Evengyny Thanks for the memories!

GurlyIamBeach Instant Favorite.

Micransix Crappy film

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

kapu s prabhakara 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.

witster18 Phoenix is a breathtaking, beautiful, and heart-breaking film. Sorting through some of the negative reviews - I wonder how a film tells a simple story, covering it's baseS, only to be called implausible or 'innacurate'. Someone mentioned something about the timeline of the theme song - like WE would know, or even care for the marginal mistake. As for the implausibility of the main plot twist - our lead actress looks like two different people when you see her half-way through compared to the end. Only passing as herself after a dramatic transformation. I'm a little dumbfounded as to how some could take one of the most amazing aspects of the story and somehow spin-it into a negative. The acting is superb, the look spot-on, and the film, despite its 'serious-post-war' drama hashtag, is surprisingly well-paced. Don't get me wrong - there is ZEro action in the film, but I was never bored and the film is the perfect length for this story. It understands it isn't epic - It's a forgotten, shameful story hidden in the rubble of an epic tragedy. Phoenix has crashed my top-25 for 2015(us release date/#18, but could higher). Granted, I have a soft spot for these foreign films that go unnoticed, especially with all the over- rated drivel coming out of Hollywood. Well worth a view -especially if you're in the mood for a well-made drama told with a stunning, realistic look. 72/100 solid. It's on Netflix at the time of this review. I'd disregard the it's unrealistic reviews. Couldn't disagree with that analysis more. I can recommend this subtle drama/thriller. She didn't look anything like herself when she ran back into Johnny, and Johnny believed whole-heartedly she was dead. That dispels all those criticisms. As for the hand-writing and other aspects - Johnny told her she would get 20,000$ if it worked. That's incentive enough to practice and try hard, so it's convincing in that way too.. let alone the performances which sell the whole thing anyway.

blanche-2 What a movie.Nina Hoss, Ronald Zehrfeld, and Nina Kunzendorf star in "Phoenix," a 2014 film based on the French novel "Return from the Ashes". There was a previous film made from this novel, actually called Return from the Ashes in 1965. I remembered seeing that movie as a kid and finally found it again. It's very good, but this film is better.Nina Hoss plays Nelly, a concentration camp survivor who was shot in the face. A government worker, Lena (Kunzendorf) in charge of helping victims, brings her to a plastic surgeon. Nelly is adamant that she wants to look exactly as she did before. The doctor can only promise to try. When she asks Lena who is paying for all this, Lena tells her that her entire family is dead and she has come into quite a bit of money.When Nelly sees herself, the face is foreign to her and she says, "I don't exist." She stays in an apartment with Lena. Lena has found an apartment for her in Palestine, where Lena is also moving.Nelly wants to find her husband Johnny (Zehrfeld), a non-Jew, but Lena cautions her that he betrayed her to the Nazis. She was a singer and he a pianist, so she goes to various clubs, but finally finds him working in a club called Phoenix as a dishwasher.Johnny doesn't recognize her, but he asks her if she wants some work. He explains to her that he can't get his hands on his wife's money. He wants her to impersonate Nelly, show up alive, claim her inheritance, and in return, he will pay her.At first, Nelly refuses, then relents. He shows her a photo of Hedy Lamar and says his wife modeled herself on that.Nelly returns to Lena and tells her that she's going to do the impersonation and not go to Palestine. She will stay with Johnny. She knows he would never have betrayed her.Director Christian Pezold has woven noirish tapestry about survival, love, betrayal, and guilt. It is reminiscent of Vertigo but with the specter of the Holocaust, much deeper and intense. Nina Hoss is beyond perfection as Nelly, desperate for her old life, her old face, her husband, to wipe out all she has suffered. Like Zehrfeld, she says more with her expressions than with dialogue. Zehrfeld as Johnny presents a disturbing puzzle of denial and horrific guilt, so unbearable that he tries to recreate Nelly.The last scene in this film, in its simplicity, is stunning and powerful.A brilliant film, which you may want to view more than once to pick up details along the way.

eatlights 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.