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L'arbre de Noël (1969)
Great But Unwatchable.
I saw this film for the first and the last time as a thirteen year old in the 1970's. I think that it was screened on ITV.
Holden is superb in the role, as are all the other actors, but the ending tears your heart out to such an extent that I can't watch it again. I openly wept and I'm sure that many other people did. If the purpose of film is to captivate and entertain then 'The Christmas Tree' gets top marks but if the purpose, in this case, was to instil a 'feel good' feeling into the viewer then the film fails...spectacularly so.
Well made, moving and well acted but so moving that it grabs your soul and makes you feel deeply, deeply sad.
Im Kampf gegen den Weltfeind: Deutsche Freiwillige in Spanien (1939)
Yes, they WERE volunteers!
The first thing that struck me in the description of this film was the word 'volunteers' in inverted commas. The Communists weren't the only ones who had volunteer units in their ranks and it can be safely said the The Condor Legion was comprised almost exclusively of volunteers.
The film itself is unusual by virtue of the fact that it's not a WW2 documentary for a change and, for once, it gives the winning sides account of the Spanish Civil War. Hemingway et al have monopolised the history of that era for eighty years. Now, at last, we see the other side of the story.
As with most war documentaries, it gets a bit tedious with explosions, men firing rifles at unseen targets and bomb after bomb hitting the ground. Karl Ritter, the director, almost certainly used some recreated scenes to fill in parts of the conflict that were difficult to film, the scene where a German spotter plane gets intercepted by Republican fighters being the most obvious one. Scenes where troops storm strongpoints are equally suspect but every war documentary director has done the same thing since WW1.
I found the most interesting parts of the film to be Condor Legion's return to Germany, disembarking in Hamburg and then on to Berlin for a review in front of Goering and a speech by Hitler. Other interesting sequences include the rapturous reception given to liberating Franco forces in various Spanish towns and cities, so much for Franco being "unpopular".
One unforgettable scene in the film is the questioning of captured members of the Communist 'International Brigade', including black members of the Abraham Lincoln Regiment and a rather chirpy sounding Welshman who basically implied that he came to Spain to fight because he was unemployed! What happened to these men? Neither side showed much mercy in what was a vicious ideological war.
I enjoyed the film. Together with Russell Palmer's 'Defenders Of The Faith' it's one of a handful of cinematic records of the Spanish Civil War from the Falangist perspective.
Steel Tempest (2000)
It Works, Amazingly!
Well, I've never laughed so much for a long time. This side splitting romp had me laughing fit to burst! What? It's not supposed to be a comedy? Bad computer generated explosions, dodgy approximated rank insignia and a Knight's Cross that's awarded to our hero complete with Velcro backing (yes, just watch when Braun's CO 'sticks' it to his neck) make for a sub standard effort, even by amateur standards. The extras are obviously just jerking their MP40's and Sturmgewehr 44's when they 'fire' and the whole story takes part on an M.O.D. training site in Hampshire and at Neidpath Castle near Peebles in Scotland, which is supposed to be a Belgian château but betrays it's unmistakable 'Reiver' architecture.
Despite all the faults this film is remarkably entertaining. One can't wait for the next gaffe, the next instance of bad acting. I like it, but not because it's a good film. It's a bad film only surpassed by Cromwell Films 'The Bruce', a failure on a greater scale with a bigger budget.
I hope Braun reached the toilet in time before he received his Knight's Cross. Just watch the minute or so before that scene!
Hans Westmar (1933)
A Masterpiece Of Propaganda!
Franz Wenzler's Hans Westmar (1933) is based on the activities and death of Horst Wessel, leader of Berlin's S.A. Sturm 5. In actual fact, the film was originally intended to be Wessel's actual political life story but Goebbels intervened and the main character had a slight name change, hence we have Westmar instead of Wessel.
