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Colette

Play trailer Poster for Colette 2013 2h 6m Drama Romance War Play Trailer Watchlist
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The experiences of Arnost Lustig in a Nazi concentration camp.

Critics Reviews

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Drew Hunt Chicago Reader This paltry Czech drama based on his semiautobiographical book The Girl from Antwerp is among the worst films about the subject that I've come across. Jul 10, 2014 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Audience Member The actors are brilliant bringing the characters alive. Colette & Villi are all the survivors of the darkest period in human history. The film shows the strong will to survive & to love under the most horrific conditions. Yes it's true millions have died in wars, pogroms, genocide throughout human history. Never has there been a state-sponsor of mass murder of tragic proportions. While the "life unworthy of life" concept predated the Nazis, it was carried to its ultimate extreme by them. What is so sad, it will happen again. A must see film that should be shown in every high school, everywhere. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/26/23 Full Review Audience Member To the best of my knowledge, this movie has not been released in the United States. If you can get it - I would strongly recommend to see it. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/27/23 Full Review Audience Member The story was told by an escaped Jewish from the Auschwitz concentration camp controlled by the German Nazi during the second world war. Obviously the film was based on the history, so the story must be true, but I feel there are some fictional accounts as well. Because it was the first called 'Colette: A Girl from Antwerp' from the three book series about three Jewish women. The author Arnost Lustig was the victim of the war crime and it was his story. All the confuse is for the male lead character named Vili Feld, not Arnost Lustig. It was a decent as a movie and one of the terrifying world war 2 horror as a story. Those who survived that outrage was lived to tell the stories, and just imagine how many more stories have not made its accounts. Despite it was about a young woman called Colette Cohen, the tale was narrated by Vili Feld by recollecting his memories of the prison camp events. Colette is the one he has fallen for. He gives up an easy job just to see her everyday. His secret love, suffering during held and deaths around, all these are the story's main ingredient told in a margin of the thin line between good and bad. Vili lived all his life looking for the reason for the some unanswered questions. Being in the prison and having an affair was like a chess game. The story was also told in a similar fashion, like pawns moving all around from both the sides and sacrificing a few to win the game. Ultimately, how the game was set up for the grand finale was ended casually before the original timeline's end come into the effect. Survival was the main intention, especially the King and the Queen in the chess format to say. That's the reason the deaths around, I mean the pawn sacrifices were not heartbreaking that we see easily throughout the film. The greatest thing a person could ever do... Is to save someone's life. Technically, it sounded a great; photography, editing, music all were depicted the 40s era precisely as for our knowledge of understanding. The performances were too not bad at all, but it was the second string end that looked so stupid. No complain if it was accurate to the real occurrence, though there are not enough evident to prove or the movie won't tell much at the end. In a such cruelty related theme I can't believe the shortfall of emotions and rawness. The screenplay was nearly comparable to the dark comedy, having a brutal war in the backdrop. It focused lots of thriller, but there are equally cool moments that actually calms. As a result, it seems not true to the novel, but borrows certain pages from the book, especially heavily on the romance bits and ignores everything else. After watching the whole film, still doubt remained with me in certain parts of the narrative. Maybe I need to have one more look, appears to be something I missed. The film, coming from a country like the Czech Republic is really remarkable effort, especially for it in the English language which makes the world look to on this direction. There's no argument about the international standards, the original touch is what's needed because I felt many scenes were directly inspired by the other second world war flicks. Other than that it was very close to 'Life is Beautiful', except it was not a comedy. Worth for a single time watch like any plot that related to this filthy war the man forever regretted for. 6.5/10 Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/30/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Colette

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Cast & Crew

Movie Info

Synopsis The experiences of Arnost Lustig in a Nazi concentration camp.
Director
Milan Cieslar
Producer
Milan Cieslar, Vít Komrzý, Jaroslav Kucera, Wanda Hrycova, Petr Tichy
Screenwriter
Milan Cieslar
Genre
Drama, Romance, War
Original Language
English
Runtime
2h 6m