Germany, Pale Mother (1980)

I just watched this movie (called: "Deutschland bleiche Mutter" in German.)It is  a West German movie about one family during and after World War 2. I have to say that it was pretty boring. It showed all the aspects of life on the German home-front that we are taught in school (the air raids, the arrests of the Jews, fleeing a war zone and building again.) It is supposed to be the story of the author and her parents - the author was born during an air raid. I don't know if it is a true story of not. In either case it wasn't anything new or interesting.

I did find one scene interesting. The mother was making a blouse to wear for when her soldier husband comes home on leave and she runs out of red thread. She is told that the place she buys it from is closed and the owners "sent away" because they are Jews. Rather than showing any sympathy for the owners she goes to the store and gets her thread. That is the true story of the German home-front during the war. Even those who weren't in the Nazi Party do not care about the Jews or the others because they are the "Master Race" and they need their thread.

This film is one of those that you can skip watching. It doesn't make you pity anyone (except maybe the author who was a child.) The husband was the typical German husband - he wants what he wants right then and there and the wife was the typical German haus frau. They have problems (both because of the war and because of their marriage) and are made out to be the victims - which I don't buy.

If the movie had focused on the author and her experiences growing up after the war and dealing with what her parents and the older generations had done then the movie would have been much better.