DIPLOMACY
DIPLOMACY
Dir. Volker Schlöndorff (85min, Germany/France, 2014)
In German and French with English Subtitles
Narrative
As
the Allies march toward Paris in the summer of 1944, Hitler gives
orders that the French capital should not fall into enemy hands, or if
it does, then ‘only as a field of rubble.’ The person assigned to carry
out this barbaric act is General Dietrich von Choltitz, who already has
mines planted on the Eiffel Tower, in the Louvre and Notre Dame and on
the bridges over the Seine. Nothing should be left as a reminder of the
city’s former glory. However, at dawn on 25 August, Swedish Consul
General Raoul Nordling steals into German headquarters through a secret
underground tunnel and there starts a tension-filled game of cat and
mouse as Nordling tries to persuade Choltitz to abandon his plan.
In this adaptation of the 2011 stage success by Cyril Gély, the great Volker Schlöndorff (Academy Award winner The Tin Drum)
has created a psychologically elaborate game of political manners
between two highly contrasting characters. While Choltitz entrenches
himself behind his duty to obey unquestioningly all military orders,
Nordling tries everything he can to appeal to reason and humanity and
prevent the senseless destruction of the beloved ‘City of Lights.’