Divided We Fall
|
List Price: Our Price: $6.99 You Save: $17.97 (72%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $3.80 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of Divided We Fall
Movie Review: Together We Stand
Summary: 5 Stars
There has been a spate of fin de siecle films that have sought to undermine the general gloom and doom spectre of the Nazi regime. To take any other than the orthodox view is courageous and especially edifying as the films emanate from the occupied locales of suffering. 'Underground's' carnival flavour was festive at times, though I found the misogyny disturbing even accepting the plausibility of the plot. 'Life Is Beautiful', was really a supreme one-liner. But Jan Hrebjk's,'Divided We Fall' I'd nominate as the best of the bunch, for its farcical ferocity. The Czech town is occupied by Nazi invaders and its power structures, class and race, are inverted. The script is tight, tingling with one-liners, and given embodiment by a brilliant ensemble of lead characters. The reluctant hero, Joseph (the droll Bolek Poliuka)who'd rather have slept the duration of the war in hope that life would return to normal, is thrust to defend his Jewish neighbour. His valour, therefore, is dragged from him. Honour, allegiance, morality - all community values are deeply questioned, and definitively framed by their former friend, now a Nazi collaborator, who, in praise of Hitler has adopted the fuhrer's hairstyle down to the moustache. He's an ingratiating fellow who leeches after Joseph's wife. So many swift and sudden shifts of affiliation occur. The German Commandant, more than any Czech, is totally undone by the loss of three successive sons to the slaughter, and his wife to the asylum. Never has a title been more apt. This moves with the speed of Fawlty Towers and in the gangling Poliuka draws a touchingly real story brimming with comic insights and naive, good intent. I can't recall a film since,'Jesus of Montreal' that so exquisitely incorporates a Christian tale. Here, the 'miraculously' conceived infant, promotes a vision of resurrection in 'father', Joseph of the reunited family of the Commandant. Even during this epiphany,Hrebjk mischieviously has the infant peeing in his dad. The Germans sit at a table midst a pile of rubble. It's a climactic guesture of reconciliation and forgiveness.Movie Review: Gripping Story of the Holocaust
Summary: 5 Stars
"Divided We Fall" is a great Czech Republic film from 2000, starring Bolek Polivka, Anna Siskova, and Csongor Kassai. It earned an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Film. It desplicts a couple, Josef and Maria, from Czechoslavakia (now Czech Republic and Slavakia) who's devastated that they are unable to bear children. Josef begins losing all hope in life. Little do they know that their lives will become affected by the Holocaust. Suddenly, David, one of his ex-employee's family members and a lone survivor of a Polish massacre, enters their apartment in search of help. They risk their lives to hide him from the Nazis. Through these intense chain of events, the hard-hitting impact is always present. Such powerful theme keeps audiences watching closely. This powerful film desplicts the Holocaust's hardships wonderfully, brutal and beyond heartbreaking. The emotion aspect builds as lives change forever, namely Josef's renewed life outlook. The unique camera effects in certain scenes dig deeper into the characers' surroundings. Such film quality gives the brilliant plot its viewing enjoyment up to the surprising conclusion. The performers add their own sense of emotional value to this, namely Polivka, Siskova, and Kassai. Kassai's captivating performance as David alone offers the unforgettable experience through his character's life threatening struggles.
"Divided We Fall" is yet another great Holocaust-based film that will continue pleasing its audiences. This will not be forgotten by any of them.
Movie Review: Do the Right Thing
Summary: 5 Stars
I have spent much of my 56 years studying the Holocaust in an amatuer effort to comprehend the incomprehensible. I have found a lot to learn in fiction as well as fact. There are a number of excellent movies with Holocaust themes. "Divided We Fall" deals with the subject through the perspective of a Czech family who hides an escaped Jewish concentration camp inmate. The film begins with a good sequence of scenes that enables us to see the changing roles and relationships between former comrades. We are focussed on one couple and their challenge to cope with the circumstances that are thrust upon them. There is suspense, romance, and a surprising amount of comedy mixed into the film. About midway through the movie (and continuing for awhile) I got the impression that "Divided We Fall" was not a great film. Good but not great because it seemed that there were too many unnecessary scenes. However, as the film began to accelerate towards its' climax, I realized that everything was coming together in a way that I hadn't anticipated. The climax and the positive examples it gave me left me with a special and warm appreciation of what the director, Jan Hrebejk, meant to share with us. Most Holocaust and related films leave me with an emptiness rather than a fullness but Hrebejk uses hatred and distrust to show us love and reliance. Watching "Divided We Fail" was a very moving experience.Movie Review: a test
Summary: 5 Stars
Against all odds, and against our own fears, sometimes we find ourselves doing things we would not imagine doing. Sometimes we might even find that we do these things, which are ethically correct, against our wills. The main characters in Divided We Fall, Josef and Maria, are a married couple who end up harboring a Jewish acquaintance in their cellar for three years. They do not necessarily do this at first because they feel compelled by morality to do so, but more from guilt or because they don't really see another alternative. The couple sought calm and quiet and to stay out of the path of the onslaught of war and its politics, but in the end found themselves right in the mix. Indeed, to conceal their hidden "guest", they had to play the role of Nazi collaborator, which of course alienated all their neighbors and nearly cost them once the Nazis were driven out. Naturally all the twists and turns of the couple taking David (the Jewish "guest") in play out with some humor and some drama and even some moral and ethical questions... this is handled so subtly and deftly.Movie Review: Delightful!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a terrific, warm, and beautiful film. It successfully examines a cross section of the Nazi occupation period in Eastern Europe. It lovingly narrates the WWII experience of a handful of seemingly ordinary people. It elaborates on the troubled evolution of the complex relationship between people and things Czech, German and Jewish. It is endearing and uplfiting. The film subtly confronts and employs some of the stereotyped character types of the war and occupation era. But does so only to undermine and overturn them eventually, ever so gently. "Divided We Fall" is immensely funny in a traditionally Czech bittersweet manner. The entire cast is wonderful. The quirky soundtrack complements the film very well. Photography makes more than excellent use of dreamy natural light, and the movie is a visual joy as well. A highly recommended cinematic pleasure overall!