Remember (4 Stars)

Two elderly Jews live in a New York nursing home. They make a pact to locate a man they knew while they were in Auschwitz. One of them is wheel-chair bound, so he can't travel. The other is suffering from dementia, but his friend encourages him to travel. They know the man's name, a false identity he used when emigrating to America, but there are several men with the same name, and all must be checked.

Zev Guttmann's dementia is so bad that he frequently forgets where he is and why he's travelling. His friend has given him a letter to read every day to remind him of his mission.

When I first watched this film I only gave it a two star rating because I found the portrayal of dementia disturbing. Today I made a conscious attempt to accept it, and I was able to recognise that it's a good film.

Success Rate:  - 2.6

	Order from Amazon.com
	Order from Amazon.co.uk
	Order from Amazon.de

Unknown (5 Stars)

This is one of the most exciting films I've ever seen. It's a perfect mix of action, suspense and mystery. I can't believe that I've waited 13 years before watching it again. How could I forget a film like this?

Dr. Martin Harris, an American biotechnology professor played by Liam Neeson, travels to Berlin with his wife for a scientific conference. On arriving at the hotel he realises that he forgot to pick up one of his suitcases from the airport, so he leaves his wife behind to take a taxi back to the airport. On the way he's involved in a traffic accident and is in a coma for four days. He returns to the hotel as quickly as possible. His wife doesn't recognise him. She's in the company of another man who claims to be her husband. He can't prove who he is because he lost all his papers in the accident. The stranger doesn't just have papers to prove who he is, he also knows all about his scientific work.

Eventually Martin begins to think he's crazy and returns to the hospital for treatment, but while he's there someone tries to kill him, and even kills the nurse who tries to protect him. This makes him sure that something is happening, so he hires a private detective to prove that he really is who he thinks he is.

Although the film is in English, most of the cast are top German actors such as Bruno Ganz, Sebastian Koch and Diane Kruger. This is a brilliant film, and the final explanation will come as a a total surprise. The viewers will also feel the terror of being lost in a foreign country with no identification and being denied by your wife and friends.

Success Rate:  + 2.5

	Order from Amazon.com
	Order from Amazon.co.uk
	Order from Amazon.de

Nosferatu the Vampyre (5 Stars)

"Nosferatu the Vampyre", made in 1979, is an adaptation of the novel "Dracula" by Bram Stoker, but it follows the 1922 film "Nosferatu" so closely that it could almost be considered a remake.

The German director Werner Herzog had the greatest respect for "Nosferatu". He said it was the best film ever made in Germany. I don't know why he nevertheless decided to make a new version of it, but I can hazard a few guesses. He wanted to make a clean version as an alternative to the old fuzzy tapes. He wanted to restore the original names from the novel, because the original film had changed the names and places to avoid copyright complaints.

Herzog changed Count Orlok's name to Count Dracula. For that we can be thankful. He also changed Hutter's name to Jonathan Harker, but his other changes were confused. In "Nosferatu" Hutter's wife was called Ellen, but he changed her name to Lucy Harker in his new film. Stop! In the novel Jonathan's fiancée/wife is called Mina, and Mina's best friend is Lucy. In Werner Herzog's film Jonathan's wife is called Lucy, and her best friend is Mina. There's no justification for this swapping of names. It's a blunder.

Bram Stoker's novel was set in England, partly in London and partly in Whitby, Yorkshire. "Nosferatu" was set in a fictional town in Germany. Werner Herzog decided to set the story in the beautiful East German town Wismar. Unfortunately, he wasn't given permission to film in Wismar – the East German government was erratic in what it did and didn't allow – so he filmed the Wismar scenes in Delft, a Dutch town near to The Hague. That would have worked well if Herzog had paid more attention to the background while filming. The street signs are written in Dutch!

"Nosferatu the Vampyre" isn't the most accurate adaptation of Bram Stoker's "Dracula", and it might not be the best adaptation, but it's undoubtedly the most beautiful adaptation. The houses, the scenery, the people... everything is stunningly beautiful. When I watch a film I like to take a few screenshots to showcase a film's beauty, but in the case of this film it's hardly possible. There are so many beautiful scenes that I'd need to include a hundred screenshots to give an impression of the film.

