Phoenix

Director: Christian Petzold
Year Released: 2014
Rating: 3.0

In post-War Germany, disfigured Jewish singer and concentration camp survivor Nelly Lenz (Nina Hoss) has her face surgically repaired and goes in search of her husband Johnny (Ronald Zehrfeld) ... who takes her into his dingy apartment, but doesn't seem to recognize her at all and even requests that she 'acts' like his (supposedly late) wife. I noticed the Vertigo reference immediately, which is fine, but one thing that bothered me while watching this was how Johnny fails to even begin to suspect it's Nelly until the very end, even when another character makes mention that Nelly's 'new face' didn't make her completely unrecognizable. Conceptually it's a bit of a stretch for the audience to accept ... but then it dawned on me how Johnny's denial actually represents the mindset of the German people after World War II and the way the populace of that country needed to mentally move on with their lives - in this instance, Johnny is subconsciously aware that Nelly is his wife but wishes for it to not be true (even when the handwriting, the walk and the clothes fit perfectly). Petzold exhibits superb control of the material (co-written by the late Harun Farocki), while Hoss is completely magnificent as the lead: may their fruitful collaborations continue for years to come....