Alone in Berlin (2017)
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.
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The most important message in this movie that only 18 of the approx. 250 subversive messages were not reported to the "authorities" 18.
I read the book just before I found out they were making the film so was naturally quite excited to see how they handled it.While Gleeson and Thompson turn in great performances, the adaptation lets them down badly.The film and book part company towards the end: the film ends up with a glimmer of hope, with the postcards being thrown out of the window, possibly to give their message again. In the book there is no false hope. Nobody reads the postcards, nobody is affected, the protest is a vain one.But the message is that even if doomed to fail, we must still protest if something is not right. If we do not oppose evil, we tacitly condone it. I realise that as reviews go, this is uninformative and a bit rubbish; I feel that it's important to look beyond the film amd to reflect on the book's message, which is as relevant today as it was during WW2.
Before the advent of the Internet people used letters and cards to express how they felt..... Alone in Berlin is a simple film with a simple premise. Words are more powerful than warmongering totalitarian governments and the censorship and oppression that follows in their wake. Its a timely message, given the advent of the modern surveillance state, that uses intimidation and slyly orchestrated censorship, in an attempt to gag critics. Then, as now, we see how ordinary people refuse to be silenced and search for a way to find a voice. Alone in Berlin employs a strong cast of UK and European actors. Its decently directed and employs a minimalist approach to narrative, that works extremely well. All in all a decent film that's worth your time. Eight out of ten from me.
Berlin, 1940. Working class couple Otto and Anna Quangel receive the news that their only son has lost his life in the battlefield and decide to resist the Nazi regime in their very own way. Soon the Gestapo is hunting "the threat". Although the performances of Brendan Gleeson and Emma Thompson are very good it's not enough to hold a movie that is simply bland and just the same old, same old kind of story plus some pretty good actors are going wasted and as usual Daniel Brühl and even Rosemary Harris that for some reason is not mentioned here but overall very disappointing movie with some pretty great and talented actors. (5/10)