department, and ordered, as prefect of the Paris police, the 1961 massacre of pro-National Liberation Front (FLN) demonstrators for violating a curfew that he had "advised".
Les Éditions de Minuit is a French publishing house. It was founded in 1941, during the French Resistance of World War II, and is still publishing books today.
The Paris massacre of 1961 was the mass killing of Algerians who were living in Paris by the French National Police. It occurred on 17 October 1961, during the Algerian War (1954–62). Under orders from the head of the Parisian police, Maurice Papon, the National Police attacked a demonstration by 30,000 pro-National Liberation Front (FLN) Algerians. After 37 years of denial and censorship of the press, in 1998 the government finally acknowledged 40 deaths, while some historians estimate that between 200 and 300 Algerians died. Death was due to heavy-handed beating by the police, as well as mass drownings, as police officers threw demonstrators into the river Seine.
Patrick Chauvel is an independent war photographer whose career began when he was just 17 years old.
Émile Augustin Cyprien Driant was a French writer, politician, and army officer. He was the first high-ranking casualty of the Battle of Verdun during World War I.
Pierre Schoendoerffer was a French film director, a screenwriter, a writer, a war reporter, a war cameraman, a renowned First Indochina War veteran, a cinema academician. He was president of the Académie des Beaux-Arts for 2001 and for 2007.
Le Crabe-tambour (Drummer-Crab) is a 1977 French film directed by Pierre Schoendoerffer, based on the novel he published in 1976, which is inspired by the adventures of Commander Pierre Guillaume (1925-2002). It was translated into English by the maritime novelist Patrick O'Brian as The Paths of the Sea (1977). The film stars Jean Rochefort, Jacques Perrin and Claude Rich. Highly criticially acclaimed, it won three César Awards: Best Actor – Leading Role, Best Actor – Supporting Role and Best Cinematography and was nominated for three others.
Georges de Beauregard was a French film producer who produced works by many of the French New Wave directors. In 1968, he was a member of the jury at the 18th Berlin International Film Festival. In 1983 he was awarded a Special César Award, the French national film prize.
Elements from the French Armed Forces used deliberate torture during the Algerian War (1954–1962), creating an ongoing public controversy. Pierre Vidal-Naquet, a renowned French historian, estimated that there were "hundreds of thousands of instances of torture" by the French military in Algeria.
Philippe Sarde is a French film composer. Considered among the most versatile and talented French film composers of his generation, Sarde has scored over two hundred films, film shorts, and television mini-series. He received an Academy Award nomination for Tess (1979), and twelve César Award nominations, winning for Barocco (1976). In 1993, Sarde received the Joseph Plateau Music Award.
Muriel is a 1963 French psychological drama film directed by Alain Resnais, and starring Delphine Seyrig, Jean-Pierre Kérien, Jean-Baptiste Thiérrée, and Nita Klein. Its plot follows a middle-aged widow in Boulogne-sur-Mer and her stepson—recently returned from military service in the Algerian War—who are visited by her ex-lover and his new young girlfriend.
Lost Command is a 1966 American war film directed and produced by Mark Robson and starring Anthony Quinn, Alain Delon, George Segal, Michèle Morgan, Maurice Ronet and Claudia Cardinale. It is based on the best-selling 1960 novel The Centurions by Jean Lartéguy. The film focuses on the story of French paratroopers battling in French Indochina and French Algeria.
Philippe Louis Edmé Marie François Erulin was a senior French military officer. He is best known as the Colonel Commandant of the 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment 2e REP, who directed the military intervention in Zaïre during the Shaba II conflict against rebels of the Congolese National Liberation Front (FLNC).
Captain Conan is a 1996 French drama film directed by Bertrand Tavernier. It is based on the 1934 Prix Goncourt-winning novel Captain Conan by Roger Vercel.
Intimate Enemies is a 2007 French war film directed by Florent-Emilio Siri, starring Benoît Magimel and Albert Dupontel. It was filmed in France and Morocco.
Bastos is a Spanish brand of cigarettes currently owned and manufactured by Imperial Tobacco. It used to be owned by Altadis until it was taken over by Imperial Tobacco in 2008.
The Ferme Gautier is a torture center established during the Algerian war in the commune of Souk El Had in Kabylia within Algeria.
Raymond Chabanne was a French military officer who achieved the rank of général. He was commanding officer of the 3rd Marine Infantry Parachute Regiment from 1972 to 1974.
