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Wanted to get one of the new German directors, either Petzhold or Vinterberg, on the schedule.

This is a gathering at my (Abe's) place. Attendance is limited.

WHO CAN ATTEND: People who have previously attended one of our watch parties, meaning I know and have met you.

WHERE: I live near Town Center, Virginia Beach. RSVP and I'll send the address.

Movie info:

RUNTIME: 98 minutes

RATED: PG-13

SYNOPSIS (via Criterion): This evocative and haunting drama, set in rubble-strewn Berlin in 1945, is like no other film about post–World War II Jewish-German identity. After surviving Auschwitz, a former cabaret singer (Nina Hoss, in a dazzling, multilayered performance) has her disfigured face reconstructed and returns to her war-ravaged hometown to seek out her gentile husband, who may or may not have betrayed her to the Nazis. Without recognizing her, he enlists her to play his wife in a bizarre hall-of-shattered-mirrors story that is as richly metaphorical as it is preposterously engrossing. Revenge film or tale of romantic reconciliation? One doesn’t know until the superb closing scene of this marvel from Christian Petzold, one of the most important figures in contemporary German cinema.

BLURBS:
"This is cinema at its most ineffable and its most potent." - Catherine Wheatley, Sight and Sound

"Phoenix is an intoxicating witches' brew, equal parts melodrama and moral parable, that audaciously mixes diverse elements to compelling, disturbing effect." - Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

"This is an amazing piece of work that transcends historical document to become art. Using the filmic language of noir, Petzold crafts a story of a culture caught in the aftermath of horror." - Brian Tallerico, *RogerEbert.com*

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