magdillane

From the opening soundtrack on a blank screen, bass and piano, It was just a couple of chords, and I was hooked! The music of Kurt Weill's standard, Speak Low, is threaded throughout the movie. (Words by Ogden Nash). I was so taken by the song that I must have listened to A dozen or so versions, from Billie Holliday to Kiri Te Kanawa. And I kept coming back to Nina Hoss' version and Weill's version. I go on about this tune because it encapsulates so brilliantly all the melancholy of Phoenix. Post WW2 Berlin, a shell of itself, Holocaust survivors looking to repair their broken spirits, Berliners struggling to eke out a living, all played out against a woman searching for her past, for her lost husband. Phoenix, a Berlin nightclub, Phoenix rising from the ashes. It's all there. Thank you Petzold.

I've watched this film several times, and each time I seem to like it less....On first watch, I would have given it an 8, but now, it gets a lowly 3....A man's film on how to fall instantly in love by ogling a maid, how to fall in instantly in love with no communication, how to fall in love at first glance with one of your staff who is overweight, "plumpy" as her father calls her...All in all a pretty silly film with no depth of character, hodgepodge of male fantasies.....Pretty vacuous film....Liam Neeson does a decent job....I ended up feeling sorry for these talented actors who probably earned a nice pay check....I mean, Laura Linney, poor girl....All in all I really related to the character who had the one word line "Enough"....All those gifted actors wasted on trick, empty stories....