Die verlorene Zeit

I really enjoyed this movie. Well acted by all, with an exceptional performance by Susanne Lothar as Stefania: Her face can convey an entire page of dialogue without a word. The cinematography was wonderful as well, darkness playing a large part of dark subject matter. Stories like this one tend to get lost over time while the major battles and often-told hero accounts stay in the public's mind. I'm sure this isn't the only concentration camp love story to be told, but it gives the observer a view they may never have imagined. Much time and thought...and possibly discussion...will be given to the ending, I promise you that. See it; you won't be disappointed.

This movie reminded me a modern day Doctor Zhivago. I loved everything about the movie, I loved how the past and the present appear right next to each other. Not sure what the previous reviewer meant about the historical accuracy issues...or why he had mention Auschwitz in his review. Mr. or Mrs Shwartz, there were hundreds of concentration camps during WW2, there was no mention of Auschwitz camp during the movie. It could have been any camp. What did you mean with the high school students? Were you trying to hurt feeling of the people like myself who actually enjoyed the movie? What movie would you recommend instead? Did you really see the movie? I was a little afraid the movie was going to be little corny but I didn't have to. The directing, acting the paste were executed beautifully.

As of this writing, there are 1894 films on my IMDb list. If I rate them by excellence, this would be in the top three. If I listed only war and Holocaust movies, it would be Number 1 (The Boy In The Striped Pajamas would be number two.) The story is brilliant. The acting is magnificent. The low key photography and the often bleak weather settings fit the story perfectly. And the ending... No spoiler here. Let's just say my wife and I will discuss the ending many times. Powerful, powerful stuff yet understated, its fierce emotions (love, hate, suspicion,anger, fear) often conveyed without words, just superb facial gestures and expressions. It's also quite an accomplishment to make any film --- much less a superb one like this --- in four languages (English, German, Polish, Russian) I saw no listing of awards. It deserves any number of them! Screening this remarkable film more than makes up for all the bad movies --- perhaps 60% of those 1894 entries --- that I've endured over the years. If cinema is indeed an art form, this is a Van Gogh!

On a chaotic summer day among the poor souls in a horrific Polish concentration camp, 1944, young inmate Tomasz (Mateusz Damiecki) is desperate. German jew Hannah (Alice Dywer) is almost certainly meant for death at the hands of the Nazis running the facility. The two have fallen hopelessly in love, and he knows he must get her out and far, far away before it's too late. In an impossibly courageous effort and a scene that will pummel your nerves, he uses a stolen SS officer's uniform, scoops her up from the workhouse wing and quietly leads her right out the front gate. The two disappear into the neighboring Polish woodland in what is one of the only escapes from a nazi concentration camp ever documented. It's a bold, thrilling, stirring way to start the film, whether or not you know of its origins in actual history. That kind of escape from a place so hellish is a collective sigh of relief from both audience and characters, and it's one nail biter of an emotional ring of fire we all are forced to jump through. But we know this isn't the end, the resolute happiness we so wish for these two, because the film has only just started. In the confusion near the end of the war, the two of them are separated, and move forward in life each believing the other to be dead. This is all interspersed with visions of Hannah's life far in the future of 1976, now married, in her 50's and played by the sensational Dagmar Menzel. In a dry cleaner shop one day she happens to see a talk show on European television, where a man recounts his daring rescue and escape from Auschwitz. The details are eerily similar, and Hannah's mind races. Could this be Tomasz? Could he be alive after all these years and most importantly, should she go to him despite the gulf of time that signifies their prolonged separation? The film tugs at your heartstrings in so many different ways and moments, effectively hanging your tear ducts out to dry. No one can say no to a good wartime romance, because the formula is just too workable. Amidst all that confusion, terror and violence it is essential to find some sort of good with which to combat the dark, and what better way than the strongest force of all, love? Dywer and Damiecki are beyond convincing in their roles, so clearly blessed and burdened with that go for broke, die for one another type passion that we all look for and seldom find. American actor David Rasche plays Hannah's husband in New York, clearly torn up by the tumultuous past rearing it's head in their lives, but willing to empathize with the woman he loves and strive to do what's best in this difficult situation. Menzel is conflicted, hurt, hopeful and utterly, convincingly reactive in a role that's just not an easy one to pull off. Director Anna Justice uses majesterial skill to get the flow of story just right from scene to scene. Narratives which skip backwards and forwards in time can often feel jagged and unfounded in cohesion, but this one ebbs and flows from moment to moment without a single beat skipped or turn of plot out of place. I did some research on the true life tale this is based on, and for the most part they have stuck to fact to bring us as story that's almost unbelievable, and deeply emotional. Remembrance is a keeper.

Remembrance very quickly alerts the viewer to the horrors of a concentration camp. It's not a death camp, in fact it seems to be a bakery, but the constant insults and shouting of orders, and the way prisoners have learnt to be automatically deferential to their captors, is palatable. It's a bit of an eye-opener and worth a look just for that. The escape is knife-edged, also worth a look. The movie continues to be poignant by reproducing some common dilemmas and attitudes toward known at that time, even when in relative safety. As a war movie it's a great story. The contrast with 1971 New York is given in parallel throughout but is not too intrusive if you're only really interested in the story 1944-45, but I would question the need for it at all. Added to that is the problem of the younger/older versions of the heroine bearing very little physical similarities aside from height and hair colour. And in regard to the 1971 aspect, whilst I know as a baby boomer myself, and having grown up surrounded by war veterans, all of whom tended to be overly serious and dismissive of my generation, that the apparent meanness of the couple later in life shown here is probably a true reflection, quite frankly, as a movie, well, it was hard to watch. That's what is keeping my score here down to a 7. If you liked movies like Sophie's Choice (1982) then you'll probably like this one. Given it's a true story and a very competent piece of film theatre, with good sets/actors/locations/cameras, Remembrance is easy to recommend.