Hôtel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie

This Oscar winning documentary tells the story of Klaus Barbie through many interviews, some very emotional, a few level headed (which carry just as much weight simply by being factual). At a running time of about 4,5 hours this is not only a massive undertaking in itself, but also quite challenging to sit through. Obviously, this is not easy viewing.

The name Barbie itself does not necessarily spring to mind right away when one considers the biggest names in the Nazi organisation. It is telling, that a man known as the Butcher of Lyon easily faded from public memory.

I believe the first time I came across that name when he was the punchline of a joke in the film Rat Race (the Barbie museum turning out something very different than the family expected), which is astounding, really. Especially for someone who grew up in a country that used to be part of the German Reich. Barbie was simply never much of a topic. This was probably in part of his involvement (and protection that comes with that) with the US government.

As this was made during a time when documentaries did not have the aspirations of entertaining people, it may feel a little dated today. Documentaries have for the longest time been made for the sake of information. Sensationalism and bite sized conversation bits are a rather recent developments, I believe. So, sadly, however interesting and important, this will probably remain little seen.

Well worth it, though.

7/10

The Book Thief

What a wonderful book The Book Thief is. I remember that when I read it (it's been a few years) I absolutely loved it. The idea of the story being told by Death himself (I always thought of the narrating Death as a he and apparently so did the people making the film) was different and interesting. All the bitterness and hope that the story held made it a very rewarding reading experience, however sad the book may have made me.

Of course, they would make it into a film. And even though this is a valiant effort, there are just so many little things that didn't sit well with me, which took away immensely from the experience.

My biggest problem, one that almost made me turn off the film several time during the first half hour or so, is that most of the dialogue is in English - with German accent. Why? Can filmmakers please make up their minds. If you want to be realistic, you will have to have German speaking actors and subtitle the film. Or, if you want to tell the thing in English than fucking do so. Nobody needs to hear a German accents (and at times a bad imitation of one) to know that the people portrayed in the film are supposed to be Germans. I hated that!

And if you find a girl that can play the lead role and sort of master the accent (just imagine, they got an actual German boy to play a German boy!) why don't you give her anything to do but look at everything and everyone like a deer in headlights. She can do wide eyed. Bravo! Beyond that, we have no idea whether or not this girl can act.

All of this made me enjoy the movie far less than I should have, because it was a constant source of annoyance that kept me from actually getting into it.

Read the book instead.

3/10

Colditz

All is fair in love and war. And when the two coincide, then all bets are seriously off.

Colditz is a town in Saxony, where the local castle was used as a prisoner of war camp during WWII. But this was not just any old POW camp. This was rather for the very special cases, that had previously escaped from elsewhere.

The film begins with four British soldiers escaping through a tunnel, making their way to the neutral Switzerland. One of them makes it, two get caught and end up in Colditz and the forth gets shot.

The one that made it is one Nick McBride, rather reluctant in serving his home land and generally not the most ambitious person. Nevertheless, he made it out and receives accolades for that alone. He is promoted and starts work for the secret M9, who's job it is to assist other British POW's in escaping, establishing safe houses and transport back home and such.

The two that got caught are Willis and Jack Rose. Willis ended up caught in a barbed wire fence and Jack twisted his ankle. Before McBride departed, Jack asked him to look up his sweetheart back home, Lizzie. This he does and falls in love with her. When Lizzie keeps refusing his pursuit of her, McBride fakes an official correspondence telling her that Jack died when he was shot while trying to escape Colditz. This paves the way for his own romance with Lizzie.

Jack and Willis, meanwhile, plan and try one escape plan after the other (as do many other prisoners) and almost make it every time. Some do make it out, however, and it is through the escape of two individuals that McBride's betrayal is discovered.

This kicks off a series of events.

First, Sawyer, a former inmate writes to Jack to inform him that his Lizzie believes him to be dead and that the one that stands to gain from this can only be McBride.

Jack, as a consequence uses an escape plan that was devised for Willis, breaking Willis at last. This results in the poor guy simply trying to walk out of Colditz and getting shot in the back.

When M9 gets word that Jack is on his way to a safe house, McBride gets understandably nervous. When Sawyer tells him that Jack knows about him and Lizzie, the two start a shuffle that leaves Sawyer dead (this more or less accidental).

McBride then sells out the safe house Jack is in to the Germans and everyone there is shot and killed with Jack the only one getting away.

As a last ditch effort, he tries to whisk Lizzie out of the country for the New World, but Jack arrives just in the nick of time for Lizzie to realize that she has been lied to. As the two men fight (of course they do), the M9 is hot on the heels of McBride and shot him.

All this takes over 3 hrs. total but is actually so well make and played that time flies by.

7/10

Enter Nowhere

What a shame. This film could have been so much better had the acting been up to par. The story itself is quite unique.

Three strangers end up in a cabin in the middle of nowhere. Samantha was out in the woods looking for her husband who went for help when their car broke down. She thinks it is 1962 and they are somewhere in New Hampshire. Jodie just robbed a gas station and shot the attendant, but her boyfriend threw her out of the car after a fight. She has no idea how she ended up in the cabin. She thinks it is 1984 and they are in Wisconsin. Tom got stranded after he ran his car into a ditch. For him it is 2011 and South Dakota.

