German director Christian Petzold’s latest film Phoenix, explores a well-worn albeit still very interesting theme of the relationship between physical appearance and personal identity. Like Eyes Without a Face, The Skin I Live In, and countless other films, Phoenix sees a character undergo a severe physical transformation and focuses on how they deal with no longer inhabiting their original, familiar skin. Petzold has created a cleverly dark, moody piece which will satisfy viewers, provided they buy into the film’s central conceit.
Nina Hoss plays Nelly, a concentration camp survivor as she returns to post-war Berlin. She is first seen in a car having been stopped by US soldiers, a quivering mess, her face obscured by blood-soaked bandages. Following facial reconstruction surgery, Nelly is born anew and goes searching for her lost husband Johnny (Ronald Zehrfeld). In the back of a smoky nightclub she finds him but he doesn’t entirely recognise her, instead believing she is simply a stranger with a passing resemblance. His bright idea, that Nelly impersonate his seemingly dead wife to collect her inheritance, intrigues our protagonist enough that she begins living with him, ‘learning’ how to sound, act, and look like her former self.
It’s a set-up which is more than a little far-fetched and its success depends entirely on whether one accepts this dramatic contrivance. An audience that can look past the film’s difficulties will be rewarded with a story that slowly unravels, culminating in a devastating final shot, the film’s master stroke. Many of these early niggles will be too much for some, however. Why doesn’t he recognise his wife’s voice? Why does she go along with it rather than reveal herself? The simple answer is that we wouldn’t have a film without suspension of disbelief. In one shot, Nelly enters a room from the top of a staircase, her head obscured by a door frame. The audience is screaming out for her husband to recognise her from body alone but something in him stubbornly refuses.
Phoenix is very bleakly presented, Petzold having carefully crafted the film’s mood with a sprinkling of noir. Recovering from the Allied bombardment, Berlin as presented in the film is dark and gritty, but still contains a veneer-like sheen that keeps the film’s setting from ever feeling too real. Perhaps a deliberate decision to entice audiences into its elaborate set-up. Nina Hoss gives a fantastically subtle performance, cleverly portraying the inner torment of a character doomed to impersonate herself.
Ultimately, Phoenix is a disappointing film. One which contains all the ingredients for an amazingly complex drama, promising so much only to fall at the very first hurdle with a laboured plot that asks too much of its audience. Some will get on board, however, and for them it won’t be a problem. There are strong elements here and the film certainly gains traction as it heads towards its crushing final scene, but one can’t help feeling that with a little tweaking and a stronger foundation, Phoenix could have been a whole lot more powerful.
