Page 98 - All About History - Issue 59-17

History Hollywood

vs

Fact versus fiction on the silver screen

Alone in Berlin

Director: Vincent Perez Starring: Emma Thompson, Brendan Gleeson, Daniel Brühl, Mikael Persbrandt, Louis Hofman,
Katharina Schüttler Country: Germany, France, United Kingdom Released: 2016
How much truth remains in this story of a bereaved German couple,
Otto and Elsie Hampel, spreading anti-Nazi leaflets in World War II? Verdict A successful adaptation of
the novel — less so of the truth!

Based on Hans Fallada’s Otto and Elise had been For a city in the midst of The film and novel both The novel’s Escherich is a
01 fictionalised account of the 02 married for less than five 03 a brutal conflict, Perez’s 04 show Otto’s execution. The 05 Gestapo officer, while the
real-life rebels, some of the film’s years when war broke out and vision of Berlin looks surprisingly book spares Anna the guillotine by movie shows him as a conflicted but
inaccuracies can be traced back were in their mid and early 40s picturesque. It’s clean and bright, having her die in a bombing raid, dedicated policeman ashamed
to Fallada’s novel. In reality it was respectively when they died in 1943. with one or two bucolic scenes that while her screen counterpart is last of his part in the couple’s fate. His
Elise’s brother who died, but both At 62 and 58 years old, Gleeson and look as though they belong in the seen on death row, awaiting her fate. final scattering of their postcards
the novel and the film have changed Thompson are almost 20 years older glossy pages of a travel brochure In fact, both Otto and Elise were and suicide might be dramatically
this to the couple’s son. than their real-life counterparts. rather than a wartime drama! guillotined in April 1943. satisfying, but it never happened.

© Alamy

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