Jonathan Harker has to walk across a waterfall to arrive at the castle in Transylvania.

His wife Lucy sits pining in a cemetery overlooking the sea.

Lucy also looks longingly out of her window while a windmill turns in the reflection. Are there windmills in Wismar? I doubt it.

Klaus Kinski puts on an awesome performance as Dracula. I consider him to be the best actor who's ever lived. I see him as a bridge between silent films and the talking film era. He has the powerful facial expressions that were typical for the great actors of silent films, but he can also talk in any way demanded by his roles. Bruno Ganz is also an excellent actor, so it's a pleasure to see the two on screen together.

The film is rounded off by the outstanding music composed and played by Florian Fricke, a frequent collaborator of Werner Herzog.

	Order from Amazon.com
	Order from Amazon.co.uk
	Order from Amazon.de

Downfall (5 Stars)

Dancer's Top Films #25

There have been many men who have played Adolf Hitler over the years, some better than others. Has anyone ever attempted to make a full list? I found a list of 27 actors in IMDB, but it's incomplete. Rolf Kanies is missing, who played Hitler in "Joe and Max". However, I think all the performances pale into insignificance in comparison to Bruno Ganz. It's difficult to say what makes him so good. His physical appearance matches Hitler, but his mannerisms really make the difference. Before filming he spent four months watching videos of Hitler and listening to recordings of his speeches. That's dedication! But there's still more to it. The excellent script and directing add to the complete picture of the man Adolf Hitler.

When "Downfall" (German "Der Untergang") was released in 2004 it hit the cinemas like a bomb. After the many films about World War Two, here was something different. It's not a war film. It's a ruthlessly accurate portrayal of Hitler's last 10 days in his Berlin bunker, showing the despair and debauchery of those closest to him.

Initial response to the film was positive. In more recent years the film has been criticised because it's too positive in its portrayal of Hitler. I think that the recent critics don't get it. Adolf Hitler is known as the most evil person who's ever lived. This leads to him being portrayed as a caricature. When I lived in England it was common for people to make fun of him as stupid, as a "failed painter". Believe me, no man who's stupid could have become the leader of Europe's largest country. Maybe he didn't go to university, but he had great intelligence when it came to influencing people. Arguably, his greatest fault was that he relied on his own intelligence too much. He was incapable of delegating decisions to those below him. In particular, he was unskilled as a military strategist. He could possibly have won the war if he'd listened to the advice of his generals.

This is shown at the beginning of "Downfall". Hitler is surrounded by his generals. They're giving him advice, good advice, but he refuses to listen. Anyone who contradicts him is accused of treason.

The main reason for people criticising the film in recent years is that they claim it's pro-Hitler. What they really mean is that it's not anti-Hitler. The film carefully avoids the propaganda that has become the norm in films about Hitler. The film is based on the biography of Traudl Junge, who was Hitler's personal secretary from 1942 to 1945. The story is told as she saw it. The film shows Hitler not as a monster, but as a man, with all the strengths and weaknesses of any man.

Historians have frequently mentioned that Hitler had a charm that attracted women to him, but this has rarely been shown in films. We can see that Traudl Junge was drawn in by Hitler's charm. When Hitler offered to let her leave Berlin, she insisted on staying with him until the end. 

The real Traudl Junge in 2002, shortly before her death.

Alexandra Maria Lara as Traudl Junge in the film.

Alexandra Maria Lara was an excellent choice to play Traudl Junge. She expresses a naive innocence in the middle of the chaos of Hitler's last days. She was one of three women who remained close to Hitler's side. The others were Gerda Christian, also a secretary, and Eva Braun. They were friends, but Traudl's facial expressions in the film show her amazement and disapproval as Eva continued to party until the last moments.

The three women take Hitler's dog for a walk in one of the rare quiet moments. Apart from these few moments, the scenes look like they come from an absurd horror film. Senior officers are committing suicide, other officers are sitting getting drunk, and Eva Braun is dancing on the tables.

