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Alone in Berlin
Berlin in June of 1940. While Nazi propaganda celebrates the regime’s victory over France, a kitchen-cum-living room in Prenzlauer Berg is filled with grief. Anna and Otto Quangel’s son has been killed at the front. This working class couple had long believed in the ‘Führer’ and followed him willingly, but now they realise that his promises are nothing but lies and deceit. They begin writing postcards as a form of resistance and in a bid to raise awareness: Stop the war machine! Kill Hitler! Putting their lives at risk, they distribute these cards in the entrances of tenement buildings and in stairwells. But the SS and the Gestapo are soon onto them, and even their neighbours pose a threat.
Release : | 2017 |
Rating : | 6.5 |
Studio : | X Filme Creative Pool, Canal+, Pathé, |
Crew : | Art Department Coordinator, Art Direction, |
Cast : | Emma Thompson Brendan Gleeson Daniel Brühl Mikael Persbrandt Katharina Schüttler |
Genre : | Drama Thriller War |
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Sadly Over-hyped
Expected more
It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional
Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.
Gleeson & Thompson just don't gel as the grieving couple , but blame that on the writers. The couple are cold towards each other especially while out of earshot of others while in their apartment, they never talk about the son they lost, never talk about what he was like as a child or how they felt when he went to war. In one scene they celebrate the son's birthday but that is very quick and not a total expression of the true loss. Both actors do what they can with the little they got, but unfortunately for me it was not enough. In reality what was the point? A german couple certainly could not change anything with this idea they had and nothing was known of it till 2009. The story is lost in boredom even though it is based on a true account but that too is a fictional synopses of what happened at the time. The problem I have with this story is if the son had not died during the war then his parents would have happily continued to support hitler.
First of all, if I would have been in the shoes of Otto Hampel, the one who inspired the character of Otto Quangel, I would not have exposed myself by buying cards in shops, I would have written those messages on plain paper or pieces of cardboard. Which I would have left in more populated places, such as tram stops, train stations, big shops, restaurants, etc. very crowded public places. It would have been even easier and less dangerous and with much greater effect. Or I would be writing at night with paint on the walls of the city Berlin. Interesting story, well done film, worthy of appreciation the acting of all actors, especially the protagonists, Emma Thompson and Brendan Gleeson.
"Alone in Berlin" is a fictional depiction of the 1947 novel, "Alone in Berlin" by Hans Fallada. The main characters of the 2016 film are loosely based on Otto and Elise Hampel who were genuine historical figures that protested Hitler's government during World War Two. In real life, this German working-class couple was caught by the Gestapo and beheaded. Their Gestapo file was acquired by Hans Fallada and inspired the writer to make a deeply moving novel that was eventually published in English as, "Every Man Dies Alone".Emma Thompson and Brendan Gleeson play Anna and Otto Quangel who are fictional versions of the aforementioned historical figures in the "Alone in Berlin". After receiving the news of the death of their only son, the Quangels become agitated with the Nazi regime and begin a campaign of civil disobedience by composing postcards and placing them in high-traffic public areas throughout Berlin. These postcards urge the German people to stand against Hitler and his Nazi party because both were bad for Germany. The postcards eventually attract the attention of a genuine and hard-working police detective named Escherich who begins an investigation seeking to capture the perpetrators of this campaign, who he refers to as a "hobgoblin". There is very little romantic chemistry between the aging Quangels at the onset of the film. However, the combined effort of civil disobedience helps Otto and Anna rekindle some of the passion that was lost from their marriage. They grow close and continue their extended campaign of civil disobedience. Unfortunately, Otto is eventually caught when some of his postcards fall out of his pocket at his workplace. Naturally, Otto and Anna are subsequently executed by the Nazi regime. The same fate awaited the Hampel in real life after they were caught. At the conclusion of the film, the detective Escherich sits alone at his office. He had grown to admire the Quangels. He gathers up a number of the couple's postcards and scatters them out of an open window before shooting himself.This film could have been so much more. The actors were unquestionably talented. The scenes depicting Germany during World War Two including the Hitler Youth and the factories were satisfyingly detailed. But the film is weak given the powerful effect of the original novel. The most powerful moment of the entire film is captured in a touching moment between the old Otto and Anna Quangel when Otto explains his postcard writing campaign by saying, "It's like with a machine. A little sand in the gears will not stop the machine. But if a person throws a little more sand and more, the motor begins to stutter. The assembly line stops. In my mind, I see lots of people throwing sand in the gears". "You are a romantic Otto Quangel", Anna responds. Otto insists, "Im a mechanic", to which Anna replies, "Yeah. That too".
this is not a terrible movie, but it's hard to capture to real terror of Nazism. the book is a tough read but it's as near as I've seen to reality. the total fear of carrying out even the most trivial oppositional act. the certainty that your life is endangered if anyone knows what you're doing - even if it's your family. people always think they would have been in the resistance, but likely they wouldn't. this movie does a reasonable job of showing that only those with nothing to lose would even think about it.