Wir müssen zusammenhalten

1st watched 12/5/2008 -(Dir-Jan Hrebejk): Well executed film about a couple in Czechoslovakia who house a Jewish friend during the Nazi occupation of the country. The storyline is really about how people can stick together despite their differences and this is where it shines. The initial credits start by showing us a strange segment passing thru three years where nothing really happens except the introduction of the Jewish character who is ratted on by a neighbor so that their own family will not be harmed. We then are introduced to the main couple in the story entertaining a Nazi friend. They decide to house the Jewish friend and the conflict begins. The conflict is the real possibility that the Jewish person will be found and the couple will be punished as well as the entire town. The wife is the most stable person while the husband almost takes on some of the nazi's attitudes during the period while they are housing their friend. The movie shows how fragile the entire period was with the fear imposed by the Nazi's and the ability they had in changing the culture to becoming suspect of everyone. The couple want a child but are unable to have one themselves, but then end up telling a nazi that they are unable to house him because the wife is pregnant. The husband then makes the Jewish friend pregnate the wife to cover up for this lie. So, the Jewish character, is in some ways still imprisoned even though he is not in a camp. In the end, the four main characters work together to survive after the Czech's take back over the country and this is how the movie got it's title. The excellent performances and story and the opportunity to visit another time and place are just part of the reason to watch this wonderful movie. Hopefully many others will see this DVD release and this very good movie.

Just saw this on BBC4 - extraordinary - it's the kind of achievement American (and British) screenwriters should practice for years to emulate. Robert McKee, see this film!

The writing, directing and acting are all superb, and in the service of a supremely human story beautifully constructed around timeless epic themes of man's inhumanity to man, war, and all the other big stuff. To separate these from the movie itself, though, would be to do it a great disservice.

The mix of laugh-out-loud humour, gripping thriller, and finally a well-earned and unsentimental tear-jerker of a last 15 minutes is the zenith of a movie-watching experience. "Divided We Fall" is very funny from the outset, but it doesn't take long for the filmmakers to skilfully tighten the knot with sudden character twists and brilliant writing early on. Once we're immersed in 1943 Czechoslovakia, we're not only rooting for the lead character Cizek, played immaculately by Bolek Polivka - a winning combination of contemporary earthy Brit character actor Philip Jackson and 20th century comedy genius Alistair Sim - we're feeling like we're there with him.

He and the ensemble cast play every beat of the story just right (there's even one moment midway through where the audience are maybe allowed to get a bit too far ahead of Polivka's character, but it's remedied by the performances). The visual flourishes, especially the effects of switching between film speeds and using a DV tape look, all enhance the narrative without intruding into it, and thus heighten the tension at unexpected moments. The costume and make-up designs bring the human stories to warm life; and set against war-torn 1940s backdrops, the production design could hardly go wrong.

A great treatment of a much depicted time and narrative that manages to make events feel fresh, real, scary, funny, dramatic, ultimately hugely moving...somehow many more people should get a chance, and be urged, to see this film.

This movie is intelligent and thought provoking as it examines, without judgment, the human capacity for both good and evil in its portrayal of several citizens of a small town in Czechoslovakia during the Nazi occupation. It is rare that a movie be harrowing, funny, sweet, and heart wrenching without being contrived. What distinguishes this movie about wartime loyalties and collaboration with the enemy from well worn cliches is its finely nuanced portrayal of each character. Not every collaborator is deserving of punishment and not every so called resistance fighter is a hero. It is an emotionally rewarding movie and it shows that human behavior cannot be reduced to a Manichean struggle.

This film is a beautiful and haunting picture of Czech life during WWII. Particularly, non-Jewish, non-Nazi Czechs, although each of those groups are represented as well. The last few scenes of the film are ultimately a relief because, in light of the film's title 'Divided We Fall', the viewer half expects a pro-Communist forces message. This is not the case. The united Communist army representatives are shown as just as cruel to Nazis and Nazi sympathizers (even those who concede without a fight) as the Nazis were to... well ... nearly everybody. The title is, mercifully, not a political agenda, but a call for love and forgiveness - in this case, within what was once a peaceful and functional Czech community before Nazi occupation.

