Diplomacy

In August 1944, with Allied forces closing in on Paris, the German military governor of the city, General Dietrich von Choltitz, receives orders from Hitler to leave the French capital in ruins. Explosives have been placed beneath bridges and landmarks including the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre and Notre-Dame, and the general, a Prussian officer long accustomed to obeying without hesitation, prepares to carry out the destruction. Before dawn, the Swedish consul Raoul Nordling enters the Hotel Meurice through a hidden staircase and, over the course of the night, uses every diplomatic argument he can to persuade von Choltitz to defy the order. Much of the film unfolds as a conversation between the two men, weighing obedience against the fate of a city.

Volker Schlöndorff directed and co-wrote the screenplay with Cyril Gely, adapting Gely's play. The film stands late in a career that includes The Tin Drum, Death of a Salesman, The Handmaid's Tale and Voyager, and was followed by Visitation. André Dussollier plays Nordling opposite Niels Arestrup as von Choltitz, with Burghart Klaußner, Robert Stadlober, Charlie Nelson and Jean-Marc Roulot in supporting roles.

The production was a German-French co-release and took about four million dollars worldwide. It received a critics' rating of 7.4/10 from 50 reviews, slightly above its audience scores of 7.1/10 on IMDb from around 6,200 votes and 7/10 on TMDB from roughly 240 votes.