No matter which direction they are heading, they always come back to the cabin. This will come in handy when Tom has a Eureka! moment that comes in the form of  Pac Man! (You had to have been there...)

Bit by bit they start piecing little bits of information together until they come to the understanding that Samantha, whose father died in WW II during an air raid, is pregnant with Jodie. She is to die in childbirth. Jodie will become pregnant later that year (her year, that is), even though she never wanted a child. She also gets caught for shooting the gas station attendant. She is sentenced to death and executed in a South Dakota prison eight month after giving birth to Tom. Then a German soldier shows up. This is Samantha's father and the trio decides that they must save him to have their lives turn out differently.

They do (save him) and they do (turn out differently).

As I said, the acting is rather poor. Also, I am sure a young German actor would have been available to portray the German soldier. Granted, they man playing the part speaks decent enough German but there is the classic English/American accent. Fortunately, you can feast your eyes on Scott Eastwood, very obviously the son of Clint.

6/10

Die beispiellose Verteidigung der Festung Deutschkreuz (The Unprecedented Defence of the Fortress Deutschkreuz)

So, I am not the world's biggest Werner Herzog fan, but he made some awesome films with my favorite actor, Klaus Kinski (not my favorite person, mind you, but my favorite actor). This is not one of them.

This piece with the unnecessarily long title (if you read it slowly enough, it will take you longer than watching it) was filmed in Deutschkreuz, which is in my home country. It is under 15 min long and takes place in a castle, that was once the site of a battle between the Russians and the Germans during WWII.

A group of four young men visit the place and find uniforms and equipment. They dress up and play at defending the place. The only people around, however, are some farmers. The four get ready for the attack that - to their deep disappointment - does not come.

In the end, they storm out of the castle in full gear.

Yeah, it's weird.

5/10

King Rat

British soldiers, together with a handful of US Americans and Australians, are incarcerated in Chengi prison, Singapore. They move about relatively free but are kept in check by the ocean and jungle.

The POWs are gaunt and wearing tethered clothes, except for the US Corporal King who has established quite the florishing black market business. The soldiers he shares his hut with cater to his every whim, as they do profit off of his sense of business and survival. King pays off a number of other soldiers and gives them cuts of his earnings.

When he spots a British soldier, Marlowe, who is quite adapt in communicating with the enemy soldiers, he offers to employ him as a translator. Marlowe is not interested at first but eventually succumbs to the charms and the slightly better life offered to friends of King. The one trying to keep everyone in check and make sure that each soldier gets his fair share of rations is British Lt. Grey, who is almost too straight for his own good.

One way that Marlow profits from his friendship with King is that when he gets severely injured and is in danger of losing his arm to gangrene, it is King that pays for the medication needed to prevent the amputation.

But the end of the war also puts an end to King's reign. He - like the rest of them - has to go back to his real life, where his position is surely not as special as in the camp.

Not too spectacular but very well acted, I thought. King is played by George Segal, Grey by Tom Courtenay and Marlowe by James Fox (who I have been seeing quite a lot of lately....).

8/10

Mephisto

This film is based on the book of the same name by Klaus Mann, the story of the actor Gustaf Gründgens. The book was originally published in 1956 but after Gründgens' death (1963) his adoptive son fought to have the book banned, because it portrayed Gründgens in a less than sympathetic light. Consequently, it was taken off the market in 1966. In 1981, ignoring the ban, the book was finally republished in Germany. The film came out the same year.

The main character is called Hendrik Höfgen (brilliantly portrayed by Klaus Maria Brandauer), an actor that in the 1930s initially supports the Bolsheviks but it may not even be a political statement. He simply does not concern himself too much with the political changes in his country. So ignorant is he that he is not even aware of a vote that puts Hitler in charge in 1934.

His wife, whom he married not for love but because her father had considerable influence before the Nazis took charge, leaves for France and they lose contact. Also, some of his colleagues chose to leave the country. When one actress tells him she is learning English and about to leave for America, because there is no future for literary art and theater in this new Germany she also suggests Höfgen leave, as well. His reaction, "Ich brauche die deutsche Sprache! Ich brauche meine Heimat!" ("I need the German language! I need my home!").

Höfgen stays and bends enough under the new regime to coax his way to the top and into a circle of friends of an influential Nazi. All the while, he hides a friend in his apartment and has an affair with a black dancer, until his Nazi friend suggests she get out of the country and he no longer associate with her.

He spends the best part of his career playing the role of Mephisto in Goethe's Faust. Eventually, he is handed the reigns of an important theater in Berlin. Höfgens is every inch the opportunist, convincing himself that he only lives for the theater and politics barely come into it.

from Roger Ebert's review: This is a human story, and as the actor in this movie makes his way to the top of the Nazi propaganda structure and the bottom of his own soul, the movie is both merciless and understanding. This is a weak and shameful man, the film seems to say, but then it cautions us against throwing the first stone.

The film was nominated in the Best Foreign Language category (for Hungary) at the Oscars.

