A Time To Live And A Time To Die Review

• 24th Sep 2013

For the French nouvelle vague and the intelligentsia Douglas Sirk, a German émigré director in Hollywood and predominantly a maker of women’s films and melodramas was an auteur and a director of some merit. For one of the leaders of this movement, Jean-Luc Godard A Time to Love and a Time to Die was his best film; for Godard it was more important and beautiful than any of his more famous films, or the films for which he is best known: Magnificent Obsession (1954), All That Heaven Allows (1955), Written on the Wind (1957) or his last film, Imitation of Life (1959). But the public and Universal Studios who made the film disagreed. Unfortunately many saw the film as a war film and not in the spirit of his other films. But this is to miss out on the power of A Time to Love and a Time to Die. The story of the films title plays into this. It was based off writer Erich Maria Remarque’s 1954 novel, ‘A Time to Live and a Time to Die’, but the studio wisely changed the title to the more romantic, even powerful and relevant title, A Time to Love and a Time to Die. Realizing they were along the right track they changed the title initially to A Time to Love, the title that appears on the trailer included on the disc before reverting back again.

The film opens in the thaw of spring in 1944, we are told on the Russian front. The Germans had suffered a crushing defeat in the Battle of Stalingrad and are being pushed back by the Soviets. Morals have broken down and even ordinary soldiers have become dehumanised. Bands of soldiers are killing prisoners and citizens alike under the guise that they maybe partisans. One soldier, Ernst Gräber still appears to be naïve and struggles with these murderous ‘duties’ even with his comrades being killed off by the conditions, snipers and enemy attacks. An opportunity for leave comes up and Gräber hurriedly takes it before the authorities change their mind. He makes his way back to his hometown where he finds the city in ruins (it is never specified which city this is supposed to be). He finds his family home, but it is merely a pile of rubble from a recent raid; he had no idea that there was also another front in which the war was being fought. He desperately tries to find what has happened to his parents but to no avail. He eventually visits the family doctor to see if he has any word on his parents where he meets the doctor’s daughter, Elizabeth Cruse and despite her reservations he begins to date her. In a matter of days the pair fall in love. Over the next three weeks as the spring weather improves the two are desperately in love and marry but they also know that he must go back to the front.

It is clear that Sirk’s film falls between two stools: as a melodrama and love story and as a war film. It has very strong elements of both. As a wartimes set film it has moments of some very graphic imagery such as the frozen dead face of one of Ernst’s fellow soldiers appearing from the snow in the thawing weather with one commenting that he appears to be crying when the pragmatic sergeant states that it is the water in his dead eyes melting. This is classic graphic imagery from the pen of the films writer and novelist Erich Maria Remarque who had previously written ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ where he wrote about the horrors of the First World War based on his own experiences. Significantly Remarque also appears in a small but important part as a doctor hiding Jews in the city in his only film appearance. The film is given an even greater naturalism by being filmed in the still existing ruins of Berlin. We see in the air raid buildings set to being destroyed exploding. But contra to the war aspect there is also text book Douglas Sirk in the shape of a love story with shots of blossom trees by the river and a passionate and romantic love affair with the air of doom surrounding it. The discord between war film and love story may have been what turned audiences off, basically a conflict between a women’s picture and a boy’s film. Never the less the film does stand the test of time and is worthy of praise amongst the canon of his best films. This is also one of the only films up this point from the perspective of the ‘other side’ (All Quiet on the Western Front, albeit WWI is also from the German perspective), rare in a Hollywood film. But this is also where the film can come unstuck – John Gavin is not the most enigmatic of actors although there is some chemistry between him and co-star Lisolette Pulver, but the addition of some familiar German actors such as Klaus Kinski is welcome.

It is right and correct then that Eureka’s Masters of Cinema series has released Sirk’s film for the first time on Blu-ray. The same package had already been released on DVD in 2009 but this is the first time on Blu-ray. The transfer is good, if very grainy with the strong Technicolor coming through (comparing this with the trailer highlights the difference and how good this is). There are also some superb extras on the disc including a stylized and animated reading of Godard’s praising and poetic critique of the film that was published in Cahiers du Cinema in 1959 edited in with stills and footage from the film, a 17 minute talk by Hollywood scriptwriter, Wesley Strick who wrote a novelization of Sirk’s sad story of only keeping in touch with his son with his ex-wife by watching Nazi newsreel footage of him dressed in a Hitler Youth uniform as well as a 1986 interview with Sirk and his wife for French TV covering the director’s career. Sadly the 36 page book, so much a part of Eureka! Master of Cinema series was not included for review.

Chris Hick