Most of the film takes place in almost staccato fashion, hurrying from one chaotic scene to the next. An exception is the scene in which Magda Goebbels murders her six beautiful children. Everything else stops, and this scene is shown slowly and deliberately, as each child is forced to swallow a cyanide capsule one by one. Hitler is portrayed neutrally, but Magda Goebbels is shown as a woman of pure evil. How could any mother act like this? It's horrific beyond description.

If you haven't yet seen this film, what are you waiting for? It's not a war film. It's a study of the breakdown of society in a confined space. It's not an easy film to watch. Try to see the film through Traudl Junge's eyes. She was an innocent woman watching her whole world collapse around her.

Success Rate:  + 3.5

	Order from Amazon.com
	Order from Amazon.co.uk
	Order from Amazon.de

The House that Jack Built (4 Stars)

When I was a child my father worked as a night watchman at Little Aston Hall. He often took me with him to work. I can't remember when I started going with him, but he worked there until I was seven. When I was going to school it was probably only at the weekend, but before I started school it was more often.

My father had a small office in the cellar, on the left side of the building in the photo. There was a long corridor that ran the whole length of the building, and his room was the last room. He had a table, a chair and a sofa. I used to sleep on the sofa. He did his rounds about once an hour, and I didn't mind being left alone if I was still awake.

I was fine in the room itself, but I was scared in the corridor. The pipes that ran along the ceiling made banging noises. I never went to the other end of the corridor, neither with my father nor by myself. I only went as far as the stairs up to the ground floor. I had no idea what was at the other end of the corridor.

That's the situation that Jack (played by Matt Dillon) finds himself in. He's bought a small building in a deserted street in the centre of the town. He likes the isolation, because nobody notices when he drags dead bodies out of his truck at night. Over a period of 12 years he's killed more than 60 people, and he keeps the bodies in a walk-in freezer. It's art. He likes to set the bodies up in poses and take photos. But at the back of the building there's a locked door. He doesn't have a key, and he's left the door closed for 12 years.

Finally he breaks the door open. What does he find? There's a passage descending into Hell. He should have left the door shut. But wasn't that where he would be going anyway?

Like Lars Van Trier's last film, "Nymphomaniac", "The House that Jack Built" is a story about addiction. People can be addicted to killing, just as they can be addicted to sex. In the narrative we're led into the details of Jack's psyche. We can understand him, and we can almost sympathise with him.

But his final resting place is Hell. Unlike other people who die before they go to Hell, Jack has the privilege of entering Hell alive. Privilege or curse, the destination is the same.

Success Rate:  - 1.8

	Order from Amazon.com
	Order from Amazon.co.uk
	Order from Amazon.de

A Hidden Life (4 Stars)

This is the true story of Franz Jägerstätter, an Austrian farmer who lived from 1907 to 1943. When the film was being planned, the director Terrence Malick intended to make it in German. At the last minute it was decided to make it in English, even though most of the actors were German. I personally think this was the wrong decision. Today I watched the original English language version, but I feel tempted to watch the dubbed German version next week.

Franz lived in Radegund, a small village high in the mountains, close to the German border. Life was hard, and it seems that the farming community was working mostly to sustain itself, rather than to sell its products in other areas. He was married with three daughters. His wife's sister lived with them and also worked on the farm.

When the war broke out in 1939 he was given basic military training, and then sent home. He didn't expect to have to fight. In World War Two farmers were exempted from conscription. However, many of the men in the village volunteered to join the army. Not Franz. He was having doubts about the war. There were newspaper reports about the glorious victories with photos of bodies lying in the street. He was disgusted. He made no secret of his feelings about the war and about Hitler himself. He refused to use the Hitler greeting, and in one early scene he's greeted with "Heil Hitler" and replies "Pfui Hitler". My German readers will probably chuckle at that.

Increasingly, Franz was considered a traitor by his fellow villagers. His wife also became an outcast. Even his sister-in-law turned against him.

