Germany Year Zero (1949)

Citizens fight for survival in the nightmarish devastation of post-World War II Berlin in this towering masterpiece of Italian neorealist cinema from groundbreaking director Robert Rossellini. Twelve-year-old Edmund, a child who has known only upheaval and terror, wanders from day to day trying to help his family and find money or food on the streets. One day he meets his former schoolteacher, who now profits from Nazi propaganda, and sets in motion a shocking new chain of violence. Filled with haunting imagery and unforgettable performances by real local citizens, this unflinching look at a country wracked with guilt and confusion will never leave your memory.

Germany Year Zero

Filmed amid the spectral ruins of Berlin in 1947, and cast with actual residents of the rubble-strewn capital city, Rossellini's harrowing portrait of war's catastrophic impact on everyday people is a haunting classic of Italian neo-realism. Of particular interest is the character of Herr Enning, an ambiguous figure with vaguely pederastic leanings, whose worldview has been unalterably twisted by Nazi ideology. When he gives Edmund a set of tapes--speeches by Hitler--for him to sell on the black market, he also dispenses a bit of corrosive advice about the weak and the strong that Edmund takes, tragically, very much to heart. "Zero" in on this brutal, yet heartrending drama. June 22, 2007

Incredible

Masterful work of Italian neo-realism by the grand old man, Roberto Rossellini and filmed in war-torn Berlin and widely regarded as the precursor to Rossellini's 50's masterpieces.

A young boy is manipulated by his teacher who later turns out to be an appalling Nazi sympathizer who manipulates the boy into murdering his father.

Mesmerizing and always stylized and breathtaking form. This film conveys the horror and destructive inevitability of war far better than the gross Hollywood extravaganza's of the Longest Day variety.

Rossellini was criticized by the neo-realists for injecting greater melodrama and lighting control than was though appropriate, but the film still exists in a magnificent documentary style, and it runs circles around DeSica's Umberto D. January 16, 2006

Devastating statement!

This seminal, absorbing and arresting picture preceded by far, the famous ones Zinemmann `s The Search (1947), Joseph Losey 's The boy with the green hair (1948) and Rene Clement ` s Forbidden Games(1953). And comparing in what stature artistic concerns it with Andrei Tarkovsky `s Ivan childhood is just one echelon bellow, equaled with Forbidden games. .
I have seen them all these in the last two months and I can tell you with all the possible objectivity. This is another magisterial masterpiece of the Italian Realism. There is no way out along this struggling and gradually increasing tension. A true slap in the face that will make you think around a lot of things. An ethic deficit, perhaps?
November 7, 2005

BUYERS BE FOREWARNED!!!

This has to go on record as the worst quality DVD I have ever seen in my life. The image quality is so wretched, so absolutely horrendous, that it makes watching this masterpiece of a film quite literally impossible. The pixellation, at times, eats up not just individual shots, but entire sequences of the picture.

Actually, I've long found that a number of DVDs from Image Entertainment have this problem. Ecstasy (by Machaty) suffers from it as well.

It should not be legal to sell a disc whose image quality is this atrocious. I'm aghast that the company can even stay in business if they are marketing pieces of garbage like this DVD release.

Bottom line: Germania Anno Zero is a magnificent film. But avoid buying it on DVD and shoot for the VHS instead. Only that edition is watchable. May 22, 2005

Rossellini's Best

Some of the greatest movies of all-time have the ability to make us care about their characters as if they were real human beings. We forget they are only characters, we forget it's only a movie.

I've always said the greatest movie I've ever seen was "The Bicycle Thief" because it, more than any other movie, displayed the passion I'm talking it. The first time I saw that movie I was amazed. I had not seen many movies that could touch me in such a way. The only one that may have come close was Bergman's "Wild Strawberries".

All of these feelings resurfaced again as I watch Roberto Rossellini's "Germany Year Zero" easily one of the greatest films I have ever seen. All of the emotion, the human drama needed to make a great film is here.

This was the first Rossellini film I had seen at the time, since then I have seen "Open City", "Paisan", and "Voyage in Italy", but none of them seemed to touch me and provoke the power I thought this film had.

The movie is set after WW2 as a family tries to get by and rebuild their lives. A young boy, Edmund (Edmund Moeschke) feels it is up to him to provide for the family since his father is dying, his brother may be wanted for war crimes, and his sister, he suspects has become a "working girl".

They way these events are played out, the way Rossellini presents these characters to us our hearts have to go out to them. I was completely absorb while watching this film hopefully many more will feel the same way I do about this masterpiece.

Bottom-line: Easily one of the most powerful films I have ever seen. A masterpiece by Roberto Rossellini. He is able to make the viewer forget it's only a movie us our hearts go out to the characters. September 30, 2004

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