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Just watched it for a class. Thought it was good but the score was terrible— really schlocky mid-2000s dramatic orchestration action movie fodder. It also felt five million hours long. I like Bruno Ganz very much and I like that he is in every German movie ever made.
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Added a link to a 26 minute analysis of this scene. It’s brilliant. I think the long drawn out scene build tension in such an ominous way. Hans Landa is one of my fav villains; he’s polite and eerily cheerful but he always knows more than anyone else in the scene does. This movie does a great job of doing long scenes as opposed to cutting back and forth to other characters / moments. I know the movie can come off as “bro-y Nazi killing WW2” movie but that is such a shallow view of it. Worth the watch.
May 18, 2024
The countless atrocities committed by the Nazis have been well-documented in the media, but I can’t recall having ever seen a movie that opted to focus on the cold banality of the lives of the Germans who were actively engaged in or complicit with such incredible cruelty. Filmmaker Jonathan Glazer (Under the Skin), inspired by Martin Amis’ novel, has decided to tap into this underexplored area, and the chilling result will haunt viewers for days.
Focusing on Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss (Christian Freidel) and his wife Hedwig (Sandra Hüller, both perfectly cast), who are raising their family in a well-appointed home directly adjacent to the camp, we watch them go about their relatively mundane existences. They live better than many of their fellow Germans and have local girls working as servants to help keep up the house, but otherwise much of their time is spent tending to trivial day-to-day tasks, aside from the odd bit of Nazi business that Rudolf attends to from his home office.
Nothing here is truly normal however, a point made very clear shortly into the film when the camera changes its view of the family’s yard to expose the guard tower just on the other side of the brick wall that abuts the property. Given the proximity to the notorious camp, its noises permeate every aspect of the family’s lives. The low hum of the furnaces is ever-present, punctuated by screams and gunshots. Frequently trains can be heard bringing more prisoners, puffs of steam appearing over the tree line. Somehow, the Höss’ and their children go about their day as if they don’t even notice it.
To celebrate one of the children’s birthdays, Hedwig’s mother comes to stay. Initially impressed by the large, well-maintained home and garden, she casually wonders aloud if a Jewish neighbor might be imprisoned next door, complaining that she lost her chance to claim her curtains. As the pair sit on the patio and sounds from the camp impose themselves, she turns to glance at the wall, at least a little discomfited. At night, the sounds of suffering disturb her sleep and she looks out the window, only to see ash and bright flames erupting from a smokestack. She leaves the following morning.
While the atrocities next door are felt throughout almost the entire movie, we never see them. Everything is instead conveyed through Johnnie Burn’s meticulous sound design and the effect is powerful, especially in contrast to the mundanity of everything shown. Cinematographer Łukasz Żal’s striking staging avoids overly prettifying the home while still maintaining a painterly artfulness, often using static, embedded cameras to give the proceedings the sort of voyeuristic feel of reality shows like Big Brother.
A movie may not be the best place to figure out exactly how people can react so blithely to such large-scale inhumanity, so Glazer doesn’t really try to do so. It is enough however to be reminded that the behavior is not only something that we as a species are capable of, but that it is necessary for such evil to be enacted. Hopefully the reminder will help to prevent it from happening again. ★★★★★
RATED PG-13 FOR THEMATIC MATERIAL, SOME SUGGESTIVE MATERIAL, AND SMOKING.
Feb 21, 2024
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We all bow down to Fassbinder’s “BRD Trilogy.” Obviously. But I only recently learned of a filmmaker who also made a trilogy of films dealing with postwar German history from an equally singular, provocative, and entertaining place, Christoph Schlingensief. The two wild man auteurs even share many of the same actors; Margit Carstensen, Irm Hermann, Volker Spengler, Peter Kern, etc. Aided by Udo Kier (who appears in all three films), Schlingensief was unafraid to tackle explosively sensitive material in recklessly exciting and absurdist ways. 100 Years of Adolf Hitler (1989), The German Chainsaw Massacre (1990), and Terror 2000 (1992) make up the Germany Trilogy. The German Chainsaw Massacre’s my personal fave of the lot. It was quickly written in a few days after the Berlin Wall all came down and was shot in a mere two weeks immediately after. Heavily inspired by The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, which he was a huge fan of, it follows a group of East Germans who wind up entangled with a psychotic West German family looking to turn them into wurst for their butcher shop. In a Year of 13 Moons’ Volker Spengler steals the show in a yellow raincoat and metal helmet (with sausages attached to it), drooling on himself, and flailing a chainsaw around. Like Fassbinder, Schlingensief died way too young. And also like him, thankfully, there’s a seemingly endless amount of material to sift through.
Apr 7, 2022
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The best map projection for my money. Shows the continents (mostly) uninterrupted, doesn’t distort area or shape too badly, completely useless for navigation, looks beautiful. What’s your favorite map projection?
Mar 5, 2025
Mar 5, 2025