My only qualm with this film regards the way that the camerawork becomes unsteady and at a lower framerate whenever there is potential fatal danger to any of the characters. I appreciate that when we apprehend a very real danger, our perspective does indeed change to a nearly surreal state. However this cannot translate into the cinematic device employed in this movie, simply because the technique is used not only for when one person becomes scared, nor even only for when any character is scared, but when the AUDIENCE becomes sympathetically scared for the character(s), whether the character(s) knows what's happening or not! Thus, it seems pointless - or at least, it doesn't give the audience enough credit to know when they should be scared simply by how the story is unfolding. Personally, I'd rather a filmmaker flatter my intelligence by assuming I know the score, rather than point it out to me every time.

That qualm, however, is not as dire as it seems. Throughout, the movie retains its gracefulness, its fine pacing, and its delicate and unnerving balance between serene and severe, poetic and panicked. As an example, for a moment the picnic scene seems quiet, peaceful, lyrical, until we are suddenly (but without being hit over the head by daunting music or fast editing to drive the point home) reminded of the sickeningly casual scrupulousness of so many Nazis.

The movie is also extremely well acted. In one scene, Josef, Horst, and a high-ranking Nazi show up suddenly to the apartment which is central to the film. David, caught out of the pantry, dives under the covers with Marie to hide. Horst, probably a little drunk already, comes in and hits on the supposedly bedridden Marie, whose face succesfully commingles her disgust with Horst, her fear of being found out, and her discomfort (physical and ideological) with David lying right on top of her. This is immediately followed by another fine piece of acting when Josef steps into the doorframe, sees what's going on (i.e. that David is under the sheets), and goes from shock to fear to panic to decisiveness, suddenly breaking into a manic drunken look and dancing foolishly and singing a 'funny' Nazi song. His pretended drunken revelry is a ploy to distract Horst and the Nazi officer. Here, as many other times in the film, the line between life and death is suddenly, palpably a hair's breadth away - and yet without any guns fired, pointed, or even drawn. Another interesting theme throughout the film is the lies and deceptions by the good people in order to save one another, contrasted with the situations in which someone's honesty would condemn his friends. Sometimes it's ok, even necessary, to lie.

I don't want to spoil anything, but the ending of the film is a little odd. Yet I wholly embrace it. Film is an art form, and so it is allowed to employ a non-literal ending for the purpose of meaning. If you are put off by such unreal scenes, I suggest you watch less Jerry Bruckheimer movies from now on.

This film is, overall, a masterpiece. It is visually beautiful, has a moving and well-crafted story, and is certainly the best Europe-during-the-holocaust film that never shows you a ghetto or a concentration camp. The other best Europe-during-the-holocaust films, which do show these places, are Schindler's List, Life is Beautiful, and The Pianist. I recognize that Divided We Fall is much harder to find for sale or rent than these other 3 films, but really, everyone should watch all 4. I firmly believe that the more well-made films you see on the subject, the more understanding you'll have, and with these four combined, you get four different flavours: Czech, Polish, Italian, and American (about a German, among others). Divided We Fall is not to be missed.

Without doubt, one of the best films you'll see in your lifetime.

At the start, there is a car being driven in the countryside. The car stops, and three men get out to pee. Two of them play a little prank on the chauffer. In the next scene, the chauffer is in charge, and the family of the boy who played the prank (the bosses who happened to be Jewish) are being evicted of their big house.

And this is just a very minor aspect of the film. There are selfish people, and there are selfless people in this film, and more often than not they are the same people. Of course, those who want things spelled out for them would like to know if Josef makes the decision that is central to the plot to save his skin, to save David's, or to make his wife (who wants to have children) happy.

This is not a Hollywood film. I like American movies, most of the time. They are great for entertainment, but if I want something for my mind and my soul, something that can make me laugh, cry, and think, then this is the kind of movie I want.