A Sense of Loss is the most well-known documentary by Marcel Ophüls that doesn't revolve around the Second World War in one way or another. It's understandable why he's better known for those, because I think they're stronger and more impressive pieces of filmmaking... but even then, you can still call his stuff underrated. The idea that The Sorrow and the Pity is the most famous because there's a joke about it in Annie Hall is enough to keep one up at night. Anyway, The Memory of Justice is his best, but that one seems to have been genuinely buried because of how brutally it unpacks what the U. S. (and some other countries) have done since the end of World War II. It's like the world's still not ready for that one, even though it was made about 50 years ago now.
Anyway, A Sense of Loss is about the Troubles, and it's pretty dry. You probably need to know some basics before entering into it, because I felt like I was thrown in the deep end. Republicans, Protestants, Catholics, the Brits, the IRA... I have to be honest, it's hard to keep track of them all.
At capturing a certain messiness at a time in history when the conflict was ongoing, A Sense of Loss is probably a success. As a breakdown of an event and a look at why everything's happened and what it says about human nature... I don't think it's as successful, again, compared to the other ambitious documentaries Marcel Ophüls has made.
It might not be fair to come away from this feeling lukewarm because I was a bit lost in the Loss of it all, but I think the filmmaker was capable of capturing messiness and bringing a little by way of coherency to it at the same time. That's what he's able to do with his longer films, all of which are about twice as long as A Sense of Loss. So maybe that trimming down (though it is still well over two hours) hampered the film overall a little.
