Dresden (2006) (TV)

Director:

Roland Suso Richter

Writer:

Stefan Kolditz (writer)

Release Date:

5 March 2006 (Germany)

Genre:

Drama | Romance | War

Plot:

A romance between a British pilot hiding in Germany and a German nurse is shown on the background of massive allied bombing of Dresden towards the end of World War 2.

Plot Keywords:

Bombing | Dresden Germany | Melodrama | Kitsch | Fire

Awards:

3 wins & 4 nominations

Cast

Felicitas Woll	...	Anna Mauth
John Light	...	Robert Newman
Benjamin Sadler	...	Alexander Wenninger
Heiner Lauterbach	...	Carl Mauth
Katharina Meinecke	...	Magda Mauth
Marie Bäumer	...	Maria Goldberg
Kai Wiesinger	...	Simon Goldberg
Wolfgang Stumph	...	Pfarrer
Jürgen Heinrich	...	Gauleiter Martin Mutschmann
Susanne Bormann	...	Eva Mauth
Paul Ready	...	William
John Keogh	...	Flight Lt. Leslie, Master Bomber
Christian Rodska	...	Arthur Harris
Anja Taschenberg	...	Grashena
Pip Torrens	...	Saundby

Also Known As:

Dresden (International: English title) (USA) (DVD title)
Dresden - das Inferno (Germany)
Dresden: The Inferno (International: English title)

Runtime:

176 min | Finland:144 min (DVD)

Country:

Germany

Language:

German | English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Certification:

Finland:K-13 | Singapore:M18

Filming Locations:

Cologne, North Rhine - Westphalia, Germany

Company:

EOS Entertainment

Trivia:

The character of Simon Goldberg was based on diarist and professor Victor Klemperer.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): In the English language version, during the bombing raid early on in the film, the British airmen in the bomber refer to enemy aircraft being at 'oh-eight-hundred hours' and 'oh-twelve-hundred hours'. This is clearly a mistranslation of the usual RAF way to refer to enemies by positions of the clock, in this case eight o'clock or twelve o'clock.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "3satfestival: Rainald Grebe & Die Kapelle der Versöhnung - 1968 (#9.6)" (2008)

Though being called "Dresden", the city only makes a guest appearance

Just like Kleiner_Fuchs after watching this movie and other recent Teamworxx productions like "Sturmflut" I thought that, had Cameron not made "Titanic", these people would probably not rely so heavily on the ever repeated formula of a fictional doomed love with a hazardous historical background (though this is by no means a new concept). Contrary to my predecessor I think that in "Titanic" this worked out fine. But this may be mainly because a ship is a so much smaller microcosm than a city and the actual historical figures,though playing minor parts in the story pop up every few minutes.

It might have worked in "Dresden" as well, had not been the focus so strictly on the English pilot and the Mauth family (plus a few scenes with Annas co-worker and her Jewish partner). From what I have read and seen on TV and listened to I have learned that there are so many interesting and heartbreaking actual stories. I think the makers of the movie should have worked more of them in for it was obvious in the movie that the parts that were the most shocking were the ones that were based on real events - just sad, that they were so few of them.

Also, since the movie was so very focused on a love story that obviously not many people cared about, the structure of this mini-series was somehow awkward. Why make a two-parter about the bombing of Dresden if the bombers don't actually leave the ground until the last scene of part one and only reach the city halfway into part two? Had this been cut down by an hour and shown as one 2-hour TV-movie I believe it might have had a greater impact.

Still I give this movie 6 stars, because the final 45 minutes actually do work. Of course, the focus is mainly an Anna and the two men running around in the city with her but there are many touching and horrifying scenes in which we as viewers get a little insight into how terrible and traumatizing it must have been to be at this place in this night. Sure, the actual events were still much worse and to tell survivors after viewing this one understands what it was like in Dresden is insulting, but it is mostly in small scenes like the one where a group of people asks a young soldier to shoot them because nobody will survive this anyhow, that I felt a big lump in my throat and got a better understanding of the horror than in the (arguably well done for a TV production) scenes of the inferno.

Tha final scene in which the rebuilt Frauenkirche is re-inaugurated worked for me. I think I understood a lot better now, after watching this movie, how important the building was for the people of Dresden, and why for many of the survivors it was a symbol of their wounds slowly healing and coming to terms with these traumatizing events.

But as a whole, this movie is not about "Dresden", thus it should not have this title. It is just about a bunch of uninteresting poorly written, cliché-based cardboard characters that are, though being mostly played by very competent actors, so completely unappealing, that they ruin the movie.