camouflage
gaslit at scale.
Isn't that a Peckinpah?
Overrated slow-mo ketch-fest in my opinion, I do not care for his work.
Second World War films from a German perspective
- Thread starter purplex
- Start date
Isn't that a Peckinpah?
Overrated slow-mo ketch-fest in my opinion, I do not care for his work.
Spymaster
Plastic Paddy
We watched Land of Mine last night and thoroughly recommend it.
Based on true events it's about a shameful episode in immediate post war allied history in which several thousand German prisoners of war, mostly teenagers, were illegally detained and forced to clear thousands of landmines from Danish beaches. Half of them were killed or seriously injured and starved. It's very well acted, beautifully shot on the genuine beach locations in Denmark, and is an interesting mix of inhumanity and decency. The actor who plays the Danish sergeant is brilliant as are most of the cast of mainly unknown youngsters.
The mine clearing scenes are nerve-shredding stuff.
Warning: the film opens with a scene of a violent and prolonged beating of a POW.
It's on Amazon Prime Video.
Based on true events it's about a shameful episode in immediate post war allied history in which several thousand German prisoners of war, mostly teenagers, were illegally detained and forced to clear thousands of landmines from Danish beaches. Half of them were killed or seriously injured and starved. It's very well acted, beautifully shot on the genuine beach locations in Denmark, and is an interesting mix of inhumanity and decency. The actor who plays the Danish sergeant is brilliant as are most of the cast of mainly unknown youngsters.
The mine clearing scenes are nerve-shredding stuff.
Warning: the film opens with a scene of a violent and prolonged beating of a POW.
It's on Amazon Prime Video.
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Spymaster
Plastic Paddy
Just realised I've bumped an ancient thread. I'll give this a thread of its own.
ETA> Land of Mine. Danish/German War Film
ETA> Land of Mine. Danish/German War Film
Last edited:
rekil
to menny cranks
My Honor Was Loyalty (2016) - IMDb
Fat old reenactors stumbling through two hours of outright nazi propaganda that was available on netflix for a time and which youtube recommended to me for some reason, possibly to punish me for watching ludicrous Russian blockbuster T-34. The worst film I've ever seen apart perhaps from The Beach Bum. The title is the SS's motto changed just enough to avoid falling foul of German law.
Fat old reenactors stumbling through two hours of outright nazi propaganda that was available on netflix for a time and which youtube recommended to me for some reason, possibly to punish me for watching ludicrous Russian blockbuster T-34. The worst film I've ever seen apart perhaps from The Beach Bum. The title is the SS's motto changed just enough to avoid falling foul of German law.
Spymaster
Plastic Paddy
Wow. That looks really shit.
ska invita
back on the other side
Not a film, but i read a good book earlier in the year
The Train Was on Time
The Train Was On Time by Heinrich Boll
I really recommend it
Not very long, about 100 pages and 80% of that is told by the narrator, a German solider, who is on a train to the Eastern Front and is convinced he's going to die, and him wondering where and when exactly he's going to die...surely in the next few days. The train journey is slow, lots of train changes and stopping in the dark. tha carriages are full of soldiers sat on the floor. There's a couple of 'incidents' on the way and before it ends, but the best bits are the slowest bits of him just facing what he thinks is his impending death and how theres nowhere to run.
That penguin edition was published this year, part of a new series of older, classic? works in translation. This was originally published in 1949.
The author sounds an interesting man, worth reading the wiki. No doubt a big literary figure but id never heard of him.
Intro says
some more:
Heinrich Böll - Wikipedia
His works have been dubbed Trümmerliteratur (the literature of the rubble). He was a leader of the German writers who tried to come to grips with the memory of World War II, the Nazis, and the Holocaust and the guilt that came with them. Because of his refusal to avoid writing about the complexities and problems of the past he was labelled by some with the role of 'Gewissen der Nation' (conscience of the nation), in other words a catalyst and conduit for memorialisation and discussion in opposition to the tendency towards silence and taboo. This was a label that he himself was keen to jettison because he felt that it occluded a fair audit of those institutions which were truly responsible for what had happened.[16]
He lived with his wife in Cologne and in the Eifel region. However, he also spent time on Achill Island off the west coast of Ireland. His cottage there is now used as a guesthouse for international and Irish artists. He recorded some of his experiences in Ireland in his book Irisches Tagebuch (Irish Journal); later on the people of Achill curated a festival in his honour. The Irish connection also influenced the translations into German by his wife Annemarie, which included works by Brendan Behan, J. M. Synge, G. B. Shaw, Flann O'Brien and Tomás Ó Criomhthain.[17]
He was the president of the then West German P.E.N. and subsequently of the International P.E.N. organizations. He travelled frequently as a representative of the new, democratic Germany. His appearance and attitude were in complete contrast to the boastful, aggressive type of German which had become infamous all over the world during Hitler's rule. Böll was particularly successful in Eastern Europe, as he seemed to portray the dark side of capitalism in his books; his books were sold by the millions in the Soviet Union alone.[18]
When Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was expelled from the Soviet Union, he first took refuge in Heinrich Böll's Eifel cottage. This was in part the result of Böll's visit to the Soviet Union in 1962 with a cultural delegation, the first of several trips he made to the country, during which he built friendships with several writers and connections with many producers of dissident literature. Böll had previously recommended Solzhenitsyn for the Nobel Prize for Literature, under the auspices of his position in the West German P.E.N. When Solzhenitsyn was awarded the prize in 1976, he quoted from Böll's works to the reception committee.[19]
In 1976, Böll publicly left the Catholic church, "without falling away from the faith".[20]
Heinrich Böll died in 1985 at the age of 67.