Emil Lohkamp plays the title character with freneticism, probably an accurate portrayal as Wessel virtually wore himself out leading his Sturm. Wessel's story is sanitised here; the rumours of Wessel living off immoral earnings are unfounded, propaganda formulated by the far left to discredit him but he was certainly a violent young man. In Hans Westmar he's depicted as saintly, virtuous and almost virginal, illustrated by his reluctance to become fully emotionally involved with his platonic girlfriend, Maude, at the expense of his activism.
The legendary Paul Wegner, former silent screen actor, plays a Lenin look alike Communist which is probably truer to type than we would like to think because Wegner had leftist leanings. The street scenes of riot and disorder are excellently filmed and are so convincing that they've often been mistaken for actual footage of Weimar era political violence.
The print that's currently available on DVD is a censored version of the original film, the deleted scenes having been removed by a Nazi censor, not a post war Allied one (in any case, the film was banned by the Allied Control Council in 1945). Interestingly, the Italian dubbed version of this film has some of the original censored scenes intact, including the scene where Westmar is lying on the floor in his own blood, after being shot. Ironically, the Nazi censors must have considered this scene too graphic for German audiences!
Hitlerjunge Quex (1933)
Terribly Set Bound.
One of the three 'kampzeit' films released in Germany in 1933 (the other two were S.A. Mann Brand and the technically brilliant Hans Westmar), Hitlerjunge Quex is the worst.
There's not much location shooting here; apart from the scene where Heini (Quex, the eponymous character) encounters the Hitler Youth encampment after straying away from a late night Communist soiree (filmed on the Baltic coast). Much of the filming is studio shot..and it shows. The film is saved by the performances of Weimar film veteran Heinrich George and accomplished actor Hermann Speelmans (as a nasty Communist).
Sixteen year old Jurgen Ohlsen played the ill fated central character Heini 'Quex' Volker. It was his first of three screen appearances; Alle Machen Mit (a short information film) and the aviation film Wunder Des Fliegens were to follow before he disappeared back into comparative obscurity. Ohlsen is quite well cast here though; blonde, good looking and innocent he's archetypal 'martyr' material and he ends up dying after being knifed by Communists at a local fairground.
Historically valuable but cinematically mundane for a Nazi propaganda film, it's totally eclipsed by the film Hans Westmar which was based on another 'martyr for the cause', Horst Wessel
Kadetten (1939)
A Film Of Its Time
Yes, it's propaganda but no worse than other propaganda films released by the Allies during WW2. Actually, it works well with the plot loosely based on actual events.
One has to bear in mind that many of the young extras who appeared in this film would themselves be in combat a few years later and some of them would lose their lives; Klaus Detlef Sierk, the estranged son of director Douglas Sirk, was to perish on the Eastern Front in 1944 aged just eighteen. Watching this film is eerie when one considers the possible fate of those appearing in it; most of the youngsters were from the Potsdam Napola Academy, one of the Hitler Youth schools.
The ubiquitous Carsta Lock ( a stock female lead in many Third Reich wartime films) appears and Mathias Wieman plays the hero ultimately redeemed through his actions. I really can't fault this film; it's exciting, well acted and well thought out. I think that many people would condemn it as bad simply because it's a 'Nazi' film. Watch it first and then decide.
Amor Estranho Amor (1982)
child porn dressed up as 'art'
It often seems to be the case that morally unacceptable films can hide behind the term 'art'.
I'ts shocking and outrageous that a film director should require a 12 year old child actor to take part in sex scenes.If this film had been made in Britain,instead of in Brazil with it's soft laws on child abuse,there would have been criminal charges.Sex between adults and children is perverted.I'ts unnatural.
Quite who the target audience for this film is I don't know.It would appeal to paedophiles,never mind those who consider it 'art'.There is nothing 'tender' or 'romantic' about child abuse.I'm amazed that this sick film is now available,uncut, in Britain;it gives the green light to child pornographers because they can point to it and say "hey,look!,soft child porn is acceptable,why not hard core?"
I don't usually believe in film censorship,but this film should be banned in Britain.