Is Paris Burning?

“"Burn Paris!" was the order that had come shrieking over the phone.”

General Dietrich von Choltitz holds Paris in August 1944, and his orders are to burn the city rather than surrender it. René Clément follows him through a crowd of resisters, diplomats and soldiers, among them Yvon Morandat (Jean-Paul Belmondo) and the Swedish consul Raoul Nordling, all moving at once through the occupied streets. The Allies are still outside the gates, and if the order is carried out, the city does not survive to see them.