Germany, Year Zero couldn't have been further removed from the escapist pictures that were coming out of America at the time. As the story opens, World War II has ended. Berliners are trying to regroup, then rebuild their Allied-occupied city. The main character, twelve year-old Edmund Koeler (Edmund Moeschke), is forced to grow up quickly amidst the ruins, especially since his father (Ernst Pittschau) is too ill to earn a living. Everyone in Edmund's family suffers. His mother has been killed. His older brother, Karl (Franz Kruger), is a former Nazi soldier who's terrified that he'll be jailed as a war criminal; he can't register with the authorities, so finding work is impossible. Edmund's adult sister, Eva (Ingetraud Hinze), resists the unfortunately obvious route of becoming a prostitute. These desperate circumstances will lead Edmund to commit what can only be called a brutal act of compassion, one that shatters the remaining vestiges of his pre-war existence.
His seemingly haphazard approach to shooting invests Germany, Year Zero with an indisputable raw energy. This experimentation was even extended to the casting decisions and script development. Knowing only that he wanted to make a film about post-war Germany, Rossellini visited the country looking for inspiration. His sojourn posed many questions: "The Germans were human beings like us," he once said. "What could have lead them to this disaster? False morality, the very essence of Nazism? Abandonment of humility for the cult of heroism? Exaltation for force, rather than weakness? Pride rather than sympathy?" He would seek the answers while improvising a film.
The cast of Germany, Year Zero was chosen from non-performers who were discovered in bombed-out Berlin. Pittschau (who, it turned out, had acted in a few silent pictures) was living in a public home for the aged. The "resigned despair" on Hinze's face struck Rossellini when he saw her waiting in line for food. Kruger came from a family of scholars, and, along with his father, had been jailed by the Gestapo. And Moeschke was a circus hand who Rossellini noticed when he was actually more interested in checking out some performing elephants. The boy's resemblance to Rossellini's late son sealed the deal. "Anyone can act," the director said, "provided he is in familiar surroundings and given lines that are natural."
The Image DVD of Germany Year Zero is a perfectly acceptable presentation of this often overlooked Rossellini film. As to be expected for a film made during this economical depressed period in Italian cinema, there are obvious defects visible in the picture from time to time; speckles, print scratches, damaged frames, but overall the DVD visual presentation is crisp and the black and white levels are well balanced. The film is presented in the original Italian language with optional English subtitles.
For more information on Germany Year Zero, visit the distributor's web site at Image Entertainment, Inc.. To purchase a copy of Germany Year Zero, visit Movies Unlimited.
By Paul Tatara
