Le pacte

Maybe being a child of the generation depicted in this movie made me feel closer to the situations. I am not Jewish if that means anything. All the actors in this story play their roles perfectly. The tension builds to a point that makes one totally involved in the events. I highly recommend this film to everyone. Not for its historical significance but for the performances of all the actors. There are few films that involve an audience so much that one feels the pressure, tension, anxiety, and utter fear the characters portray in the story. Landau plays his part well, but Gretchen Becker, Judy Parfitt and Kenny Doughty are superb along with all the supporting actors. A great movie. I like to call these movies "sleepers".

The Aryan Couple is a film that covers a story and general subject matter without the respect nor attention they both deserve. It tells the most spectacular of tales in quite the most unspectacular of fashions; dumbing down harsh, gritty, disturbing goings-on in 1940s Eastern Europe into a bland, televisual, underwhelming series' of events - the idea and the situations most of the characters find themselves in are quite incredible, the cinematic translation from script to screen is anything but. Directed by now deceased John Daly, he of mostly producing credit fame; the film adopts a somewhat flimsy, 'point and shoot' aesthetic running on what appears to be a film stock more akin to the whatever format they used in the 1980s for shooting specifically made-for TV, usually police orientated, serial dramas.

The film sees elderly, wealthy Jewish Hungarian Joseph Krauzenberg (Landau), and his family of various generations, come up against the Nazi war machine whom observe this successful Jewish businessman and naturally, want in. Using all the powers, bargaining, wrangling abilities he has plus something known as the 'Europa Plan', Joseph attempts to essentially trade in what he owns for he and his families' lives. But a film revolving around this would result in whatever threat there might be, born out of whether the Nazi's would stay true to their word or not. As it happens, there're some incidences in which this is used to get across a scrap of dramatic weight; but the real story going on here is that which relates to the title: an Aryan couple whom work for the Krauzenberg family and are secretly working for the resistance; so secretly in fact, that their employers know nothing of it.

The film begins with a somewhat ill-judged sequence which sees a whole load of holocaust iconography thrust into our faces. Where, maybe a series of text might have been more efficient informing us of necessary statistics and actions that were going in at the time, in the area; Daly throws a series of scenes at us in which dramatic shots of death camps and cattle trains accompanied by the necessary music are the order of the day; on one particular occasion, a tracking shot towards an oven as the looming, brooding sound effects crank it up a level. From the off, the film lays out its hand; telling us to feel the pain and the emotion which comes with this sort of subject material rather than allowing us to naturally arrive at this point in our own time as the film tragically progresses.

Following the premature bombardment of some of this content, the film will cut to a train station and use a second manipulation cue, in that it provides us with a Nazi guard on the platform tossing a child's toy onto the coal carriage located just behind the engine – obviously lost or dropped following the ensuing chaos of herding those 'guilty' of Judaism onto a cattle train. It's this somewhat sickly identification the film makes with the fact there are children involved, which again, begs us to fast-track emotion and feel the pain and emotional anxiety which almost certainly comes when better films are executing similar subject matter in a more efficient manner. The opening is an acknowledgement to those that died, whereas the film is more about those that are desperately doing everything in their power to survive. Daly's referencing to those that did perish is nothing more than exactly that; a mere 'nod' of the head, a removing of the hat to those that suffered – to say it doesn't quite reach the levels of achievement Polanski got to in 2002's The Piainist, in terms of getting across a sense of fear; loss; tragedy; risk and survival – all at various points and all observed brilliantly, is a gross understatement.

The Aryan couple of the title are Hans Vassmann (Doughty) and his wife Ingrid (Carver), two people whom it is established are 'doing their bit' in smuggling in the necessary items required to run a resistance outlet at the Krauzenberg's huge home. One of only very few tense moments comes early on involving the two when they try to get past a German checkpoint whilst carrying items they'd surely be shot for possessing. It might've been even more effective had the German guards not been played by British actors speaking in English the whole time – is it asking too much to have German actors playing these role and using the German language? It would seem the film-makers were worrying a little too much about audience accessibility to the piece than giving a more authentic experience for the rest of us.