Franz was eventually called up to fight in 1943, when the war was going badly. He reported to duty, but he refused to take the oath of allegiance to Hitler. He was arrested, tortured, tried and executed.

This is a very religious film. Franz Jägerstätter's sincere belief as a Roman Catholic is in the foreground throughout the film. The local priest shared Franz's views on Hitler and the war, but he didn't have the same convictions. After Franz was found guilty of treason he was told he would be spared if he signed an oath of allegiance. The priest told Franz, "God sees your heart, so sign the document and think the opposite". That wasn't good enough for Franz. It was important to him that everybody knew that he felt.

The film lasts almost three hours. It wasn't necessary to make the film so long, since very little happens, but it makes the film better. The film is intense and melodramatic. It's overwhelming with its religious imagery, not to mention the stunning Austrian scenery. We're immersed into Franz Jägerstätter's thoughts, including his religiousness.

I am no supporter of the Catholic Church, but I have never made fun of a Catholic or tried to talk him out of his faith. Any religious belief is good, as long as it doesn't lead to hatred for others. In fact, I feel envious of those who are naive enough to have a simple belief like Franz Jägerstätter. He helped out in his village church, sweeping the floor, never for a moment doubting that he was doing right.

Was it the religion that made him a good person, or his good nature that made him religious? That's impossible to answer. I distinguish between religion and religiousness. Religion is what's written in the holy book, and religiousness is the way a person puts it into practise. Religion is the theory, religiousness is the practise. A person's religiousness can be better or worse than his religion. A good person will pick out the best parts in a holy book, the parts that tell him to love others. A bad person will quote the bad parts of a holy book, using them as an excuse to hate others.

One thing I like about "A Hidden Life" is that it's unique in being a film about disliking Hitler that has nothing to do with the Jews. That wasn't an issue for Franz. There were no Jews in Radegund, and he probably didn't know about the way Jews were suffering. He had enough other reasons to object to Hitler.

In Order Of Disappearance (5 Stars)

This is an utterly amazing film that stars Bruno Ganz and Stellan Skarsgard. The idea behind the story is something that's been filmed many times before, but the story's setting makes it unique.

Nils Dickman is a highly respected snow plough driver in a small Norwegian village. His son Ingvar works at the small local airport. Everything seems peaceful, but there are crime syndicates at work. Two gangs are distributing heroin, and they've reached an agreement to divide the area between them. One gang is ruled by a young Norwegian businessman who calls himself the Count. The other is ruled by an elderly Serb who calls himself Papa.

Both gangs bring their drugs into Norway through the same airport. One of the airport staff steals a bag of heroin. The Count incorrectly suspects Ingvar and kills him by injecting him with heroin. When the police find him they treat it as an accidental death, but Nils is certain that his son wasn't an addict. He investigates, and he manages to kill three of the Count's men. But that isn't enough. He wants to kill the Count himself.

The Count has no idea who's attacking him, so he assume it's the Serbians trying to wrest control of his area. He kills a drug courier, not knowing that it's Papa's son. This sparks an all out war between the two gangs, with Nils caught in the middle.

Some reviewers call this film a black comedy. That's not true. There's nothing at all funny about what happens in the film. However, the film is given a slight comedic element by keeping a tally of the deaths. Every time someone is killed his name is presented on the screen with a cross. In most cases we didn't even know the name of the person before his name is written.

Maybe the reviewers find the film amusing because the main character spends most of his time driving around in his snow plough. That's hardly a suitable vehicle for a man on a killing spree. I can appreciate the absurdity of the situation, but it's not meant to be funny. We see that anyone can seek vengeance, even a snow plough driver.

Stellan Skarsgard and the late Bruno Ganz are both superb actors. Seeing them side by side is a pleasure. I don't recognise any of the other actors, most of them Norwegian or Danish, but they're all highly skilled. The film can't be faulted.

"In Order of Disappearance" has been remade in America as "Cold Pursuit". I missed it when it was in the cinema. I'll have to look for it now, to see if the remake is successful.

