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Post by marion on Sept 4, 2018 15:02:09 GMT
The No.5 War
This was an interesting film, if you happen to like perfume! It was the battle between Chanel and the Wertheimer brothers who owned most of her perfume company. The story is more involved than you might expect as they were Jewish and Chanel was, by most standards, a collaborater who was very lucky not to suffer the indignities afforded to many such women after the war. Apparently papers relating to her pro Nazi activities were discovered in 2011 but although I was vaguely aware she had Nazi friends I didn't know the extent of it. Although the commentary was fairly even handed, she does not come out of this well IMO.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 4, 2018 15:08:01 GMT
I watched it and she came across as a very ruthless woman, I’m pretty sure if those brothers had still been in France she’d have quite happily betrayed them to the Nazis to get her hands on the business. Very interesting programme though.
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Post by beverley61 on Sept 4, 2018 15:57:08 GMT
The same is true of L'Oreal. There have been numerous attempts to take the family to court since the war from Jewish families wanting to reclaim their homes, factories, businesses. They were a nasty bunch before the war, publishing many Anti-Semitic papers and pamphlets, they collaborated with the Germans and cashed in. Since the war they continued their funding of right wing and fascist parties and papers, including the main right wing party in France. They have also been accused of setting up a network of business to hide Nazis on the run or give ex-Nazis work etc. The French courts have always been extremely reluctant to look into anything further then a millimetre.
Last year the old woman died and I do believe her daughter now runs the business or has majority shares, she did try to leave them to the Front National but I think the will got overturned.
We had a Jewish French "French" teacher at school and she made us all swear we would never use L'Oreal products. I still don't, I have never harped on about it but I just thought why change now, there are other products. I look at their website from time to time to up date the list of companies they own, massive number of companies.
She never apologised or changed her mind and was an ardent anti-Semite until her dying day. The company never made any statements about distancing itself from her and on that basis I never thought I should change my shopping habits either.
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Post by captainmouse on Sept 4, 2018 16:18:37 GMT
Having worked for them, I wouldn’t again.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 4, 2018 17:47:15 GMT
That’s really interesting Beverley, I don’t think I have any L’Oreal products and I shall make sure I don’t buy any now.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 4, 2018 18:09:49 GMT
Hugo Boss produced uniforms for the German Armed Forces during the Second World War with the aid of forced labour, but they've apologised and even funded an investigation into how deeply their connection to the Nazis ran.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 4, 2018 18:42:00 GMT
Sadly I’m sure that if the Nazis had invaded us the same thing would have happened.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 4, 2018 19:22:22 GMT
What seems extraordinary is that Boy London happily use what is patently the Wehrmacht Eagle as their logo, unaltered apart from the wreath-and-swastika clutched in its claws replaced with the 'o' of boy. Any attempt to point out the connection is met with the equivalent of sticking their fingers in their ears and singing loudly.
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Post by marion on Sept 6, 2018 13:40:07 GMT
Loving Fergal Keane's Ireland. I seem to watch BBC4 most nights. I have just finished watching this. I thought it was a marvellous series and he is a really good presenter. Considering the timespan he covered, he did well to get through it in only 5 episodes! |
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Post by geometryman on Sept 22, 2018 19:57:52 GMT
'Secrets of our Living Planet' Just finished re-watching this 4-parter, which I first saw when originally broadcast on BBC2 in 2012: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01k73zy/episodes/playerChris Packham at his best - no irrelevant punk rock or 1940s aircraft references, this is pure eco-science investigating how apparently completely unconnected species (and entire systems) actually depend on each other. It covers 4 different environments - rainforest, grassland, temperate forest and water. Episode 1 is on iPlayer for 9 more days. |
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Post by marion on Oct 23, 2018 16:37:22 GMT
A Woman Captured.
This was on last night. It concerned a 53 year old Hungarian woman called Marish who was kept as a domestic slave for ten years by some hideous old bag called Eta and, by extension, Eta's family. I think there were two others in the same boat. Marish worked twelve hour shifts at a factory and Eta took all her wages. She did all the usual domestic chores like cleaning, cooking, sewing, for bed and board, which meant a kip on a sofa and scraps from the table. Eta also provided tobacco so Marish could make her own roll ups (very professionally I thought). I won't go into more details or spoil the ending but it beggars belief that this could continue and no action would be taken. I don't quite understand why Eta let them film in her house, although she was paid and no doubt has a monstrous ego!
Very chilling and thought provoking.
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Post by beverley61 on Oct 24, 2018 12:18:13 GMT
Ah but there is a big difference between volunteering to take on a contract and being right behind the ideology of something and being made to take on a contract some years later. Some manufacturers here were reluctant to make products for the war effort to start with and had to be made to and that is where you can draw a technical line. L'Oreal were doing it before the Nazis invaded France, they were over there in Germany looking for competitors to pick off.
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Post by marion on Feb 14, 2023 15:55:08 GMT
Russia 1985-1999 TraumaZone.
This seven part docu series was on BBC4 and is now on iPlayer. It is spliced together from hours of raw footage shot by BBC News Teams over the years and shows a lot of ordinary life in Russia as well as political developments. The variations in lifestyles are staggering, and a lot of the reaction to sons being sent off to the Chechen War is of course still relevant today. Of course, mothers don’t really have much opportunity to voice their concerns now, do they?
There is no narrator, no talking heads, just the footage with subtitles to keep you up to speed with events as necessary. It is brilliant imho.
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Post by marion on Feb 21, 2023 16:33:55 GMT
Inside Russia, Traitors and Heroes : Storyville.
This was another doc without a narrator or talking heads. It was filmed by Russian filmmakers and follows a few people’s stories and shows the feeling in Russia towards the war, including state propaganda and how some ordinary citizens believe it all. I found it rather interesting.
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Post by marion on Mar 2, 2023 21:29:54 GMT
Beneath The Surface : Storyville.
This is a terrible story, well put together but I have only been able to watch it in small chunks. It is a Norwegian documentary regarding the small community of Tysfjord. It is divided by a fjord and the population of 2000 is split between the Norwegian side and the indigenous Sami. On the Sami side, over 150 cases of child sexual abuse have been reported since the 1970s, and the local authority and other adults simply brushed it all under the carpet. It has some just dreadful stories and the feeling is that it was ignored for so long because the victims were Sami children, not Norwegians. It seems to be a way of life to many people!! I mean it is just horrendous and tough to watch but a sad story well told.
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Anymore to come?
