rmh3283

I found this to be a highly thought-provoking film. In 1981 a frame was added to a 14-year-old ensemble film involving five young Polish actors (all but one of which is now dead - a poignant fact in itself). The frame itself served little cinematic or narrative purpose as far as I could see, but the central story was quite moving. Anyone with an interest in Eastern European reflections on the Holocaust would be well advised to give it a watch.

Tedious and tendentious, totally lacking in finesse or nuance. Ernst Deutsch and Ewald Balser were fine actors entirely wasted by the overwrought script. It occurs to me that this might be Pabst trying to prove he was a good guy despite having willingly made films for the Third Reich. His sentimentality fatally infects his story of 19th century antisemitism. For a far more compelling treatment of this theme, see Erich Engel's Affaire Blum, also from 1948.