Legacy and influence[edit]
Böll's memory lives on, among other places, at the Heinrich Böll Foundation. A special Heinrich Böll Archive was set up in the Cologne Library to house his personal papers, bought from his family, but much of the material was damaged, possibly irreparably, when the building collapsed in March 2009.[21]
His cottage in Ireland has been used as a residency for writers since 1992.[22]
Eric Anderson composed a set of musical compositions based upon the books of Böll: Silent Angel: Fire and Ashes of Heinrich Böll (2017) Meyer Records
The Train Was on Time
The Train Was On Time by Heinrich Boll
I really recommend it
Not very long, about 100 pages and 80% of that is told by the narrator, a German solider, who is on a train to the Eastern Front and is convinced he's going to die, and him wondering where and when exactly he's going to die...surely in the next few days. The train journey is slow, lots of train changes and stopping in the dark. tha carriages are full of soldiers sat on the floor. There's a couple of 'incidents' on the way and before it ends, but the best bits are the slowest bits of him just facing what he thinks is his impending death and how theres nowhere to run.
That penguin edition was published this year, part of a new series of older, classic? works in translation. This was originally published in 1949.
The author sounds an interesting man, worth reading the wiki. No doubt a big literary figure but id never heard of him.
Intro says
some more:
Heinrich Böll - Wikipedia
His works have been dubbed Trümmerliteratur (the literature of the rubble). He was a leader of the German writers who tried to come to grips with the memory of World War II, the Nazis, and the Holocaust and the guilt that came with them. Because of his refusal to avoid writing about the complexities and problems of the past he was labelled by some with the role of 'Gewissen der Nation' (conscience of the nation), in other words a catalyst and conduit for memorialisation and discussion in opposition to the tendency towards silence and taboo. This was a label that he himself was keen to jettison because he felt that it occluded a fair audit of those institutions which were truly responsible for what had happened.[16]
He lived with his wife in Cologne and in the Eifel region. However, he also spent time on Achill Island off the west coast of Ireland. His cottage there is now used as a guesthouse for international and Irish artists. He recorded some of his experiences in Ireland in his book Irisches Tagebuch (Irish Journal); later on the people of Achill curated a festival in his honour. The Irish connection also influenced the translations into German by his wife Annemarie, which included works by Brendan Behan, J. M. Synge, G. B. Shaw, Flann O'Brien and Tomás Ó Criomhthain.[17]
He was the president of the then West German P.E.N. and subsequently of the International P.E.N. organizations. He travelled frequently as a representative of the new, democratic Germany. His appearance and attitude were in complete contrast to the boastful, aggressive type of German which had become infamous all over the world during Hitler's rule. Böll was particularly successful in Eastern Europe, as he seemed to portray the dark side of capitalism in his books; his books were sold by the millions in the Soviet Union alone.[18]
When Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was expelled from the Soviet Union, he first took refuge in Heinrich Böll's Eifel cottage. This was in part the result of Böll's visit to the Soviet Union in 1962 with a cultural delegation, the first of several trips he made to the country, during which he built friendships with several writers and connections with many producers of dissident literature. Böll had previously recommended Solzhenitsyn for the Nobel Prize for Literature, under the auspices of his position in the West German P.E.N. When Solzhenitsyn was awarded the prize in 1976, he quoted from Böll's works to the reception committee.[19]
In 1976, Böll publicly left the Catholic church, "without falling away from the faith".[20]
Heinrich Böll died in 1985 at the age of 67.
Legacy and influence[edit]
Böll's memory lives on, among other places, at the Heinrich Böll Foundation. A special Heinrich Böll Archive was set up in the Cologne Library to house his personal papers, bought from his family, but much of the material was damaged, possibly irreparably, when the building collapsed in March 2009.[21]
His cottage in Ireland has been used as a residency for writers since 1992.[22]
Eric Anderson composed a set of musical compositions based upon the books of Böll: Silent Angel: Fire and Ashes of Heinrich Böll (2017) Meyer Records
I just read the book of this a week or two ago. It is extremely powerful and highly recommended. Forward by Anthony Beevor who says on his view it is legitimate and not a post-war fake.
Just thought id flag it for others.
rekil
to menny cranks
It's on the official youtube fillum channel.Wow. That looks really shit.
He says he lost his friends and job because of it. He's done some short ones since then, one is about blaming Italian partisans for making the poor nazis massacre civilians.
Ebert and Siskel walked out of 1991's Mediterraneo.
I can't remember it but this one about Italians at El Alamein is by the same guy who wrote it. Trigger warning for big battle scene that only features about 10 actors due to budget constraints.
El Alamein - La linea del fuoco (2002) - IMDb
Just saw this at the London Film Festival.
Star-Crossed Lovers - Wikipedia
Restored version of a 1962 East German film following a young anti-fascist couple in Berlin from the early 30s to the Russian front 10 years later. It's beautifully shot in black and white. I thought it was great.
Star-Crossed Lovers - Wikipedia
Restored version of a 1962 East German film following a young anti-fascist couple in Berlin from the early 30s to the Russian front 10 years later. It's beautifully shot in black and white. I thought it was great.
Spymaster
Plastic Paddy
1944 (2015) - IMDb
Estonians conscripted into the German army whilst others are conscripted by the Russians.
Available on Amazon Prime Video.
Brilliant.
Estonians conscripted into the German army whilst others are conscripted by the Russians.
Available on Amazon Prime Video.
Brilliant.
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