During Napoleon's victorious campaign in Germany, the city of Kolberg gets isolated from the retreating Prussian forces. The population of Kolberg refuses to capitulate and organizes the ... See full summary »
Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends.
If your account is linked with Facebook and you have turned on sharing, this will show up in your activity feed. If not, you can turn on sharing
here
.
During Napoleon's victorious campaign in Germany, the city of Kolberg gets isolated from the retreating Prussian forces. The population of Kolberg refuses to capitulate and organizes the resistance against the French army, which immediately submits the city to massive bombardments. Written by
Eduardo Casais <eduardo.casais@research.nokia.com>
The film was first shown to German troops in Occupied France (La Rochelle). See more »
Goofs
In the scene at the Sylvester evening the camera shows the sky and it's snowing, but there are just a few clouds in the sky so it can't really snow. See more »
Kolberg's legendary status owes not a little to its unobtainability and complete absence from television. I have the distinct impression that the best of Veit Harlan's direction ended up on the cutting room floor as a panicking Dr Goebbels insisted on drastic revision before this thundering epic could be shown -should I say, inflicted on- the German public in the last days of WWII. There are some magnificent scenes of battles and the episode in the Kolberg town council chamber is brilliantly scripted and acted, but the something is very wrong about the way the final print was put together. Lead character Maria is a virtual stranger; the details of her trials and tribulations along with her affair with Schill have to be guessed at, as does much else. The sets throughout are splendid - but it's all a stage with nothing happening. Continuity is appalling. I understand that we are watching 1hr 45mins out of over 90 hours of footage taken and that all the negatives are lost. We will never know what we are missing.
9 of 11 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful to you?
Kolberg's legendary status owes not a little to its unobtainability and complete absence from television. I have the distinct impression that the best of Veit Harlan's direction ended up on the cutting room floor as a panicking Dr Goebbels insisted on drastic revision before this thundering epic could be shown -should I say, inflicted on- the German public in the last days of WWII. There are some magnificent scenes of battles and the episode in the Kolberg town council chamber is brilliantly scripted and acted, but the something is very wrong about the way the final print was put together. Lead character Maria is a virtual stranger; the details of her trials and tribulations along with her affair with Schill have to be guessed at, as does much else. The sets throughout are splendid - but it's all a stage with nothing happening. Continuity is appalling. I understand that we are watching 1hr 45mins out of over 90 hours of footage taken and that all the negatives are lost. We will never know what we are missing.