The photographs show a Paris that isn't that different from the one in the early 50's, with a few fascist posters added in. And it's not an invented Paris : there were people (not all) having fun in Paris in the early 40's... Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères
Actually, most photos of occupied Paris were taken under the auspices of the Propagandastaffel (which had the film ), and either show German military having a good time, or life and business as usual. There were people having a good time, even an obscenely good time (have you read Patrick Modiano?), but unless you were on the make in some way, it was no doubt pretty dismal.
Yes, there's a French tendency to want to cling to a legend of WWII that is more flattering to the national ego, but there can be a contrary tendency to want to paint it all informers, collabos and champagne. As usual, I think things were in fact complicated.
I think that at all times in Paris you'd find people living in squalor and people living in luxury. The proportions certainly varied during the war, but the latter tend to be photographed more often...
And the polemic about the exhibition was about, "How dare you show picture of life going on while jews were being sent to the camps ?". Well, one of the problems of such situations is that quite often, life is going on more or less as normal. Not only for collaborators. Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères
