Andrei Konchalovsky’s Holocaust drama interweaves the stories of three people: Olga (Julia Vysotskaya), an émigré Russian countess and fashion editor who has become a member of the French Resistance and is arrested for sheltering Jewish children; Jules (Philippe Duquesne), a collaborationist police official who meets an unhappy fate after he lets Olga go in hopes of romantic favors; and Helmut (Christian Clauss), an SS officer who renews a brief pre-war encounter he had with Olga when he recognizes her in the concentration camp where he has been assigned to investigate the commandant’s possible financial malfeasance. Although the initial segment focuses on Jules, detailing the destruction of his pleasantly bourgeois family life, the story of Helmut and Olga quickly takes center stage. The film’s greatest strength lies in the complexity of the characters, with Helmut, for example, portrayed as a firm believer in Nazi ideals who is confronted by the seedy reality of how they are continually being debased in practice. It is weakened, however, by a streak of sentimentality coupled with an odd structure (combining straightforward narrative elements, flashbacks, and excerpts from interviews with the three principals). Despite its flaws, this is recommended. (F. Swietek)
Paradise
Film Movement, 132 min., in Russian, German, French & Yiddish w/English subtitles, not rated, DVD: $24.99 Volume 33, Issue 3
Paradise
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