The film maintains a pretty desperate sense that it wants to tug at those heart strings more often than not, thus encompassing some pretty melodramatic acting accompanied by some daftly executed scenes; best highlighted in the instance when some family heirlooms are handed over to the Aryan couple in a 'thank you' gesture. Some Nazi officers carry scars on their faces to emphasise evilness; most of the lines at the more tense of times are representative of peculiar screen writing and are delivered in the worst of fashions: "We will never be forgotten" a character states at one point around a dinner table, over a rousing musical score, but we're not involved enough to feel anything; while a moral predicament two people question each other over seems half-baked and lacking in any sort of real dramatic effect. The Aryan Couple is quite the little cinematic misfire; a floundering mess of an adaptation of what is a supposedly true story of something which deserved better.

World War 2 ... it is not just the war that was abhorent ... it is how human beings were treated. Please do not compare yourself to what especially Jews had to go through, if you decide by choice to not listen to medical experts - that is just one example of how people nowadays like to distort history.

Now that aside, there are cliches here and some predictable plot twists. But overall it is quite the engaging human story. Even when certain other twists are ... well hard to understand to say the least. But ... it is what it is and I reckon we are human after all, even if it doesn't always seem that way (in this case when being a Nazi - never forget that some if not most were brainwashed into believing certain things ... which would be a more apt comparison for those thinking themselves as victims, but let's not delve more into that).

It is a bit long and I reckon has certain pacing flaws, but the question is how much you are willing to cut it some slack for the message and the endurance of the main characters ... so in the end as always it will be up to you ...

Despite the fact that there have been many good films about the Holocaust, the Nazi manipulated genocide of the Jews in World War II, there is enough room for a new perspective to that hideous period in history to make THE COUPLE a welcome addition to the repertoire. Written by Director John Daly based on a story by Kendrew Lascelles this film reveals a little known bit of history that shows that the Nazis allowed the wealthy Jews to 'buy their freedom and lives' at enormous losses. And the key Nazi, at least in this story, is none other than Himmler.

Joseph Krauzenberg (Martin Landau) is a very wealthy German Jewish industrial tycoon whose fortune is mirrored in his palaces that are more like museums of great art. But in the year 1944 his important steel mills and other major industries are needed by the Nazis and so a plan is hatched to offer Krauzenberg, his wife Rachel (Judy Parfitt) and his considerable family the opportunity to escape death by allowing them to leave Germany for Switzerland and ultimately for Palestine. The only servants the Krauzenbergs maintain are the Vassmans - Ingrid (Caroline Carver) and Hans (Kenny Doughty) - an Aryan couple who in reality work for the Underground and are actually Jews under strong cover.

Eichmann (Steven Mackintosh) and Himmler (Danny Webb) are perpetrating the plan to gain all of the wealth and lands and homes and art of the Krauzenbergs and they attend a dinner party at the Krauzenberg palace to sign the final papers. One of the other officers Edelhein (Christopher Fulford) is the most repulsive of the group and despite the fact that Ingrid Vassman is pregnant, Edelhein pursues her as a perfect foil for implanting his precious seed in the 'Aryan beauty' to populate the new Germany. As the night of transaction occurs Krauzenberg visits his large family being held by Eichmann in the Gestapo and reassures them that all will be safe. The Vassmans love the Krauzenbergs and ultimately confess that they are Jewish and wish to escape to Palestine with the Krauzenbergs. In a fast paced finale the trials and tribulations of the final plan are worked through in a somewhat surprising way.

THE COUPLE is beautifully photographed (the film was shot in Poland despite the fact that the Krauzenberg estates were in Hungary) and the mood of evil is always present in the night scenes with the requisite searchlights penetrating the darkness. Laudau and Parfitt are strong as are Webb, Mackintosh and Fulford. Neither Caroline Carver nor Kenny Doughty is up to the task of making the Couple credible. But the overall impact of the film is the focus of the evil that drove the Nazi machine, even with this slight bit of human kindness that was bestowed on the Krauzenberg family at such an awful cost. Grady Harp

John Daly second film as a director is a gem , outstanding performances by a talented cast led by Martin Landau & a sharp tongued Judy Parafit the story has interesting sub plots that leave the audience twisting and turning to the final conclusion . Beautifully shot on location in Poland ,the sets are lush and the cinema photography is rich with color and texture. Daly has gone on to break new ground yet again , his courage and foresight are well documented and his attempt to break new ground yet again is impressive . I highly recommend this film based on real events of the Europa project during WWII in which a rich Jewish industrialist played by Landau seeks a way out of Nazi infested Hungary by trading his fortune for freedom of his entire family and a plane to Palistine . This thriller was compared to the work of Hithcock and Polanski in a recent NY review. Congrats to John Daly who has broken the boundaries yet again.