Phoenix
This evocative and haunting drama, set in rubble-strewn Berlin in 1945, is like no other film about post–World War II Jewish-German identity. After surviving Auschwitz, a former cabaret singer (Nina Hoss, in a dazzling, multilayered performance) has her disfigured face reconstructed and returns to her war-ravaged hometown to seek out her gentile husband, who may or may not have betrayed her to the Nazis. Without recognizing her, he enlists her to play his wife in a bizarre hall-of-shattered-mirrors story that is as richly metaphorical as it is preposterously engrossing. Revenge film or tale of romantic reconciliation? One doesn’t know until the superb closing scene of this marvel from Christian Petzold, one of the most important figures in contemporary German cinema.
Special Features
- New 2K digital transfer, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- New conversation between director Christian Petzold and actor Nina Hoss
- New interview with cinematographer Hans Fromm
- The Making of “Phoenix,” a 2014 documentary featuring interviews with Petzold, Hoss, actors Nina Kunzendorf and Ronald Zehrfeld, and production designer K. D. Gruber
- Trailer
- New English subtitle translation
- PLUS: An essay by critic Michael Koresky
New cover by Nessim Higson
Special Features
- New 2K digital transfer, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- New conversation between director Christian Petzold and actor Nina Hoss
- New interview with cinematographer Hans Fromm
- The Making of “Phoenix,” a 2014 documentary featuring interviews with Petzold, Hoss, actors Nina Kunzendorf and Ronald Zehrfeld, and production designer K. D. Gruber
- Trailer
- New English subtitle translation
- PLUS: An essay by critic Michael Koresky
New cover by Nessim Higson
Cast
- Nina Hoss
- Nelly
- Ronald Zehrfeld
- Johnny
- Nina Kunzendorf
- Lene
- Imogen Kogge
- Elisabeth
Credits
- Director
- Christian Petzold
- Screenplay by
- Christian Petzold
- Screenplay by
- Harun Farocki
- Based on motifs from the novel Le retour des cendres by
- Hubert Monteilhet
- Cinematography
- Hans Fromm
- Edited by
- Bettina Böhler
- Produced by
- Florian Koerner von Gustorf
- Produced by
- Michael Weber
- Production design by
- K. D. Gruber
- Costume design by
- Anette Guther
Trailer for Phoenix
