Phoenix is a German film that earned over the top rave reviews from festival goers. Set in Berlin in 1944, the film stars Nina Hoss as a woman returning from a concentration camp. It’s beautifully photographed and has a very satisfying ending. Nina Hoss is wonderful in the part. I also give it high marks; it kept me holding my breath with fear. But I had a couple of complaints about the film.
Spoilers ahead.
The plot revolves around Nelly (Hoss) who returns to Berlin from a concentration camp. Her face is destroyed by a bullet. Her friend Lene (Nina Kunzendorf) gets her to a plastic surgeon. Nelly wants her face to look as much like her previous face as possible. Both the doctor and Lene suggest that’s a bad idea and she should just move on to a new face and a new life. Nelly insists on coming as close as possible to her previous looks.
Lene is obviously a lesbian, and obviously in love with Nelly. She cares for her, finds them places to live in either Jerusalem or Haifa – whichever Nelly wants – if Nelly will only go to Palestine with her so they can live in a safe place.
All Nelly can think about is her husband Johnny (Ronald Zehrfeld). Memories of him kept her sane in the concentration camp. Lene tells Nelly he betrayed her, turned her in to the Nazis, but Nelly is undeterred. She must find him. He did even worse than turn her in to the Nazis, but Lene doesn’t tell Nelly about it until later.
Nelly stumbles around in the rubble of Berlin and finally spots Johnny. He’s mistreating a woman at the time. Still undeterred, Nelly finds a way to talk with him.
Johnny sees her but doesn’t recognize her. He thinks she looks enough like his wife that he can train her to fool people into believing she is. Then he can claim her inheritance, which is locked away in a Swiss bank. He promises to give her some money if she helps him.
Johnny never realizes this woman is his real wife. It strains all credibility. Her handwriting is the same, her eyes are the same. Doesn’t he notice the sound of her voice, her smell? He even kisses her once. Nothing. Other people see her and recognize her. Johnny? Nothing.
I’m not much of a history buff, but a Jewish woman getting out of Auschwitz and going to Berlin for medical care in 1944 doesn’t seem credible either. Since the filmmaker is German, I’m going to give him this one based on my probable ignorance.
As Nelly learns more and more about what a scheming liar Johnny is she continues to go along with his plan. This part of the plot was terrifying because as the viewer because I wanted her to throw him under a train or something – come to her senses. Nelly knew what she was doing all along. And because she did the film has that very satisfactory ending I mentioned.
Besides the straining at the seams of the willing suspension of disbelief being a problem, there was the problem of what Lene did when she thought Nelly was lost to her forever. I don’t want to completely spoil it, but I will say the worst lesbian trope comes into play.
In spite of my issues with the film, it is a good film overall – nerve-wrackingly, nail-bitingly tense.
Phoenix was directed by Christian Petzold, who has used Nina Hoss and Ronald Zehrfeld as the stars of other films. The director said that inspirations for the film came from Vertigo, Germany Year Zero, Out of the Past, film noir and the works of Douglas Sirk. If I recall Vertigo correctly, Jimmy Stewart is duped by a lie carried out by Kim Novak, who pretends to be someone she isn’t. The parallels are certainly there in Phoenix.
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I might check this out. Netflix has not recommended this film to me even though I watch a lot stuff from other countries. I just wonder how many things I’m missing because Netflix does not think I’ll like it.
Maybe Netflix recommended it to me because I watch a lot of foreign films. Maybe we should compare notes on what Netflix thinks we’ll like. 🙂
I have watched and liked it very much.
Glad you like it. I have mixed feelings, obviously, but thought it was well done.
It’s actually set in post war Berlin – they go through a US checkpoint into Berlin at the very beginning. So the time period is at least credible.
I think it was only what happened to Lene and what was in the papers she left Nelly that brought her to her senses. The film strained my credulity but what an ending.
Also the Johnny mistreating a woman isn’t Nelly’s Johnny. Her Johnny is called Johannes by the others at the club.
Hazel, thanks for your comment. I thought I saw something that said 1944. If it was post war that would certainly make a lot more sense. And, I didn’t mention the Johannes part in the review because I didn’t want to explain too much, but wasn’t that Johnny/Johannes in the alley? (I may have to go watch the whole movie again.)
1944 is definitely mentioned quite a lot about events prior to the film’s setting. It is definitely not the same man because I rewound my DVD to check. It is definitely worth a rewatch. It’s one of those films that once you get past the plausibility (and pretend it doesn’t matter) it becomes richer and more rewarding. I also had the advantage of a 20 minute feature on the DVD that clarified the makers’ intentions.
(It just occurred to me that maybe the DVD had better and more accurate subtitles than Netflix – I’ve noticed that those on Netflix can be a bit iffy at times in terms of spelling and grammar so there may be other issues.)
Thank you for the clarifications on this film. I definitely must check my own perceptions.
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