Ein entstellter Überlebender des Holocaust macht sich auf den Weg, um festzustellen, ob der Mann, den sie liebte, ihr Vertrauen missbraucht hat.Ein entstellter Überlebender des Holocaust macht sich auf den Weg, um festzustellen, ob der Mann, den sie liebte, ihr Vertrauen missbraucht hat.Ein entstellter Überlebender des Holocaust macht sich auf den Weg, um festzustellen, ob der Mann, den sie liebte, ihr Vertrauen missbraucht hat.
- Regie
- Drehbuch
- Hauptbesetzung
- Auszeichnungen
- 17 Gewinne & 30 Nominierungen insgesamt
- Tänzerin
- (as Valerie Koch)
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Hess is brilliant in the central role, a really difficult part that she makes absolutely convincing. The other star here is the cinematography. There are other fine moments too - a really creepy scene early on full of women with bandaged faces - that help set the atmosphere. But the real thrill is to see a story told with such conviction and concluded with such panache.
If this brings to mind the idea of Nicolas Cage and John Travolta swapping faces in the awesomely bad "Face/Off", then you're not far off the mark. But listen up, here's why it works perfectly.
The theme of "Phoenix" involves how people face an unacceptable past. There are 3 main characters who each personify a particular, extreme response. It has to be extreme, it has to be preposterous, and most importantly we have to accept it. Either that or just walk out of the theater after 5 minutes and watch Monday night football instead. Our 3 characers are: 1) Nelly - she cannot let go of her traumatic past, and at the same time she has no past because she has no identity, figuratively and literally. 2) The husband "Johnny" - he utterly rejects the past, for reasons you'll figure out soon enough, and so he refuses to recognize his wife. In fact, we get the feeling that even if she were the spitting image of herself, he would still refuse truth. Such is the nature of psychological denial. And 3) We have Nelly's only friend "Lena" who has become a tireless political activist, saving survivors and trying to keep the past "alive" even though she is confronted with a society that has already moved on.
So you see how this story isn't supposed to be taken as a literal drama but rather as a very creative metaphor to illustrate how psychology works in 3 vastly different personality types. Further driving the surreal nature home, we have gorgeously shot, vividly composed visuals. If you ever wondered how Film Noir would look in color, then look no further. There have been a few contemporary classics which sought to bring Film Noir into the modern age, such as 2005's "Sin City" with its introduction of red to the crisp b&w palette, or before that was 1994's "The Crow" with its use of extreme darkness and "dead" colors. Here in 2014's is the next decade's evolution. In this case there is bold use of colors, but they are distinctly and "impossibly" presented: a dark alley is illuminated with a ghostly red light even though there are no red light sources to be seen, or a dark scene of bombed out ruins has unrealistic islands of light illuminating patches of rubble, all in vivid color but with stark contrast against the black spaces. The cinematography and lighting is as purposely unrealistic as the plot.
Ultimately if you grasp all of this, or if you just decide to go along with it for the sake of seeing how everything turns out, your suspension of disbelief will be amply rewarded. As nearly every other reviewer has noted, the ending is fantastic. Beyond fantastic, it's the whole point of the movie. In an interview, director Christian Petzold says the entire story comes down to the last 3 minutes, and that's where it will either come together or utterly fall apart. For my money, it's a total winner. "Phoenix" definitely does NOT crash & burn.
Couple of comments: this is the latest movie from German director Christian Petzhold, who previously has brought masterpieces like Barbara, Yerichow, Yella (all of which also star Noina Hoss), The State I Am In, and Gespenster. Petzhold is in my opinion one of Europe's most important and best directors, period. "Phoenix" touches many aspects: there is the immediate aftermath of WWII, and the enormous scars (physical, mental, and other) incurred by the Jewish people who managed to somehow survive; then there is the psychological mind games played by both Johnny and Nelly (did Johnny betray Nelly during the war? is Nelly betraying Johnny now?). It all plays out brilliantly. Check out the movie's final scene (no worries, I won't spoil), which stunned me and everyone else in the theater. Nina Hoss, in her 4th collaboration with Petzhold, brings another daring and touching performance as the shattered and brittle Nelly. Wow, just wow.
Even though this movie is a year old, it just now found its way to my local art-house theater here in Cincinnati. Better later than never, I suppose. I couldn't wait to see "Phoenix". The matinée screening where I saw this at this weekend was PACKED, somewhat to my surprise and delight. If you like a top-notch quality foreign movie that will stay with you long after you've seen it, you cannot go wrong with this, be it at the theater, on Amazon Instant Video, or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray. "Phoenix" is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
Absolutely not to be missed, even (or particularly) if you think you've seen every possible treatment of the toll of the Holocaust on individual lives.
Wusstest du schon
- WissenswertesThe woman on the magazine cover that Nelly liked to emulate was Hedy Lamarr.
- PatzerThe actor playing the US Army Sergeant sentry at the checkpoint is clearly German: while he speaks English well, his German accent still comes through.
- Zitate
[first lines]
Lene Winter: [arriving at the border]
Soldat an der Brücke: Passport... Nice car. Where did you get it from?
Lene Winter: It's from Switzerland.
Soldat an der Brücke: Just like you?
Lene Winter: Like me.
Soldat an der Brücke: [whistles to the gate] They're from Switzerland. The girl too.
[to her passenger]
Soldat an der Brücke: I want to see your face.
Lene Winter: Can I talk to you?
[gets out]
Lene Winter: Come on, she's not Eva Braun.
Soldat an der Brücke: Of course not. The bitch got killed by her husband.
Lene Winter: She's from the camps.
- SoundtracksSpeak Low
Music by Kurt Weill
Lyrics by Ogden Nash
Performed by Nina Hoss and heard as a theme over the credits
Top-Auswahl
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Details
- Erscheinungsdatum
- Herkunftsländer
- Offizielle Standorte
- Sprachen
- Auch bekannt als
- Фенікс
- Drehorte
- Legnica, Dolnoslaskie, Polen(Berlin in 1945)
- Produktionsfirmen
- Weitere beteiligte Unternehmen bei IMDbPro anzeigen
Box Office
- Bruttoertrag in den USA und Kanada
- 3.184.472 $
- Eröffnungswochenende in den USA und in Kanada
- 30.296 $
- 26. Juli 2015
- Weltweiter Bruttoertrag
- 5.855.623 $
- Laufzeit1 Stunde 38 Minuten
- Farbe
- Sound-Mix
- Seitenverhältnis
- 2.39 : 1