User Reviews

Im very touched your work and speechless. Its brilliant. The work that you done as a director on this is simply amazing and your sensitivity towards your story, crew, cast, cultures, humor is so real and honest that it shines out of every frame. You really mastered it all until you where finished and its my honor to watch your finished first feature film. There is simply nothing that could have been done better. The sound - the edit - I was so with all your characters and the choice you made to show people at war you held through the very end of the film. I cant imagine how much work this all was for you - how much swamped ; ) THANK YOU FOR DOING THIS - THIS IS SUCH AN IMPORTANT FILM. Its amazing how you felt for everybody there and it will be my great honor to bring this film to my little community where I was raised in Austria. Im sure that everyone will be thankful to see a movie from this time that is not judging anyone but truly shows how things change in times of war. The love and respect you showed for each character and your crew crosses the images to my heart and I feel very happy to have met you here in Brooklyn. Thanks for the DVD you gave me. The thing is - it does not feel like you gave me a DVD, you gave me the largest gift a men could give.

With all my respect; Ulli Gruber

This film has all the quintessential elements a film should possess-a superb cast, an untold story delivered from a unique perspective, wonderful writing interspersed with moments both light and humorous as well as thought-provoking, and a wonderful director at its helm. It beautifully conveys the banality of everyday life for front-line troops combined with the sheer terror of modern warfare and enables the American viewer to empathize with an enemy fighter in a way that few war movies have done in the past. Although I was surprised by the high level of realism and technical detail achieved by the film, it was the relationship of the German and Italian soldiers, a relationship that has rarely been explored despite Hollywood's obvious fascination with the European theater, that truly carried the film. The tension-filled, yet often comical dynamic between the downtrodden soldiers of the two armies, seemingly fighting for dramatically divergent goals, fully captivated me, allowing me to forget that the American GI was little more than an afterthought in the film. A film that is particularly relevant for our times and should be viewed by all-highly recommended!

I was privileged to see this film at a small venue in Jupiter, FL called the Atlantic Theater. The only thing I had heard about this movie was that it was a WWII film told from the perspective of the Germans and Italians. It was funny at times, poignant at others. It wasn't an overtly grotesque viewing of war...it was told in moments between real people with real fears and needs. I literally would laugh one moment, then cry the next. The movie has subtitles, but the beauty of both languages, Italian and German, being spoken by the actors brought the audience into the reality of the lives of these characters. It is about love of your country, the pull of the glory of war combined with the exhaustion and degradation. The desperation as one realizes that it's not all it's cracked up to be, while realizing that it is the path you have chosen, good or bad. Never preachy, as some WWII films can be....from either side.

A great film with a talented cast,director and writers. More people need to see this...it will bring a perspective that has not been seen...ever to my knowledge.

Excellent film...brilliant writing, and witty. Shows great feeling and judgement of the minds of the Italian and German soldiers. The costumes and showmanship of the actual wartime wardrobe was great! The scenes were serene and action packed. The film brought back my thoughts of this war. The director Ari Taub explained it in a different perspective which made it really interesting. I am not a wartime movie buff, but it was excellent. It peaked my interest. It is a must see in my book. I hope it gets out in the independent film festivals. It deserves it! I hope Ari Taub continues his great work and efforts to the film industry.

I was so glad that I got the chance to see this wonderful film last night. Taub handles very delicate subject matter with grace and care. The acting is marvelous, and the editing of the story is tight and streamlined while still maintaining a naturalness of actual life memories as though they were being remembered to us in the suspended time of reminiscence. Like life, we get to experience both the comedy and tragedy of it all. And there is also humour here that is not dark humour at all - which it easily could be, exclusively, given the subject matter. The honesty in the writing of these characters and the intimacy of how these performances have been delivered and captured for us touches an essence deep within our sense of humanity as viewers. I hope that this important film can gain a very wide audience indeed - it is worthy! Bravo!

This was a highly entertaining, informative and enjoyable movie. I loved the fact that it was written in Italian and German and particularly that the viewpoint was in the same languages. What a wonderful story, never told, about the Italian regular Army's relationship with the German occupation, pitted against a resistance which would ultimately succeed by default. It was wonderfully told story shot, edited and directed the grand style befitting such a tale. I couldn't believe the wonderful casting and how it appeared as if they were from the era they were depicting. Because of the nativity of the men there seemed actually to be the inscrutability of reality and honesty in their portrayals, almost as if they were channeling the horror the people who had experienced WWII on own turfs. George Wienbarg

Last Letters from Monte Rosa tells a story that hardly has ever been told before on the screen. The action takes place in Italy during the Second World War. Our heroes are the Germans and Italians, the ones we were fighting against in that war. Surprisingly, the film doesn't take anyone's side apart from that of a human being: an ordinary person trapped in the extraordinary circumstances. And it does not matter anymore whose side the characters of the film are fighting on, the audience becomes sympathetic with them and takes their side. It was amazing to watch how the tragedy of the situation was intertwined with a simple human humor. The occasional laughter only made the story even more truthful. Just like in real life, in Last Letters from Monte Rosa the desire to live walks hand in hand with death, the tragedy walks along with comedy. I was delighted to see such a beautiful work that awakens empathy to other human beings, fulfilling one of the most noble purposes of art.

