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Even the best of films require a suspension of disbelief. Phoenix, the latest film from German director Christian Petzold, is one such film.
Phoenix is inspired by the 1961 French novel The Return from The Ashes by Hubert Monteilhet and Petzold molded it fit his needs. He moved the story to post-war Germany, where Berlin is still in ruins and Holocaust survivors are still searching for loved ones.
The film stars Nina Hoss as Nelly Lenz, a beautiful singer whose face was left scarred after being sent to Auschwitz. She is under the protection of Lene (Nina Kunzendorf), who helps her get face reconstruction surgery. While this would be an opportunity for her to start her life anew, Nelly is dedicated to the past and wants to look as much like her pre-war self as possible.
This drive to recreate the past continues even after her surgery. She is now driven to find her husband Johnny (Ronald Zehrfeld), a pianist. When they finally meet at a nightclub called Phoenix, Nelly is stunned to realize that Johnny doesn’t recognize her. But she decides that the only way to stay with him is to pretend to be someone else who can help him by pretending to be Nelly.
Nelly is the cliched phoenix rising from the ashes, as she navigates the ruined Berlin to find a husband she isn’t sure will even recognize her. She is a desperate figure, rejecting Lene’s offer of a perfect life in Israel. Hoss makes the conflict within Nelly clear, thanks to her delicate performance. She never wavers and always commands a scene. While she is the film’s most vulnerable character, Hoss shows that Nelly has far more interest in reality than anyone else. Her pursuit for the past isn't a hopeless romantic dream because it always feels like Nelly knows the stakes.
Petzold and cinematographer Hans Fromm also embrace noir, reviving some of the visual tropes of the style. Characters slink in and out of the shadows, and lighting is used to tell the story as much as the dialogue. Nelly likes to live in the shadows since it hides her scars, but it ultimately is those scars that will help her realize her dream.
Phoenix builds up to an ending that rivals anything else produced this year. So many films like to go on and struggle to reach the correct finale. But Petzold takes a nod from noir and ends the film right when it needs to. He keeps us in suspense right until the last second and when he reaches the answer the film doesn’t go any longer. Knowing how to end a movie is an undervalued skill that Petzold mastered here.
In the end, Phoenix reveals itself to be a film that can’t possibly fit into one genre. It’s an unrealistic, romantic noir that lives among the ruins of war, which doesn’t sound like it should click. Yet the performances and direction make it work, resulting in an unforgettable final product.
Phoenix is now streaming on Netflix. It made the National Board of Review’s list of Top 5 Best Foreign Language Films of 2015.