From the opening soundtrack on a blank screen, bass and piano, It was just a couple of chords, and I was hooked! The music of Kurt Weill's standard, Speak Low, is threaded throughout the movie. (Words by Ogden Nash). I was so taken by the song that I must have listened to A dozen or so versions, from Billie Holliday to Kiri Te Kanawa. And I kept coming back to Nina Hoss' version and Weill's version. I go on about this tune because it encapsulates so brilliantly all the melancholy of Phoenix. Post WW2 Berlin, a shell of itself, Holocaust survivors looking to repair their broken spirits, Berliners struggling to eke out a living, all played out against a woman searching for her past, for her lost husband. Phoenix, a Berlin nightclub, Phoenix rising from the ashes. It's all there. Thank you Petzold.
Review of Phoenix
