Alone in Berlin (2017)

I'll tell you why so serious

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

There's no doubt that Rudolf Ditzen - or rather, Hans Fallada's book Every Man Dies Alone, or Alone in Berlin, is a masterpiece. This film 'adaptation' is far from it and is actually insulting the book and the true story and memory of Otto and Elise Hampel. A period drama set in Berlin during the heyday of Hitler's Nazi Party is an exceptionally ambitious, difficult and costly film to recreate, and the film maker and his team seem to me to have gone about this project in totally the wrong way - it's a confused jumble of priorities which negated the essence of the story and therefore the script completely lost sight of the intricacies and emotions of the real characters and the time in which they lived. The only real way to do justice to the novel is to serialise it as a television series; to explore the paranoia and the fear and the difficulties of living under the fascist regime, to show the poverty and hardship, the insidious mistrust of person for person, the degradation of society and the desperation of the inhabitants of Germany at that time. The film maker completely misses all of this, instead creating an atmosphere largely based on washed out colour and nothing being said. The costumes are far too neat and clean, everything is shiny and lovely and carefully placed, the casting is appalling - Emma Thompson, bless her, does pull in a good performance, but Brendan Gleeson plays himself as usual, and the detectives are just young boys completely out of their depth. And Depth is the biggest argument I have against this mockery of a great story ... there isn't any. It's superficial to say the least - only 10 percent of the characters from the original novel appear and the film maker pays little attention to those ten. It looks like it was filmed 'on the hoof' with very little thought for drama and direction, largely leaving it up to the mediocre actors to supply the viewer with the pathos needed. I wonder if when filming it more time was given over to style (which is largely inaccurate) than actual substance. This is not Alone in Berlin, it's simply a vacuous film that borrows a small idea from a truly dramatic, sad, and powerful real life story. Extremely disappointing and immature in every way.

Running for his life, a young soldier Hans Quangel (Louis Hofmann) finds himself jolting in a bleak and otherwise bare forest somewhere in the battlefields of World War II. Scared, alone and out of breath, the young German soldier seems lost and directionless. As his breaths sharpen and his fear settle, the young soldier spends most of his run with his head looking back; whether it be an enemy, the war itself, or a version of himself he is fearful of becoming, the young Quangel maneuvers himself between the tall and dark trees, the mysteriousness of the forest and the impending and looming death that looks for many young men in the battlefields of war. Before anyone can make any sense of it, we hear a gunshot, fatally wounding the young soldier and forcing him to the ground. As his bright blue eyes begin to turn to grey, life fleeting him quickly and the forest embodying his body, Alone In Berlin begins with what seem like an insignificant death to many, but an impactful one for few. As the next scene cuts to a very bustling and busy city front in Berlin, a young newspaper boy yells at the top of his lungs, "Victory Over France", with cyclists, pedestrians and automobiles passing him. One of these people, is the city's many cyclist mail correspondents, delivering news from the Military Postal Services to civilians within the city, a not so glorified profession. As the cyclist makes her way through the city, she stops at a small and very ordinary looking building. The building, which provides a home to Otto and Anna Quangel (Brendan Gleeson & Emma Thompson), parents of the fallen Hans, sets forth a string of events that would change the course of the second World War and Germany's participation in it, forever.Alone in Berlin is a small film with very big ambition, following the events of two very persistent and hard working people. While Anna & Otto Quangel never really excited, the couple they are based off of were two very impressional individuals that caused a great uproar in Hitler's Germany from 1940 to 1943. The real life couple which the film is based from were Elise and Otto Hampel, a working class couple who created a very fundamental way of protest while living in Hitler's Germany, specifically Berlin, early in the second World War. Elise, who lost her brother in the war, distressed and ruined by the news, denounced Hitler. With the help of her husband Otto, the two began composing and leaving postcards within Berlin's most public places, which would very simply denounce Hitler's government, war and methods, informing the very average people of Berlin the perils of joining his war and his methods. For three long and secretive years, the Hampel's left over two hundred cards in Berlin, and only eighteen of the over two hundred cards were not reported and given to the local Gestapo, leaving them lasting to the people of Berlin who recovered them.While many inconsistencies can be found from the history books to the film's reenactments, director Vincent Perez does a marvellous job of keeping the content and tone of the film quite bleak yet extremely entertaining. Aside from the marvellous cinematography from Christophe Beaucarne and the miraculous score from Alexandre Desplat, the mood of the film is anchored effortlessly by the film's two incredibly talented lead actors Brendan Gleeson and Emma Thompson. The Quangel show a variety and range of emotions, without ever really saying much, even upon the very early discovery of their son's death, keeping their words short and sweet, but their actions fierce and impactful. The true anchors of the film are the two very talented actors who help guide the tension of Alone in Berlin throughout, without ever making the film of their performances melodramatic or overwrought.Another very powerful performance of the film is none other than the always impressive Daniel Brühl, an actor who can play a villain or hero without skipping a beat, and even turn his heroes or villain's to either side without hesitation. The very dramatic and theatrical cat and mouse game director Perez establishes between Escherich and the Quangels is one that keeps the audience engaged at all times yet really shows the very simple impact of their truth-telling letters the Quangels leave, even to members of the Nazi Regime. Brühl, Thompson and Gleeson are in top form from beginning to end.While screenwriters Achim von Borries, Bettine von Borris and Vincent Perez make great use of the source material written by Hans Fallada, Every Man Dies Alone, written in 1947, the screenwriters and director never overemphasize much of whats happening on the warfront of Berlin too much that it becomes severely unbelievable. Otto, who is portrayed of being a factory worker in the film, specifically, a manager in charge of producing coffins for fallen soldiers of the war, and Anna, being a domesticated mother and member of National Socialist Women's League in Germany, tread through their very sad lives after the news of Hans' death as many parents would. Yet, one of my favourite aspect of the film's and history's story is how such an average couple were able to make such a a large impact on the plans of a larger than life, and the world's most notorious non- fictional bad guy. Their letters, which cause such an uproar to the Third Reich, made them the Gestapo's biggest priority throughout the times of their letters in the early 40's.While Otto and Elise's letter often urged citizens from refraining of doing a handful of things, like; refraining from donating money to the Nazi regime, urging people to refuse to cooperate with the Nazis, refraining from using military services, all these very small and tedious acts acted as catalysts of overthrowing Hitler.

