German journalist Bruno Ganz leaves a troubled marriage and questions of self-worth behind him and travels to Beirut to write about the obsessive, violent war raging there. Amid a group of disillusioned reporters who see the fighting in the Middle East as just another sign of the times,
Ganz vows to get to the heart of the true story and discover the emotional answer to the ever-present question of "why?" He meets and falls in love with the beautiful Hanna Schygulla, a wealthy German aristocrat still living in a mansion in the middle of bombed-out rubble. When the fighting
becomes more intense and the lives of the journalists become threatened, most of the reporters leave Beirut for safer territory. Ganz remains, determined to understand the violence and to report it to the world.
Director Volker Schlondorff, one of the pioneers of the New German Cinema, creates a frightening, effective vision of the nightmarish war in Beirut and the grisly effect it can have on emotions as well as bodies. Ganz is wonderfully powerful as the observant, curious reporter who realizes man
always has a way of deceiving himself and others into simple answers for complex questions. Schygulla, the mesmerizing star of many of Fassbinder's films, turns in an exquisite performance as the mysterious woman who courts death as well as men. Shot on location in Beirut, the film's re-created,
on-the-street battle sequences are violently intense and realistic. leave a comment
