[Film] Phoenix (Phoenix)

14 May 2016

“Phoenix (Phoenix)”---European Union Film Festival

Release Year: 2014

Country: Germany

Director: Christian Petzold

Cast: Nina Hoss, Ronald Zehrfeld

Location I watched: Golden Village Suntec

Story from the programme booklet:

Narrowly escaping with her life but severely injured, Nelly (Nina Hoss), a Jewish concentration camp survivor returns to Berlin to piece together the fragments of her past. In the care of her friend Lene, Nelly recovers from her facial reconstruction surgery, after which she bears a mere resemblance to her former self. When she meets her husband Johnny, he fails to recognize Nelly, convinced that his wife is dead.

Although “Phoenix” is set in the period just after World War Two, it is a minimal psychological drama, with a small cast and limited locations. A man tries to revive a dead woman using a new woman, but actually those two women are the same one woman. This concept is similar to Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo”. However, the story of “Phoenix” is told throughout only from the woman’s point of view. Unlike Kim Novak as Judy who wants to leave herself dead, here, Nelly, the “dead” woman wants to get back to her past self with the man, her husband Johnny. But unlike James Stewart as Scottie, Johnny wants to leave her dead. He is trying to make the new Nelly his wife Nelly only for getting her inheritance. He does not recognize they are the same person.

An old acquaintance, a housekeeper auntie could recognize Nelly because she was wearing a familiar red dress and made up like before. Johnny, however, could not recognize the new Nelly when he saw her at a nightclub for the first time, even though Nelly was unnaturally staring at him, just a nightclub waiter. Perhaps, it showed his inner desire that Nelly stays dead because of his guilt. Johnny secretly divorced Nelly to save his own life during the War.

The husband’s betrayal was revealed to the audience in the early part of the film, so throughout the rest of the film we observe Nelly uneasily when she finds the truth. That is the central suspense of the film and keeps us drawn. Finally Nelly realized that no matter how strongly she longed for the happy past, it would never return, never revive. The actress, Nina Hoss playing Nelly with strong eyes, sings Kurt Weill’s “Speak Low”, hiding a flood of emotions. Even if she killed Johnny or killed herself, there would not be anything to help her. What Nelly lost by the war, what was more important than her original face cannot be taken back anymore. That is a real tragedy of war in “Phoenix”. (16 May, 2016)