FFCC members review Christian Petzold’s ‘Phoenix’
FFCC members review Christian Petzold’s latest film: the post-WWII drama Phoenix.
Juan Barquin, Dim the House Lights
“It’s because of the fact that Phoenix wears its influences on its sleeve that is proves to be an incredibly satisfying feat of filmmaking; one that’s easy to declare a classic piece of cinema from the moment the last shot cuts to black.”
Hans Morgenstern, Independent Ethos
“Christian Petzold has devised an unequivocal experience with Phoenix.”
Reuben Pereira, Film Frontier
“Whether you chose to engage with the broader allegories at play or simply view it at face value, this is a riveting motion picture that hooks you all the way till its triumphant finale.”
Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald
“The movie isn’t a thriller, but it still generates a strange sort of emotional suspense – an incredibly intense drama that makes you hold your breath, and it builds toward a knockout of a final scene in which the story is resolved with loaded glances and a song. By then, simple words have lost their capability to convey what these complex, tortured people are feeling.”
Ruben Rosario, Miami Art Zine
“If the mise en scene in Phoenix is occasionally spartan, its dramatic payoff is anything but. The film ends with a scene of such precisely modulated potency than one wonders if [director Christian] Petzold constructed his entire narrative to ensure his closing images delivered such a wallop.”
Skip Sheffield, Skip Sheffield’s Flix, Muzik, Showz, Travel & More Blog
Phoenix is a masterful movie of love, loss, regret and ultimate survival.
Alfred Soto, Humanizing The Vacuum
“Just when the movie clicks into place it ends. Christian Petzold doesn’t know what to do with his premise once he’s stretched its thin contours; what remains is an homage to Hitchcock and Veronika Voss without Fassbinder’s pulp core or Hitchcock’s deliriousness…Still, Phoenix has a clammy power.”
