Phoenix (2014)

The movie opens and closes with the song “Speak Low” (Kurt Weill). It opens with an instrumental version of a bass accompanied by a piano playing over the titles. It ends with a vocal accompanied by a piano but turning into an a capella rendition. Both renditions are absolutely wonderful but for obvious reasons have totally different impact upon the audience. Interestingly there are only two other pieces of music in the film and they are sung by two singers in the Cabaret. So in this case if you didn’t notice the music, it was because it wasn’t there.

The lyrics of Speak Low are so appropriate to the story that in their own way they tell the story. A couple of examples:

Speak low when you speak, love.
Our moment is swift, like ships adrift, we’re swept apart, too soon

and: Time is so old and love so brief
Love is pure gold and time a thief

We’re late, darling, we’re late
The curtain descends, everything ends too soon, too soon
I wait, darling, I wait
Will you speak low to me, speak love to me and soon
Speak low

The movie also opens with bright headlights approaching and filling the screen. It ends with a bright light directly into the camera.

The lighting throughout the film is soft and tinted so as to make us feel it was a long time ago. For the most part the environmental colors are muted and stark. In sharp contrast, however, are the bright red of the Phoenix sign outside the club, Nelly’s bright red Parisian dress and the bright red lipstick she uses. Red is the color representing both birth and passion. Coupling that with the mythological Phoenix rebirth arising out of the ashes one is led to believe that from the release from the ashes of the concentration camp Nelly is to have a rebirth as a new person. There are a number of night scenes, inside and outside the cabaret “Phoenix” which lend themselves to providing a noir effect. The cinematography conveys the desolation and fear of a war torn area. The editing is very comfortable with scenes changing smoothly. The linear transitions do not leave the viewer wondering about what has happened. There is one editing error. Nelly is seen running from the cabaret at night and the next shot shows her rushing into her apartment still upset in bright daylight.

There are a number of themes presented in the film. The most predominant are betrayal, identity loss and lost lives. Denial and deceit prevail throughout the film.

The movie is set in post-war Berlin. The protagonist, Nelly, a Jewish jazz singer, has survived the concentration camp but got shot in the face. She goes to a doctor for reconstruction and asks to look like she used to look. The doctor explains that he thought it better for Nellie to have a different face for her own safety, due to her past. He also tells her that it will be difficult to make it the exact same but he will make it as close as he can. Nelly undergoes some deep psychological trauma believing that with a changed face “I no longer exist.” In her mind, even though she survived, the Germans won. Similar feelings were felt by others whose homes and family were destroyed. Nelly’s friend Lene identifies more with the dead than the living which leads her to suicide.

There is an interesting pseudo flashback as Nelly is in surgery. She dreams of herself in camp garb walking toward the boathouse in which she was hiding when she was captured. She walks in and her husband, Johnny, is playing the piano. The dream stops there. The director leaves it to the viewers to decide what this means. Based upon what Nelly tells us during the movie, the one thing that kept her going while she was in the camp was thinking of singing again with Johnny. So is this a reflection of that faith or is it symbolic of Nelly having doubts about Johnny’s role in her arrest? Lene has told her that Johnny betrayed her. What Lene knows is that two days before Nelly’s arrest Johnny got a divorce. Lene does not tell Nelly of this.

Nelly is determined to find her husband, a non-Jewish jazz pianist.. She is scared he won’t recognize her. She succeeds but he does not recognize her which disturbs her greatly and intensifying her concern that she no longer exists. The next night when she returns she is approached by an American officer who mistakes her for a whore. He offers her a cigarette and gently strokes her face. Nelly never moves, letting the officer do as he pleases. The camera gives us a close up of Nelly’s face showing no emotion or reaction. When the officer offers Nellie a cigarette she mechanically opens her mouth just enough for him to stick it in. This is the obvious reminder of her time at the camp where she dared not respond to a German officer other than just being compliant.

She pursues Johnny outside the club. He now goes by his German name Johannes but instead of playing piano, works as a busboy and apparently plays an accordion on corners. His identity has changed yet he never questions why Nelly calls him Johnny. Johnny does however think that Nelly looks close enough to his former wife to use her to get her inheritance. So she tells him her name is Esther which was her deceased cousin’s name. Another identity confusion — both born out of distrust. Johnny trains “Esther” to look and act like Nelly. Nelly initially thinks from what tells her that he really did love her and misses her but slowly that belief fades. Unlike Vertigo, where Jimmy Stewart’s character is trying to recreate someone he loved, Johnny is only trying to recreate an object to use so he can steal the inheritance. His manner is cold and methodical.

Nelly longs for the past and as they go through the training, we see a few hugs, closed eyes, longings that the other cannot see. Johnny seems as scared to face the past as Nelly is to come to grips with the present. However, the more Esther asks about Nellie and acts like her even when they aren’t practicing, the more upset Johnny becomes. Eventually they return to the boathouse and as Nelly slowly talks with the innkeeper and examines the hiding place, the camera shows her face reflecting her rememberances and the pain of the losses – time and family.

Slowly Nelly comes to have grave doubts about Johnny. These are culminated when the innkeeper tells her that Johnny was there right after she got arrested. And then when Lene commits suicide she leaves Nelly a copy of the divorce decree. Nelly decides to go through with a meeting with some of their friends. It is not clear if they are Johnny’s friends and know of the setup or are really friends of both and remember Nelly. She shows absolutely no reaction when she finally meets them. Standing rigid and stone faced she lets them hug her with zero response of any kind.  What is the meaning of this?  Is it that she cannot stand to be touched by Germans or because she believes that they are faking?

The coup des grâce occurs when Nelly meets with the friends and they are having lunch. When they have finished eating she urges them to join her inside by the piano. She tells Johnny to play “Speak Low” . He seems surprised since they had not rehearsed this but goes along with it. Nelly starts out almost saying the words very deeply and slowly but gradually starts putting some melody into her phrasing. Johnny is playing but looking concerned. Then half way through the song Nelly gains her old voice and blasts out the song and the camera stays on Nelly’s arm on the piano and Johnny’s absolutely shocked face. He realizes something is up. Then her sleeve edges up a little and Johnny and we see the “number” on her arm. He freezes. Stops playing. The shock and fear in his face is intense. Nelly finishes singing on her own, takes her purse and walks out into the bright light of the outside. Fade to black. The audience is left to deal with a mix of emotions.