Daniel Costelle

Has everything really been said about the Algerian war? Although the archives are opening up, almost fifty years after the signing of the Evian Agreements (March 18, 1962), direct witnesses are beginning to disappear. They are, however, unique bearers of history, often the only ones able to illustrate the harsh reality of a long-hidden period. Gérard Zwang, surgeon of the contingent between May 1956 and June 1958, is one of these essential witnesses who help us discover an original history of the Algerian War. During his service, in charge of treating the most atrocious wounds of his fellow soldiers, he sees the war from the side of its victims. He did not fight with a machine pistol in his hand, but behind the closed doors of an operating room where life gives way to death in a matter of seconds.

In June 1940 nothing was written. The appeal of June 18 by General de Gaulle was a hope but also a start. The start for an essential page of the History of France, written by De Gaulle and his followers, without whom nothing would have existed in the Resistance to the German tyranny and this film wishes to honor their memory.

An exceptional documentary which presents, for the first time colorized archives, on Charles Lindbergh's life, the hero of the first crossing of the Atlantic Ocean on May 21, 1927.

Les Grandes Batailles is a series of historical television programs by Daniel Costelle, Jean-Louis Guillaud, and Henri de Turenne, broadcast on French television in the 1960s and 1970s, depicting the major battles of World War II, as well as the Nuremberg Trials. The project for the series actually began with an official government commission for a program on the Battle of Verdun in 1966. Ten other programs about World War II followed. The writers and producers of the series were Henri de Turenne and Jean-Louis Guillaud, both journalists. They entrusted the production of the series to the young director Daniel Costelle.