	Order from Amazon.com
	Order from Amazon.co.uk
	Order from Amazon.de

Night Train To Lisbon (3 Stars)

This is a slow moving political thriller based on a best selling novel with the same name.

Dr. Raimund Gregorius is a Latin teacher in the Swiss city Berne. He lives a boring life. That's what his ex-wife tells him, and he believes it himself. One day, on the way to school, he sees a young woman about to throw herself off a bridge. He pulls her back from the edge, but he's still worried about her. He takes her into his classroom and tells her to sit at an empty desk, despite the giggling of the children. After a few minutes she walks out, leaving her coat behind.

He runs out of the classroom, but he's too late to see where she's gone. The only clue is a book in her coat pocket, the memoirs of Amadeu de Prado, a man who trained to be a priest but then became a doctor. The words of the book hold deep philosophical messages which make him consider the meaning of his own life. Between the pages of the book he finds a train ticket to Lisbon. He goes to the station, hoping to see her getting on the train, but she isn't there. At the last moment he decides to get on the train and use the ticket himself. A spontaneous decision by a man who's never been spontaneous in his life.

In Lisbon he decides to track down the author. He soon finds out that he died 30 years ago, but that doesn't stop his interest in him. He speaks to his friends and his relatives, and he finds out that he was a member of the resistance during the Salazar dictatorship in the late 1960's. He discovers a series of intrigues and deceptions in the resistance that the surviving members are unwilling to talk about.

Even though the story is enthralling, I have to question its realism. Would any man, spontaneous or not, give up his job to search for the author of a book that belongs to someone he's just met? There doesn't seem to be any logic in what he did. Still, there are fine performances by Jeremy Irons as Dr. Gregorius and Martina Gedeck as the optometrist who assists him in his search. Bruno Ganz plays a small role as a former resistance member, and Christopher Lee is the priest who educated Amadeu in his Catholic school.

The film is almost a love story. Almost. Dr. Gregorius feels attracted to the beautiful optometrist who replaces his broken glasses, but he's not spontaneous enough to fall in love in a foreign country. Giving up his job in the middle of a lesson has exhausted his supply of spontaneity for years to come. He ought to let himself go. Nothing is as important as love.

	Order from Amazon.com
	Order from Amazon.co.uk
	Order from Amazon.de

The Last Days of Chez Nous (3 Stars)

This is another film I found on Netflix while searching for films featuring Bruno Ganz. This time I've found a film in which he plays the leading role. The leading male role, that is. This is a feminocentric film, and the female characters are more important than the males.

The film takes place in Australia. It seems like a large city. Maybe someone can recognise the landmarks and tell me where it is. That's just for the sake of my curiosity. The exact location isn't significant to the film.

Bruno Ganz plays Jean Pierre, a Frenchman who's moved to Australia. It's not clear what his job is, if he does one at all. He enjoys life. He enjoys dancing. He enjoys cooking. He's married to an Australian woman called Beth, who writes novels that are successful enough to make some money. Together they have a teenage daughter.

Beth's younger sister Vicki comes to live with them. She's had an abortion which she greatly regrets. Getting pregnant was an accident, but killing her baby was a deliberate choice, and now she feels guilty. Jean Pierre is the only one who understands her. They fall in love with one another.

This film has been highly rated by critics. I can see that it's a good film, with first class acting by all the actors, but it doesn't excite me. As a family drama it doesn't say anything new. Couples split up. It happens. Men fall in love with their wife's sister. It happens. So what? When I watch a film I need to see more happening.

	Order from Amazon.com
	Order from Amazon.co.uk

The Counselor (2 Stars)

I feel so annoyed when I look at the title of this film in my blog. The systematic spelling mistakes made by Americans are an eyesore. Everyone knows that the correct spelling is "Counsellor".

