Cinema
Not Reconciled
Nicht versöhnt
Jean-Marie Straub · 1965
Synopsis
For the eightieth birthday of the architect Heinrich Fähmel, his family gathers in Cologne. Flashbacks, out of chronological order, range over half a century: in 1907, Heinrich received the commission for an abbey; his son Robert, involved as a teenager in a plot against the Nazis with his friend Schrella, had to flee to the Netherlands in 1934, then, as a Wehrmacht demolition expert, blew up his father's abbey at the end of the war. Nettlinger, who had denounced them, has made a career in a ministry of the Federal Republic.
Context
The film is based on Heinrich Böll's novel Billard um halb zehn, published in 1959, and is the work of Straub and Danièle Huillet, who directed together. Böll gave his agreement in the summer of 1962, but the writer and the publishing house Kiepenheuer & Witsch, which published his books, turned away from the project; after the release, they demanded the destruction of the prints, and the dispute ended with an agreement. Excluded from the Berlinale selection, the film was shown there on 4 July 1965 in a special screening, amid laughter from part of the audience.
Who it is for
A medium-length film of under an hour, with restrained acting, whose editing moves from one period to another without transition.
Prizes and reception
Greeted with laughter at its first screening, it has since been praised by part of the critical establishment, including Richard Brody in The New Yorker in 2008.