Phoenix (2014)

A disfigured Holocaust survivor sets out to determine if the man she loved betrayed her trust.

Director:

Christian Petzold

Writers:

Christian Petzold (screenplay), Hubert Monteilhet (novel)

Stars:

Nina Hoss, Ronald Zehrfeld, Nina Kunzendorf

17 wins & 29 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Nina Hoss	...	Nelly Lenz
Ronald Zehrfeld	...	Johnny Lenz
Nina Kunzendorf	...	Lene Winter
Trystan Pütter	...	Soldat an der Brücke
Michael Maertens	...	Arzt
Imogen Kogge	...	Elisabeth
Felix Römer	...	Geiger
Uwe Preuss	...	Clubbesitzer
Valerie Koch	...	Tänzerin
Eva Bay	...	Tänzerin
Jeff Burrell	...	Soldat im Club
Nikola Kastner	...	Junge Frau
Max Hopp	...	Der Mann
Megan Gay	...	Mitarbeiterin Zentralstelle Halensee
Kirsten Block	...	Wirtin

Storyline

In the aftermath of WWII, Nelly, a Jewish survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp, horribly disfigured from a bullet wound in her face, undergoes a series of facial reconstruction surgeries and decides to find her husband Johnny who works at the Phoenix club in Berlin. Undoubtedly, Nelly is stunning, yet, her new self is beyond recognition, so Johnny, the man who may have betrayed her to the Nazis, will never imagine that the woman in front of him who bears an uncomfortable and unsettling resemblance to his late wife, is indeed her. Without delay, and with the intention to collect the deceased's inheritance, Nelly will go along with Johnny's plot and she will impersonate the dead woman, giving the performance of a lifetime before friends and relatives in a complex game of deceit, duplicity, and ultimately, seduction. In the end, during this masquerade, as the fragile and broken Nelly tries to find out whether Johnny betrayed her or not, she will have to dig deep into her wounded ...

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Plot Keywords:

survivor | facial reconstruction | holocaust survivor | auschwitz | scam | 

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Taglines:

An absolute knockout! A rich, Hitchcockian tale of mistaken identity.

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Genres:

Drama | History | Music | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for some thematic elements and brief suggestive material

Details

Official Sites:

Official site Official site [Japan]

Country:

Germany Poland

Language:

German English

Release Date:

25 September 2014 (Germany)

Also Known As:

Ave Fénix

Filming Locations:

Kirchmöser, Brandenburg an der Havel, Brandenburg, Germany

Company Credits

Production Co:

Schramm Film Koerner & Weber, Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR), Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

98 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

According to Christia Petzold, Phoenix is the second chapter of his trilogy called "Love in Times of Oppressive Systems". The trilogy also includes Barbara (2012) and Transit (2018).

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Goofs

She is at the Phoenix bar and sees her husband. He does not recognize her. She runs out home. It is night and pitch dark. As she enters her apartment and her friend asks her if it is all okay, beautiful daylight thru the window. That's bothersome.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Lene Winter: [arriving at the border]
Soldat an der Brücke: Passport... Nice car. Where did you get it from?
Lene Winter: It's from Switzerland.
Soldat an der Brücke: Just like you?
Lene Winter: Like me.
Soldat an der Brücke: [whistles to the gate] They're from Switzerland. The girl too.
[to her passenger]
Soldat an der Brücke: I want to see your face.
Lene Winter: Can I talk to you?
[...]

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Connections

References Woman in the Moon (1929)

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Soundtracks

Speak Low
Music by Kurt Weill
Lyrics by Ogden Nash
Performed by Nina Hoss and heard as a theme over the credits

User Reviews

Deeply moving, poetic and powerful

At first I was quite resistant to this film. I thought, surely plastic surgery was not very good at the end of WWII? I thought surely there would be recognition where there apparently wasn't? Then I began to get it. I saw the poetry in this and how well it was handled. I saw the portrayal of an attempt to reconstruct not a face but of a life, a way of being, before it was destroyed by the Nazis.

That destruction went very far, inevitably corrupting people and causing them to betray one another.

Really this is a very powerful film and I urge anyone to watch it. At present this has a rating of 7.3 here at IMDb but this just tells us how films that appeal to teenagers tend to get high ratings whereas unfortunately truly great films like this one do not do so well.