Last Letters from Monte Rosa

I was so glad that I got the chance to see this wonderful film last night. Taub handles very delicate subject matter with grace and care. The acting is marvelous, and the editing of the story is tight and streamlined while still maintaining a naturalness of actual life memories as though they were being remembered to us in the suspended time of reminiscence. Like life, we get to experience both the comedy and tragedy of it all. And there is also humour here that is not dark humour at all - which it easily could be, exclusively, given the subject matter. The honesty in the writing of these characters and the intimacy of how these performances have been delivered and captured for us touches an essence deep within our sense of humanity as viewers. I hope that this important film can gain a very wide audience indeed - it is worthy! Bravo!

Excellent film...brilliant writing, and witty. Shows great feeling and judgement of the minds of the Italian and German soldiers. The costumes and showmanship of the actual wartime wardrobe was great! The scenes were serene and action packed. The film brought back my thoughts of this war. The director Ari Taub explained it in a different perspective which made it really interesting. I am not a wartime movie buff, but it was excellent. It peaked my interest. It is a must see in my book. I hope it gets out in the independent film festivals. It deserves it! I hope Ari Taub continues his great work and efforts to the film industry.

Im very touched your work and speechless. Its brilliant. The work that you done as a director on this is simply amazing and your sensitivity towards your story, crew, cast, cultures, humor is so real and honest that it shines out of every frame. You really mastered it all until you where finished and its my honor to watch your finished first feature film. There is simply nothing that could have been done better. The sound - the edit - I was so with all your characters and the choice you made to show people at war you held through the very end of the film. I cant imagine how much work this all was for you - how much swamped ; ) THANK YOU FOR DOING THIS - THIS IS SUCH AN IMPORTANT FILM. Its amazing how you felt for everybody there and it will be my great honor to bring this film to my little community where I was raised in Austria. Im sure that everyone will be thankful to see a movie from this time that is not judging anyone but truly shows how things change in times of war. The love and respect you showed for each character and your crew crosses the images to my heart and I feel very happy to have met you here in Brooklyn. Thanks for the DVD you gave me. The thing is - it does not feel like you gave me a DVD, you gave me the largest gift a men could give.

With all my respect; Ulli Gruber

"Last Letters from Stalingrad", the 1950 compilation of the supposedly authentic war letters of Nazi soldiers caught in the bloodiest WW2 battle, has become the primary source of inspiration for the unprecedented war epic portraying the last days of WWII fighting in Italy - "The Fallen" and its second part "The Last Letters of Monte Rosa". Authenticity, viewed here as a meticulous, accurate re-enactment of the historical details - battleground weapons from period rifles to tanks and planes, soldiers' uniforms, etc - is more than sufficient condition for the compassionate and intimate presentation of the war daily routine with its sudden changes and upheavals, its cruelties and its rites. In this shoe-string budget production the up-and-coming filmmaker Ari Taub brings fear, absurdity and humor (all related to everyday realities of war) - into their proper balance.

In "Letters" the enemy (the Allies) is not personified, and our attention is focused instead on the uneasy relations between the German infantry and the Italian troops mercilessly raided by the partisans. Hollywood storytelling conventions are inevitable for such a traditional narrative, shot at the same time with - but started even before - the late-nineties wave of WWII epic blockbusters like "Thin Red Line", "Saving Private Ryan" or "Ivo Jima". At the same time a certain theatricality of the everyday, certain comical twists of even the most sad episodes, a true indie spirit of his "Letters" has radically distinguish the film from the glitz and glamour of the "dream factory".

Almost as ambiguous as "Last Letters from Stalingrad", Taub's retro-version also does its best to show a "human document which bares the soul of the man at his worst hour". Moreover, due to its unique balance between the tragic and the comical it provides a true Aristotelean, cathartic release of the emotions, especially in the final scene of German martyrdom and their last photograph for the American magazine (hence for posterity).

After all, Ari might be short for Aristotle.

What I really enjoyed about Ari's film, is the humanism in the face of war. We think of war as very dark and scary. And it is. Yet, there is more to life and more to humans than the focus of war itself. And there is always more than one side of 'the truth'.

In "Last Letters from Monte Rosa", we see the internal conflicts, as well as the external and how human beings relate and interact with one another, in a forced situation. We are shown that we can't escape ourselves. The heart will still have a place even in a time of war. And how different people can form unique bonds of understanding with one another and face their own individual challenges under difficult circumstances.

I really think that showing the heart of what it means to be human is Ari's strength. I hope Ari continues to make films showing the just how 'human' our lives are.