"Germania anno zero" is a black-and-white sound movie from 1948, so this one soon has its 70th anniversary. The star here is the director, namely Roberto Rossellini, who also wrote the film. The film basically plays also the very same time when it was made, namely in Germany that is completely destroyed after World War II. We follow a little boy named Edmund, also the actor's real name, and the actor is one of several examples from this movie who never appeared in a film before or afterward again. The reason may be that Rossellini usually made Italian-language films, so this one is a big exception and he could obviously not cast the people from this film again because of language barriers. However, this is also not a big problem as, in my opinion, none of the actors left a really lasting impression. But the real problem here was the story. There were 2 really shocking developments at the end of the film, one in the very last scenes, and I felt none of these felt authentic or realistic unfortunately.
The movie is about a boy who meets a former teacher and makes a connection with him. As the teacher is still a loyal Nazi, obviously nothing good can follow from it. I guess people from allied countries must have really enjoyed this film back then as it shows the Nazis at pure evil, but really never gets to the core of the problem. It was never about making people kill other people for them. It was all about committing the crimes themselves and talk and act towards the people in a manner that they accept it as necessary, but do not really do it themselves. This is also why I guess the film does not make much sense in a political context, apart from believing that the boy's actions, especially the killing did not make any sense and would not have happened like this in reality. And the film is all about these developments really. The scenes that do not have to do with these, or almost not, are not very interesting to watch either. I have not seen any other Rossellini films I think, but this one here did not get me in the mood to do so anytime soon. Fairly disappointing and I do not recommend it. Good thing it only runs for a very short 73 minutes as these felt already too long. The IMDb rating is way too high. I give "Germania anno zero" a thumbs down.
The movie is about a boy who meets a former teacher and makes a connection with him. As the teacher is still a loyal Nazi, obviously nothing good can follow from it. I guess people from allied countries must have really enjoyed this film back then as it shows the Nazis at pure evil, but really never gets to the core of the problem. It was never about making people kill other people for them. It was all about committing the crimes themselves and talk and act towards the people in a manner that they accept it as necessary, but do not really do it themselves. This is also why I guess the film does not make much sense in a political context, apart from believing that the boy's actions, especially the killing did not make any sense and would not have happened like this in reality. And the film is all about these developments really. The scenes that do not have to do with these, or almost not, are not very interesting to watch either. I have not seen any other Rossellini films I think, but this one here did not get me in the mood to do so anytime soon. Fairly disappointing and I do not recommend it. Good thing it only runs for a very short 73 minutes as these felt already too long. The IMDb rating is way too high. I give "Germania anno zero" a thumbs down.