I often remember watching films in the cinema, especially if I was in a special place or with a special person. This is one of the rare cases where I remember not seeing a film in the cinema. The Birmingham Film Group went to see the film, but I was unable to go. I had a cold or some other trivial illness. I said I would go watch it by myself a few days later. The next day I asked my friends, and they were unanimous in their opinion. "Don't go to see it, it's awful". That puzzled me, because it's a film directed by Ridley Scott, and his films aren't awful. He's made some outstanding masterpieces in his life. Nevertheless, I listened to my friends and didn't go. I know them. I know their tastes. There are some that I don't listen to, because I know they think differently to me, but there are others whose opinions I take seriously.

It's only today that I've returned to this film, whose name I refuse to write again. It's one of a few films that I've found on Netflix that star Bruno Ganz. As I found out when I watched it, it's only a small role, a single scene lasting less than 10 minutes, but I watched the film out of principle. I'll watch any film that he appears in. But let's describe the film itself.

The film is about an American attorney who wants to make extra money from a drug deal, buying cocaine in Mexico and selling it in Chicago. He already has contacts both sides of the border, presumably criminals that he's got to know through his job. He only wants to do one job, because it promises a profit of $20 million. His contact in Mexico says he'll get a taste for the easy money of the drug trade and will want to continue. His contact in America tells him it's a risky business and advises him not to do it unless he has a rock solid escape plan.

The deal goes badly. That's all I'll say.

My first impression of the film, based on the opening scene, was that it's a poorly written erotic thriller. Don't get me wrong, I'm a very sexual person and I enjoy watching films with sexual scenes, but the opening scene with Michael Fassbender and Penelope Cruz wasn't erotic, it was just silly. The poor dialogue was delivered without any passion. Instead of A-List actors, it looked like a shoddy high school project.

The film continued with less eroticism, just talking and drama, but that made things worse for me. It's a pattern I know well. If a film is dull and the director knows it's dull, he puts an erotic scene at the beginning to get the viewer interested.

From then on the film plods from one scene to another. In the hands of a better director it could have been a good film, but wait... shouldn't Ridley Scott be one of the better directors? If I hadn't seen his name on the credits I wouldn't have recognised it as one of his films. I would have guessed that it was made by Brian De Palma, but even for him it would have been a weak film

I would probably have watched the film eventually, even if it hadn't starred Bruno Ganz. I like Ridley Scott. I'm glad I've got it over with. There's no reason for me to ever watch it again.

Success Rate:  + 0.8

	Order from Amazon.com
	Order from Amazon.co.uk
	Order from Amazon.de

Amnesia (4 Stars)

Maybe Netflix isn't a complete waste of time after all. I found this 2015 film that I haven't seen before. I decided to watch it because Bruno Ganz appears, though only in a small role. We only see him for 15 minutes, but his role is significant.

The film takes place in Ibiza in 1990. Even the most trivial of scenes are surrounded by intense beauty. It could be argued that the outdoor scenes are gratuitous, having no relationship to the film's plot itself, but does it matter? The director and his crew were probably awed by the beauty around them, so they couldn't help but include it in the film.

The film is a love story, even though the love is suppressed and isn't allowed to develop. Joe Gellert, a 25-year-old DJ from Berlin, has just moved to Ibiza. He's heard that there's an emerging club scene with possibilities that he could never find in Germany. That was probably true in 1990, but a few years later Germany was the place to be.

Joe's nearest neighbour is a 70-year-old German woman called Martha. It would be an exaggeration to call them next-door neighbours. There's no road, and the houses are dotted around on the hillside. Martha has lived in the house for 40 years, and she has no electricity. She could have paid to be connected, but she wasn't interested. Joe and Martha spend time together talking, eating and drinking wine. Joe feels a romantic attachment to Martha, but she tells him it's better not to take things further.

Martha is fleeing from her past. During the Second World War she lived in Switzerland with her Jewish lover. In 1944 he was foolish enough to visit friends in France. He was never seen again. Since then she's had a hatred for Germany and everything German. She refuses to speak German, drink German wine or drive in German cars.

Everything comes to the surface when Joe is visited by his mother and his grandfather (Bruno Ganz). The grandfather has been keeping secrets about what he did in the war, and Martha is the first person to encourage him to tell the truth.

I was disappointed that the romance didn't go further. Age is just a number, as they often say. Maybe Martha was as old as Joe's grandfather, but they experienced a meeting of souls.

