Non-English language History Documentaries

[Hobbes]

Hi chaps, after watching yet another poor history channel documentary I am wondering what people watch in Germany, France, Spain etc documentary wise? There must have been some great history documentaries made over the years about the history of these countries and many others. Can anyone recommend any? I have no idea what to look for - or where to find them.
Obviously English subtitles would be a big bonus - but out of interest I would love to know of any.

Cheers, Chris

[arsan]

When we are lucky we get some of that poor history channel documentaries you speak of ... but most of the times we don't even get that
Really, not much to see aroudn here that i know of

[Hobbes]

That's disappointing to hear arsan. I was hoping that you would be able to offer up a few classic Spanish documentaries from the past few decades

Cheers, Chris

[DarthMath]

In the 60's and 70's, some french historians and film directors (Jean-Louis Guillaud, Henri de Turenne, Isabelle Clarke and Daniel Costelle, for the most popular) have launch a serie of not-so-bad documentaries on the second world war. Entitled "The Great Battles" ( "Les Grandes Batailles" in french ), some of the films were quite good, even they weren't exhaustive. I remember "The Battle for France" in particular, with some unreleased previously images ( at the time ) from the Bundes-Archives.
There is also the very classic "De Nuremberg à Nuremberg", a 4 hours documentary on the WW2. The first ( and last, sadly !! ) in-mass video piracy encouraged by the authors. Some documentaries on the Shoah became classics too : "Nacht und Nebel" and "Shoah" in particular.
If I remember something else, I'll post it.

[Hobbes]

Thanks Darth, that's just the sort of info I was after. I wonder how many interesting things there are like this out there that people don't know about due to language restrictions. It's very rare to see anyone on forums like this from Russia, India or the far east. I have no idea if there are any interesting historical programs made there. You would think there must be a few but how do you find them?

From arsans reply though I wonder if many countries make historical programs?
Maybe the BBC TV licence fee is not a bad idea?

Cheers, Chris

[Ebbingford]

Maybe the BBC TV licence fee is not a bad idea?

Thank goodness for "Timewatch".

[Adlertag]

You may find also some interest to watch (or search for) the new television series about WW2: Apocalypse, programmed in september 2009 in France (France 2 channel).
Critics were laudatory. Note that many images were re-colorized, it gives an unique feeling of the events of that period.

Links :

http://programmes.france2.fr/apocalypse-seconde-guerre-mondiale/

and, partly in english :

http://french.imdb.com/title/tt1508238/combined

[Mickey3D]

I remember watching "Le monde en guerre" (the world at war) when I was a teen.

I haven't seen it again since then but I keep a positive feeling about it.

Edit : oops I've just reread the thread name... "Le monde en guerre" is an english serie