Atmospheric, understated, shot mainly in B&W, convincing sotto voce performances from two superb actors/actresses - Emma Thompson and Brendan Gleeson - plus the less-known but still excellent Daniel Brühl, a Spaniard who plays an extremely convincing German, probably because he was largely brought up in Germany.Based on a true story from a novel (so it seems), it moves, movingly, to its final conclusion. There are few moments of definite dramatic tension and once the scene has been set, the plot plays out to its inevitable conclusion so, I guess, there was no real need.Why they changed the original title from Letter from Berlin is something only the producers/director know but the original makes far ore sense than Alone in Berlin.It's interesting to see that movies about 'the war' are still being made and it's absolutely essential that current and up-coming generations do not forget the madness and sheer inhumanity of it all, the acceptance of and the arrogance of the status quo at that time. We really need desperately reminding of that because, as we know, history repeats itself and the ignorant are out with their blinkers.If you want to take something away from this movie, take the knowledge that even small actions can have a ripple effect, that one person can make a difference and that without sustained opposition and resistance, evil will spread. It will, it does, we know this from history and current events, yet it's something we all ignore! It seems to be the way humans are wired. But don't let society wire you that way. Watch the movie and be inspired by selfless acts of bravery.

Having come close to losing a son in Afghanistan I could entirely relate to the despair and cold anger at the lies and injustice, the central characters felt. I was overwhelmed with emotion and the movie stayed with me for days. Both Emma Thompson and Brendan Gleeson turn in outstanding performances, as do a number of the supporting cast members. The film allows a window into the fear, shame, and hopelessness the German people must have felt, as the war progressed and the true reality of the impacts of allowing rampant thuggery, cruelty and bigotry into power, was revealed. Parallels perhaps to certain events going on in the world today?Brendan Gleeson is an outstanding actor who depicts ' everyman' with authenticity. This movie being a case in point. Without any histrionics this movie delivers. The ending was unanticipated and well crafted. The fact that it is a true story only adds to its power. Highly recommended.