What is the procedure for dealing with unimaginable betrayal? How do we deal with events that impact a person’s life so cruelly that recovery seems next to impossible? These are two of the questions posed by Christian Petzold’s ‘Phoenix’, a cinematic piece that distinguishes Petzold as one of the foremost directors in the industry today. Petzold is already reminiscent of the great ‘Vertigo’ alongside a unique confidence within his visual language which has the capability to satisfy long after the credits have begun rolling. It has a fascinating narrative that deals extensively with the human story while at the same time capturing how the country perceives tragedy that comes with war. ‘Phoenix’ is a one-of-its-kind delight. Few films have the ability to satisfy audiences on so many levels and allow the pure enjoyment of a good story, while also being deeply intellectual and capable of provoking hours of discussion.
“Phoenix” commences with a face shrouded in shadows. This is Lene’s face (Nina Kunzendorf), a woman transporting a badly wounded and bandaged car passenger to Berlin. Her face is severely injured but she managed to escape from a concentration camp. As the vehicle moves towards the headlights at the end of the screen, the pair passes a checkpoint and a title comes into focus. This story will definitely be one of bright light overpowering darkness.
We find out that the passenger is Nelly Lenz (Petzold’s collaborator, Nina Hoss), a German-Jewish singer from a nightclub who, judging by the way photographs looked and from conversations with her friend Lene, seemed to have enjoyed a fulfilling life. She was with a good looking and self assured man called Johnny (another Petzold regular, Ronald Zehrfeld). On the Fourth of October, Johnny was brought in by the SS for interrogation. He was freed just two days later, and Nelly was sent off to a concentration camp. Did Johnny now willingly accept his wife’s Jewish heritage? The answer is clear. And yet, Nelly chooses not to believe it. She longs for her previous reality. And that requires turning a blind eye to the fact that her husband is a self-serving beast. After her plastic surgeon takes a look at her and informs her that she can become anybody and begin anew, he receives the surprise reply, “I want to look exactly like I used to.” This shows her absolute bewilderment.
Nelly, against Lene’s wishes, goes back to Berlin to find Jonny. She is a broken woman in a city full of ruins. Her exact words to Lene were, “I no longer exist.” Every aspect of her life, from the people she only recognizes in photographs to the city she used to know are all completely eradicated. The nightclub in Berlin named Phoenix is an oasis in this desolate world, and it is the only thing that provides her with a glimmer of hope. Even in a bombed-up city, it seems there is a dream that people can cling onto. It is also where she meets Jonny for the first time. He has a plan that he starts elaborating to her one night, and it involves her pretending to be his deceased spouse. “You have to play my wife.” He has dauntlessly no proof of his wife being alive, so he wants to take the inheritance money. The “Phoenix” and “Vertigo” overlap and intertwine, with this one character believing that he is her husband and that he has no other choice but to bring her back to life.
Every decision made in ‘Phoenix’ was made with utmost precision, but it never feels like it compromises the realism of the piece. It is a film with exceptional depth and a thoughtful cinematic language that is unaware of its style. There is an immense subtlety in Petzold’s choices- the way he captures his actors already tells a story, his choice of the song Night and Day in a important club scene, to a symbolic and climactic conversation on a railway track. This scene illustrates the need to gaze upon the past while the other eye remains fixated towards the future. Moreover, history is laden within the trains that took people who resembled Nelly to concentration camps. Petzold creates an understated visual illustration of his themes like darkness and light rising from the ashes. The overhead lighting of the phoenix sign is neon red. This type of subtlety within his visual expression allows him to not draw attention to his themes, he simply allows them to be the background of his human drama.
This is the part where Nina Hoss shines. In a club scene Johnny is walking by for the first time and she notices him, her expression instantly changes. She shouts his name with immense joy, even though she is fully aware of his past actions. It is a name she’s called often. He looks beyond her, and Hoss silently begs in her head, ‘Please do not turn to face me.’ His brain turns a blind eye to any possibility that she is present. For a few moments Hoss’s expectation was fulfilled as she puts her hand over her mouth. It is not Johnny’s betrayal that hurts her, it is the realization of Johnny’s despair. This is where Hoss loses it. The thing that she has always hoped for is that walking embodiment of logic, Hoss repeats cannot see her anymore. And when he finally gives her the opportunity to “become Nelly” she snatches it. He requests Nelly to help create a narrative around what he thinks is her fake reality of living in a concentration camp. Incredibly, the tale Nelly chooses to spin isn’t made up. Hoss puts her hands to her face as she starts trembling with anxiety and stutters. Johnny appears as uncomfortable as well. Johnny’s comfort zone is torn apart; the fiction he thinks he is creating along with the realities they’re ignoring blur the line.
Hoss is just incredible in this scene and in fact throughout the film.
To be absolutely fair, Zehrfeld is also quite good. Witness a fraction where he gets back home and Nelly is dressed perfectly and made up to look more like the Nelly he used to know. Is that a recollection dawns on him? Understanding of what he has done? No, it cannot be. He cannot be that man and she cannot be alive. She is a shadow of the past, a reminder of his crimes and everything the world suffered and lost during WWII.
Every now and then, if we are fortunate enough, we receive a package as complete as “Phoenix.” Every now and then we see character studies done with the skill of Hoss and Zehrfeld’s portrayals here, or we get films directed by an auteur and style is prioritized over everything else. It is rare to find a work of “art” that is so complete that it critiques the human urge to ignore war and betrayal without losing context of a story about a pianist and a nightclub singer in 1945 Berlin. “Phoenix” operates on so many levels that it is ear catching. It is the type of work that can be analyzed and enjoyed for years, and I think it will.
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