This is the view of Martha's house from Joe's balcony. Next-door neighbours?

To visit one another they have to walk through the bushes.

Was it really necessary to have this long shot when Joe and Martha are walking to the beach? We can hardly see them.

As if to be defiant, the camera pulls back even further. It's all about the scenery.

The two lovers go on a car trip. Once more, the scenery is more important than the journey itself.

This is probably the most extreme scene of gratuitous beauty. The camera lingers on this tree for almost a whole minute, zooming in to close-ups of its branches.

The scenery makes the film powerful, whether or not it's relevant. Maybe it's meant to be a contrast to the ugliness of Nazi Germany, which is discussed but never shown.

Joe and Martha enjoy the view. It's a perfect place to fall in love.

The actress who plays Martha was 69 when she made the film, the right age for the role. Nevertheless, she looks very good for her age. You have to look close to see her wrinkles. I can understand Joe falling in love with her. He didn't fall in love with her for her looks, he was attracted by her inner beauty, but her outer appearance was attractive enough to prevent him being repulsed.

P.S. In case you're wondering about the film's title, Amnesia is the name of the biggest club on Ibiza.

The Reader (4 Stars)

This is a film that I took down from my shelf this morning in remembrance of the late, great actor Bruno Ganz. It's a long time since I last watched the film, an unjustifiably long time. I didn't even remember that Bruno Ganz appeared in the film. I remembered that it starred Karoline Herfurth in a supporting role, but she's someone I could never forget.

The film begins in 1995 with the lawyer Michael Berg looking back on his life. In 1958 he was 15 and lived in Berlin. He fell in love with an older woman, Hanna Schmitz, a 36-year-old tram conductor. The affair only lasted for a few months, but it made an impression on him for the rest of his life. First love can do that. Every day he spent a few hours reading books to her, after which they made love. The sex was the most important thing to him, but the reading was more important to her. She laughed and cried at the stories he read her. Then she left Berlin suddenly without telling him where she was going. The relationship ended as abruptly as it had begun.

In 1966 Michael was studying law in Heidelberg. Bruno Ganz was his professor. Together with a small group of the best students they visited the trial of six women, Auschwitz prison guards, who were accused of letting 300 women die in a burning church. Michael was shocked to see that Hanna was one of the women. The other five women denied responsibility, but Hanna admitted and justified everything she had done, claiming the other women were equally guilty. In response they accused her of being the ringleader, telling them what to do and writing the report to their superiors about the action. Hanna denied having written the report, but when asked to give a handwriting sample she changed her testimony and agreed that she had written the report. Michael knew it wasn't true, because she couldn't read or write. She was ashamed of revealing to the world that she was illiterate. The other women received light sentences, but Hanna was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Some people might think of "The Reader" as a film about the Holocaust. That's not quite true. It's primarily a love story. The Holocaust is something that provides a background to the story. Hanna's complicity in the war crimes can't be denied, but she was a naive Mitläufer. Naive and uneducated. She worked as a guard, and she considered it her duty to do her job as best as she could. 20 years later her defence was that she was innocent because she was just following orders. As for the other five women, they were well aware of their guilt, but they lied to defend themselves. Hanna was at least honest in her testimony.

Karoline Herfurth plays Marthe, one of Michael's fellow law students.

I've always found her beautiful. She would have distracted me in the lectures.

Bruno Ganz admires her when they're sitting in court. I don't blame him in the least, but he should try to make it less obvious.

Bruno Ganz was an excellent actor in every role he played. There was something Shakespearean about him, if that's the correct word. Maybe a better word is regal. He had an imposing bearing in all his films, whether he was playing a university professor, a police chief or Adolf Hitler. His presence overwhelms the audience whenever he appears on screen. If you've seen any of his films you'll know what I mean.

"The Reader" was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Film. Kate Winslet won the award for Best Actress. She deserved it.

Success Ratio:  + 1.4

	Order from Amazon.com
	Order from Amazon.co.uk
	Order from Amazon.de