The Longest Day
Eighty years ago, one of the most complex military operations of World War II took place: the Normandy landings. Co-directed by five filmmakers less than twenty years after the events and inspired by numerous true anecdotes, The Longest Day is the blockbuster film that helped cement these events in the collective memory.
Winner of the Academy Awards for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White
and Best Special Effects in 1962
The events of the Normandy landings, from the final preparations of the previous day to the evening of the famous June 6, 1944, traced from different points of view: on the Allied side or in the German camp, among ordinary soldiers, in command centers or within the Resistance.
Ken Annakin
Ken Annakin is an English film director. His career spanned half a century, beginning in the early 1940s and ending in 1992. Starting his career by making documentaries, he became known for a series of adventure films produced by Walt Disney: The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (1952), The Sword and the Rose (1953), Third Man on the Mountain (1959), and Swiss Family Robinson (1960). In the 1960s he was noticed by critics with large-scale adventure epic and comedies films, like Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines, Battle of the Bulge, The Biggest Bundle of Them All and Monte Carlo or Bust!. He directed nearly 50 pictures in his career.
Andrew Marton
Andrew Marton was a Hungarian director who later became a naturalized American citizen. He directed his first film, Two O'Clock in the Morning, in 1929, and in 1934, he joined a scientific expedition to Tibet. The result was his film Demon of the Himalayas, composed of stunning footage. He even made a new version in 1952, titled Storm Over Tibet. With the outbreak of World War II, he emigrated to the United States, where he co-directed several films. He became particularly renowned as an assistant director. He shot a significant portion of A Farewell to Arms (1957), including an impressive battle scene in the Italian Alps, and Cleopatra (1963), where he directed the re-enactment of a counterattack with a testudo formation. He also directed the spectacular chariot race in Ben-Hur in 1959, for which he received a special award as a director at the 1960 Golden Globes ceremony. Producer Darryl F. Zanuck then entrusted him with the outdoor scenes of the American segment of The Longest Day in 1962.
Bernhard Wicki
Bernhard Wicki was a Swiss director and actor. He served in the German military in France during World War II. The war had a profound impact on him and influenced many of his films. He directed several German-language feature films in the 1950s and 1960s. It was his 1959 anti-war film The Bridge (Die Brücke) that brought him worldwide recognition, particularly in the United States. This film tells the tragic story of young boys defending a bridge against American soldiers during World War II. After seeing this film, American producer and director Darryl F. Zanuck contacted him to co-direct the epic The Longest Day (1962). His wartime experience allowed him to accurately depict the German side. He also acted in several films, including Michelangelo Antonioni's La Notte, Peter Handke's The Left-Handed Woman, and Wim Wenders' Paris, Texas.