This is a wonderfully told story of the relationships between the German and Italian soldiers during WWII. It is beautifully shot, touching, poignant and at times extremely funny. One of the things that stands out about this film is the realism, the waiting, life in the trenches, then the inevitable horror of the randomness of war. This perspective of the war through the eyes of our "enemies" is fascinating.The acting is superb and very, very real! You truly see the personality and cultural differences between the Italians and Germans in a way that is never stereotypical. A real gem! A truly beautiful film....

Letters from Monte Rosa is a solid addition to the WWII genre. It is told from the point of view of Italian and German soldiers, who, as men of enemy nations, have seldom been the central subject of films widely seen by American audiences. Only a few titles -- The Bridge, Stalingrad and Cross of Iron among them -- have ever gotten meaningful exposure to the same aficionados who have seen Saving Private Ryan and the many WWII big studio battle action films made in the 1960s and '70s. In those films, almost invariably, the Germans of the Wehrmacht were automatons with Schmeissers and Tiger tanks defending an evil regime, and too seldom given human dimension as men who also longed for home, family, safety, and days without fear and suffering. As their worlds collapsed and death chased them, each soldier had to decide and to prove if he was a coward or courageous, if he would seek escape or do his duty. Letters from Monte Rosa shows us the horror of war, that there is seldom any glory in the ugly business of killing or dying. Still, sardonic humor pervades several scenes, and a few good belly laughs ease the tension even while building it. Director Ari Taub directs the actors well, asking them to show us the charisma and frustration, leadership and anguish of men in situations where there is little hope of survival. Tech credits are very good: the camera moves crisply, a textured sound scape provides a real sense of place, editing is proficient and puts us in the action. Production design is excellent for a low-budget effort. Also commendable is that the film strives to avoid the clichés so common to the war genre, and in so doing reveals a great passion for the theme that even enemy soldiers had dignity and souls.

"Last Letters from Stalingrad", the 1950 compilation of the supposedly authentic war letters of Nazi soldiers caught in the bloodiest WW2 battle, has become the primary source of inspiration for the unprecedented war epic portraying the last days of WWII fighting in Italy - "The Fallen" and its second part "The Last Letters of Monte Rosa". Authenticity, viewed here as a meticulous, accurate re-enactment of the historical details - battleground weapons from period rifles to tanks and planes, soldiers' uniforms, etc - is more than sufficient condition for the compassionate and intimate presentation of the war daily routine with its sudden changes and upheavals, its cruelties and its rites. In this shoe-string budget production the up-and-coming filmmaker Ari Taub brings fear, absurdity and humor (all related to everyday realities of war) - into their proper balance.

In "Letters" the enemy (the Allies) is not personified, and our attention is focused instead on the uneasy relations between the German infantry and the Italian troops mercilessly raided by the partisans. Hollywood storytelling conventions are inevitable for such a traditional narrative, shot at the same time with - but started even before - the late-nineties wave of WWII epic blockbusters like "Thin Red Line", "Saving Private Ryan" or "Ivo Jima". At the same time a certain theatricality of the everyday, certain comical twists of even the most sad episodes, a true indie spirit of his "Letters" has radically distinguish the film from the glitz and glamour of the "dream factory".

Almost as ambiguous as "Last Letters from Stalingrad", Taub's retro-version also does its best to show a "human document which bares the soul of the man at his worst hour". Moreover, due to its unique balance between the tragic and the comical it provides a true Aristotelean, cathartic release of the emotions, especially in the final scene of German martyrdom and their last photograph for the American magazine (hence for posterity).

After all, Ari might be short for Aristotle.

What I really enjoyed about Ari's film, is the humanism in the face of war. We think of war as very dark and scary. And it is. Yet, there is more to life and more to humans than the focus of war itself. And there is always more than one side of 'the truth'.

In "Last Letters from Monte Rosa", we see the internal conflicts, as well as the external and how human beings relate and interact with one another, in a forced situation. We are shown that we can't escape ourselves. The heart will still have a place even in a time of war. And how different people can form unique bonds of understanding with one another and face their own individual challenges under difficult circumstances.

I really think that showing the heart of what it means to be human is Ari's strength. I hope Ari continues to make films showing the just how 'human' our lives are.

Yes, I can't say I've done the same. Heck, I had to walk out of Observe and Report and I'm not the biggest critic around.....I hardly walk out of anything. the acting really kept your attention and I felt like there was a poignant story being told and it was a challenge to keep up with the subtitles when you're not fluent in English or German.

What do I know I've never produced a film but I know what I like so I say Congratulations on producing a worthwhile piece of work.

I can't wait to see the comedy he's got in the works and hope to be a part of it. It's wonderful to be able to make people laugh such that we're not soooo alone on this planet. Film can definitely be a unifying medium.