Phoenix

                                                         

Saw the dvd of Christian Petzold’s  ‘Phoenix ‘ again,  probably a third  time. With of course the  heartbreaking finale when  Nelly (Nina Hoss ) sings Speak Low  (a song composed by Kurt Weill in 1943, with lyrics by Ogden Nash )  and Johnny (Ronald Zehrfeld) realises who she really is…  His wife,  a singer, a Jewish survivor of  Auschwitz,  disfigured from a bullet wound in her face, who has returned to Berlin, in the aftermath of the war,  after facial reconstruction surgeries. Johnny , the piano man who may have betrayed her to the Nazis, doesn’t recognize her.  Nelly goes along with his scheme to collect the deceased's inheritance, she will impersonate the dead woman…  

Interesting  note : Christian Petzold's next film is Transit :   

When a man flees France after the Nazi invasion, he assumes the identity of a dead author whose papers he possesses. Stuck in Marseilles, he meets a young woman desperate to find her missing husband - the very man he's impersonating.

Source : IMDB

Watch the finale on Youtube :  Finale Phoenix

Interview with Christian Petzold :  VPRO Cinema

Interview with Christian Petzold :  Cinema-Scope

Interview with Nina Hoss : Slant Magazine

More background information on Christian Petzold :  Senses of Cinema

Speak low when you speak, love

Our summer day withers away too soon, too soon

Speak low when you speak, love

Our moment is swift, like ships adrift, we're swept apart, too soon

Speak low, darling, speak low

Love is a spark, lost in the dark too soon, too soon

I feel wherever I go that tomorrow is near, tomorrow is here and always too soon

Time is so old and love so brief

Love is pure gold and time a thief

We're late, darling, we're late

The curtain descends, everything ends too soon, too soon

I wait, darling, I wait

Will you speak low to me, speak love to me and soon

Genius

On Kurt Weill  

Wikipedia