Alone in Berlin
A working class German couple take to protesting the Nazis after losing their son at war. Nominated for the Golden Bear at the 2016 Berlin Film Festival.
"Anna (Emma Thompson) and Otto Quangel’s (Brendan Gleeson) son has been killed on the front line. 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." (Berlin Film Festival)
- Director:
- Vincent Perez ('The Secret', 'Once Upon an Angel')
- Writer:
- Achim von BorriesBettine von BorriesVincent Perez
- Cast:
- Emma ThompsonDaniel BrühlBrendan GleesonMikael PersbrandtLars RudolphUwe PreussMarko DyrlichKatrin Pollitt
Reviews & comments
A story of heroic postcards that became small grains of sand in the Nazi war-machine
War films are stories writ large about aggression between nations. Few of them explore small-scale human undercurrents of suppressed dissent inside the countries at war. Alone in Berlin (2016) does this by looking at an ordinary working-class couple and their compulsion to express feelings about Hitler’s dictatorship at time where dissent meant certain...
Variety
pressFinally cushions its harshest emotional blows, though Brendan Gleeson's deeply sad, stoic dignity in the lead cuts through some of the padding.
The New York Times
press"Alone in Berlin" proceeds like a train crossing a plain. Without twists or turns, hills or valleys, its dramatic engine chugs reliably forward, delivering its cargo of World War II tragedy with bland efficiency.
The Guardian
pressThe original story remains fascinating, but it feels like it’s been planed down, and smoothed away, into something more obviously digestible.
Sydney Morning Herald
pressIt's that juxtaposition - of the hellish against the ordinary - which gives the film its punch.
New Zealand Herald
pressA pity Perez's understated approach doesn't do their story justice.
Los Angeles Times
pressA well-acted but creaky and curiously bloodless portrait of life during wartime from the Swiss-born actor turned director Vincent Pérez.
Hollywood Reporter
pressHandsomely packaged, the film unfortunately is also too well-behaved and lacking in psychological depth to really set itself apart from countless other WWII dramas theatrically...
FilmInk
pressThere are just no peaks and troughs, which is remarkable given the tremendously heavy content of the film.
Variety
pressFinally cushions its harshest emotional blows, though Brendan Gleeson's deeply sad, stoic dignity in the lead cuts through some of the padding.
The New York Times
press"Alone in Berlin" proceeds like a train crossing a plain. Without twists or turns, hills or valleys, its dramatic engine chugs reliably forward, delivering its cargo of World War II tragedy with bland efficiency.
The Guardian
pressThe original story remains fascinating, but it feels like it’s been planed down, and smoothed away, into something more obviously digestible.
Sydney Morning Herald
pressIt's that juxtaposition - of the hellish against the ordinary - which gives the film its punch.
New Zealand Herald
pressA pity Perez's understated approach doesn't do their story justice.
Los Angeles Times
pressA well-acted but creaky and curiously bloodless portrait of life during wartime from the Swiss-born actor turned director Vincent Pérez.
Hollywood Reporter
pressHandsomely packaged, the film unfortunately is also too well-behaved and lacking in psychological depth to really set itself apart from countless other WWII dramas theatrically...
FilmInk
pressThere are just no peaks and troughs, which is remarkable given the tremendously heavy content of the film.
A story of heroic postcards that became small grains of sand in the Nazi war-machine
War films are stories writ large about aggression between nations. Few of them explore small-scale human undercurrents of suppressed dissent inside the countries at war. Alone in Berlin (2016) does this by looking at an ordinary working-class couple and their compulsion to express feelings about Hitler’s dictatorship at time where dissent meant certain...
Share