8/10

The Remains of the Day

This is based on the novel of the same name by Kazuo Ishiguro.

The story is set between the two world wars at Darlington Hall. Mr. Stevens (Anthony Hopkins) is the butler of the house, serving Lord Darlington (James Fox), who fancies himself a sort of mediator between his home country and Germany. Although a well-intentioned man, Lord Darlington will later be remembered as a friend of Nazi Germany.

The political discussions in the film, however, are merely the backdrop to the story of the servants and workers of the house, mainly Mr. Stevens and the housekeeper Miss Kenton (Emma Thompson), and their relationship...which could have been more than professional, were it not for the distant air of Mr. Stevens, who values his duties and loyalty above all else. Eventually, Miss Kenton leaves the house to marry.

Years later, after receiving a letter from her and after his Lordship has passed away and the house sold to an American congressman (Christopher Reeve, only a few years before his disastrous accident), Mr. Stevens takes a trip to meet with her to possibly arrange for her to come back into service at Darlington Hall.

The cast is impressive, to say the least. Along with the before mentioned Hopkins, Thompson, Fox and Reeve, it also features Hugh Grant and - in minor roles - Ben Chaplin and a young Lena Headly as a shy maid (a far cry from her turn as the scheming Queen Cersei on Game of Thrones).

A wonderful, wonderful film.

9/10

Mrs Henderson Presents

This is based on real events.

Mrs. Henderson, after having lost her son in the first World War, is bored after burying her husband as well. Her well-meaning friend's suggestion of taking up a hobby leads her to purchase a run-down theater in central London. With the help of Mr Van Damm, she puts on a revue that initially is very successful, but only until all the other theaters in town do likewise.

To get back on top, Mrs Henderson decides to put nude women into their sing-and-dance productions. This causes quite the stir and - of course - quite the success. The theater continues to run its shows throughout WWII. Although it is underground and therefore relatively safe from the German bombs, it does suffer its tragedies.

Dame Judi Dench and Bob Hoskins are wonderful in a sort of love-hate relationship. This also features Will Young (singing, of course) and Christopher Guest, who adds a few laughs to the film.

6/10

The Twilight Zone: Deaths-Head Revisited

One Mr. 'Schmidt' (formerly an SS officer operating under the name Lutze) revisits the town of Dachau and the remains of one of the most infamous concentration camps. He goes through all the buildings, regarding everything with a happy sense of nostalgia.

What he does not expect is to meet the prisoners that have died there some 17 years earlier. The first of these is named Becker and Lutze assumes that he is a sort of caretaker of the site. Only briefly he wonders why the man hasn't changed since they last met.

It's the sound of what seems to be the wind that makes him nervous and he cannot seem to open the door again. Becker then informs him that he has to stand trial for crimes against humanity, the court entirely made up of the former inmates of 'Compound 6' of the camp Dachau. The verdict, of course, can only be 'guilty' and his punishment is insanity.

6/10

Amen. aka Der Stellvertreter

The film Amen. is about an officer of the SS, aided by a priest, trying to alert the catholic church, opposing nations, anyone of the atrocities commited on the Jews in WWII Germany. It is based on true events, although the accuracy of the portrayal of the catholic church is under some scrutiny.

The film does spare out the actual gassing of Jews and is generelly very sparse on grisly imagery. Instead, it shows German military officials, well off people and religious figures having lavish meals as well as hurried meetings.

The cast is from across Europe, heavy on the German side (and it is always strange to hear Germans talking to other Germans in heavily accented English). The SS officer is played by Ulrich Tukur (wonderfully so) and the priest is portrayed by Mathieu Kassovitz (handsome, so handsome). The evil side is represented by the late, and always brilliant, Ulrich Mühe.

The most impressive images, for me anyway, are shots of trains going through scenery with empty cattle cars, followed by closed - and supposedly full - cars a few minutes later. This is repeated throughout the whole film to represent the incomprehensible numbers of people being transported to the concentration camps and - for most - to their deaths.

6/10

Voyage of the Damned

I have been giving you the impression that all I watch are crappy horror films, haven't I?

Well, I don't. I give you Voyage of the Damned.

This is a wonderfully made, very dense two-and-a-half drama starring, well, everyone. You have Faye Dunaway, Oskar Werner, Malcolm McDowell, Max von Sydow, Maria Schell, Ben Gazzara, James Mason, and - in a minor role - Orson Fucking Welles.

The story is based on an actual (very lavish) journey of the SS St. Louis that carried more than 900 Jewish passengers to Cuba, visas and all, where they were hoping to escape the terror of the Nazis and WW II. When arriving at Havana, they were suddenly refused entry - seemingly on the president's whim. After hovering a few hundred feet off shore, the ship was instructed to leave and the passengers were subsequently also refused entry to the US and started to return towards Germany.

During what appeared to be a happy ending, a handful of other European countries agreed to take the refugees in. The sad truth of the individual stories were given in one of the classic "what happened to ---- after the film ended" we learned of a few survival stories. Ultimately, about 600 of them didn't make it through WW II.

Sad, so sad.

8/10