Movie Recommendation: “Phoenix”

Thanks for this, Zachary. I just noticed it was on iTunes now and am looking forward to it. Have you seen “Barbara”? The director’s previous film with the same actors? It’s a quietly powerful film that captures the oppressiveness of dictatorship. 

I just watched Phoenix and agree with Zachary Kauble’s recommendation. As he noted in his post, the plot, which revolves around a concentration camp survivor who has underwent facial reconstructive surgery, is unique and very interesting. It is clever in a way that somewhat reminded me vaguely or AR’s short stories. Interestingly, the film is based on a 1961 detective novel.

The theme seems to me to be a variant of “the truth will set you free” as well as some elements of the virtue of integrity.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_(2014_film)

I watched ‘Barbara’ and thought it was very well done. Thanks for the recommendation. 

I also watched Barbara based on the recommendations in this thread. As Thomas Reardon mentions in his post (7373) the movie illustrates, very explicitly, the evils of dictatorship through its concretization of just how impossible liberty and the pursuit of happiness are in such a situation. 

One of the points the film emphasizes is the inability to be “separate” or have true privacy in a society in which that being “separate” is automatically viewed as suspicious.

It brought to mind these two two AR quotes:

“Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy.”

“Try to imagine what it is like if you are in constant terror from morning till night and at night you are waiting for the doorbell to ring, where you are afraid of anything and everybody, living in a country where human life is nothing, less than nothing, and you know it. You don’t know who or when is going to do what to you because you may have friends who spy on you, where there is no law and any rights of any kind.”

Thanks for these AR quotes, Amesh. I think I’ll watch Barbara again. It’s been a few years, but what I remember most is what the second quote captures. It’s a quiet, small film (limited locations, just a few actors), but the sense of dread throughout is palpable. The starkness of everything, especially the hospital, feels very accurate. I seem to remember thinking also that the film depicts that everyone suffers, even the local stasi thug, demonstrating the mindless brutality of collectivism.

Enjoyed watching Barbara. Spoiler Alert: do you think that her final decision was an act of altruism? I think that it wasn’t because she ended up with more value at the end.

Boris. You asked the question which I asked myself after watching the movie.

More spoilers

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I’d say no, it is not altruism. She has definitely made the decision to leave. But in the context of the new story development, the young girl, whose situation is clearly hopeless, showing up at her place, the heroine makes a new decision to help her. The cost is giving up her own chance to escape. I’d say it’s analogous to someone jumping into a raging torrent to save a drowning child and paying the price of risking their life in order to do so. And there is the additional possibility that the heroine is using this opportunity to protest, as best she can, the nature of the society in which she lives. (I’m much less certain about the latter interpretation. I’ll have to think about it.) 

I also watched the movie Phoenix, and liked it.  One aspect that I liked about both Barbara and Phoenix movies is how the director cut scenes which the viewer could fill in with his imagination to a better effect. In this sense the movie is based around a plot, showing only necessary developments.

Also, the director used many silences, getting the viewer to figure out what is the actor thinking and feeling. I saw this kind of cinematography also in many Russian movies. A silence is more eloquent more than words.

From now on, more spoilers, about the movie “Barbara”.

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Douglas Mayfield says that Barbara made a decision to leave. I am not entirely sure that she did. She was torn because (a) she began to fall in love for the doctor (b) found that she can help sick patients in a way no other doctor can, and (c) her boyfriend from Denmark does not value the virtue of her devotion to her profession (when he mentions that she wouldn’t have to work in Denmark). In contrast, the doctor was enthusiastic about his profession and was at one with Barbara on that level.  All in all, on the balance of scale it was becoming apparent to Barbara that, ironically, her life’s central purpose is better served here, in communist Germany, because she has found a deeper romantic relationship.  Since the doctor wasn’t particularly sold on communist ideas, she may hope that he may understand her ideologically too.

I estimate that the device of the sick girl appearing on her doorstep, was a literary device, to make her decision more visual. Without it, should Barbara choose to stay, she would not go to the seashore, and we would not be able to appreciate what she is giving up. However, it does reduce the level of conflict — the girl makes it easier for her to decide to stay. If Ayn Rand wrote such a story, she wouldn’t choose to reduce the level of conflict (Ayn Rand illustrated a conflict when Dagny had to choose between Francisco and Galt).