Phoenix (2015)

I may be wrong, as i am watching this, this is very much like The return from the ashes, where liv Ulman returns from the camp and meets with old lover played my maxmilian schell. who marries her for her money and tries to kill her. i really enjoyed the return from the ashes, and i am equally relishing this film.

It's Germany after WWII. Nelly Lenz is a Nazi camp survivor with facial disfigurements. She and her companion Lene Winter are returning home to retrieve their family inheritances. She gets reconstruction surgery resulting in a slightly different face. She wants to reunite with her husband Johnny Lenz despite Lene's insistence that he's the one who turned her in to the Nazis. Lene wants to build the new state of Israel. Nelly finds Johnny working at the nightclub Phoenix. He doesn't recognize her and wants her to pretend to be Nelly for a split of her estate.Expositions in movies are often derided but a good exposition is a necessity. There are a lot of murky questions. The movie doles out the story in dribs and drabs. I still don't know Nelly and Lene's actual relationship, and why Nelly assumes the identity of Esther. I'm more willing to buy into the central premise of her conflicted feelings about Johnny and his cluelessness to her true identity. It's a fascinating interior conflict and there's a real tension about the truth of her discovery.

For those commenters who deem "The Phoenix" unbelievable, with all due respect, you don't have a clue about the depth of trauma and denial in post-war Germany. I encourage you to read Farran Smith Nehme's discussion of the film, "Conversations with Christian Petzold's 'Phoenix," found on the rogerebert.com website. It's an excellent analysis of the film's background and milieu. Nehme also writes eloquently about the problem of suspension of disbelief when it comes to damaged characters living in extraordinary times; he alludes, for example, to Hitchcock's dismissal of the mindset of "the plausibles"--those literal-minded reviewers who often took exception to the logic or believability of his characters' choices. The great majority of critics, however, are smarter than that; for what makes the film absolutely riveting--and why it's received so much critical praise--is how the two main characters, due to their extraordinary historical moment, and the terrible acts they've done or been subjected to, close their eyes to things that seem perfectly obvious, yet also believe things that have no basis in reality. And the ending is unforgettable.

A wonderful Hitchcockian-like drama that doesn't rush and takes its time telling its story. Beautifully shot and acted. After reading a number of IMDb reviews and after having watched this film I think it's extremely telling that in the main the American reviewers disliked the film and European reviewers got it and enjoyed it. If you have the attention span of a gnat and enjoy having your tale told to you in mile high letters like the majority of the dross Hollywood spits out you should avoid this film. If on the other hand you enjoy a tale well told then give this a go it is certainly worth your time and builds to an ending that will stay with you beyond the credits.