Sick Product of a Sick System

Powerful

Excellent but underrated film

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Whilst having read high praise of his creations for years,I somehow have never got round to seeing a title by auteur director Douglas Sirk. Checking with my dad about what he has recently sold on eBay,he mentioned a Sirk DVD that was about to be sent,and asked me if I would like to watch it before it goes,which led to me putting some time aside for A Time to Love and a Time to Die.View on the film:Filming in Germany for the first time since fleeing from the Nazis,auteur director Douglas Sirk & cinematographer Russell Metty superbly use the lush beauty of Sirk's Technicolor stylisation to starkly show the devastation of war. Unable to work in the Soviet-controlled part of the country, Sirk and the crew reinforce bombed out buildings and build entrances,exits and stairways within them, giving the scenes of Graeber and other soldiers lifting bricks to find survivors of the latest air raid bombing an earthy atmosphere. Ending on a haunting image possibly referencing the death of his son Klaus Detlef Sierck, (Sirk's ex-wife Lydia Brincken Joined the Nazis and got Klaus to become a child star in Nazi propaganda films,along with barring Sirk from seeing Klaus after Sirk married Jewish actress Hilde Jary. Klaus died as a solider on the then-USSR Ukrainian boarder on 22 May 1944) Sirk and Metty contrast the autumn colours of Ernst Graeber and Elizabeth's romance with an uncomfortable, threatening mood,lit in the casual manner the Nazis sit back and tell Ernst of the latest people they have sent to the concentration camps,brilliantly underlined by a shimmering score from Miklós Rózsa.Giving his own seal of approval by co-staring in the adaptation of his own book,Orin Jannings take on Erich Maria Remarque's novel takes an intelligent, novel-like approach to Elizabeth and Ernst's romance, starting from a collage of them piecing each others common interests with flirting and tempting asides, to a blossoming romance held by them each willing to risk their lives for the others safety. Hardly featuring any signs of the Allies, Jannings goes behind enemy lines and follows those trapped inside Nazi Germany, where Ernst's time on the battleground has made him well aware of the threat loyal Nazi solders and informants hold towards murdering the Jewish Elizabeth and him.Appearing in the first of two films for Sirk,John Gavin gives an incredible performance as Ernst,whose romantic side is pinned by Gavin with a quick-witted edge to search for his parents out of sight, and to keep Elizabeth out of the Nazis grip. Looking absolutely beautiful from her first appearance, Liselotte Pulver gives a magnificent performance as Elizabeth,via bringing a real delicate touch to the early stages of the romance,that transforms into a burning passion for Ernst and Elizabeth's desire to fight to make this a time to love.

The fact that you DO notice the length is indicative that this isn't top-drawer Sirk. It followed on the heels of The Tarnished Angels, another downbeat story contrasting with the largely upbeat fodder that brought belated recognition to Sirk late in his career. The Tarnished Angels was adapted from a novel (Pylon) by William Faulkner and shot in black and white. A Time To Love is adapted from a novel by Erich Maria Remarque (who also plays a supporting role) and is filmed in color so muted that it may as well be black and white. The two leads were relatively unknown in terms of the big screen; John Gavin was never much of an actor but his good lucks ensured a regular supply of television work whilst Lilo Pulver had a long and successful career in German-language films but did appear in Billy Wilder's One, Two, Three, shot as the Berlin wall was being erected. The story is slight but none the worse for that and it's certainly watchable.

Re: Shannon Box's (sbox@gvtc.com) observation: "In short, this is an important film of significant value. Not because it is about history, but because it is about the redeeming quality of humanity, even if displayed in the setting of our onetime enemy." I would change the last of Shannon's statement to BECAUSE it is displayed in the setting of our onetime enemy. I saw this film shortly after it was released, in a theater on a USArmy post in Munich, Germany (McGraw Kaserne). At that time I was a student, especially of German history. This film provided an opportunity to be transported, for a few hours, into that closed society that our German friends had lived through but could not adequately convey to us. For those who enjoyed this film I would recommend reading "The Officer Factory" by Hans Helmut Kirst and Betrayed Skies (I have forgotten the author, but that is a first rate but largely unknown German pilot's story of his unwilling part in the air war). In short, this is a modern day All Quiet on the Western Front.

I saw this fabulous tear-jerker purely by accident but I don't regret it one bit. In my opinion it's one of the best romantic war films ever made. This is mainly because the fabulous director Douglas Sirk doesn't allow it to become a soppy schmaltz. Also, the film is incredibly moving, especially in a scene at the beginning where a young man, unable to live with the guilt of having shot a woman, shoots himself. John Gavin is good as Ernst Graeber and his beloved is adequately played by Liselotte Pulver, but the most outstanding performance, I think, is by Charles Régnier as Joseph. If more war films were made like this then they would be much, much more watchable. The credit sequence at the beginning of the film is also very well done. Why don't more people know this masterpiece? Enjoy! (and don't forget the Kleenex) 10/10