Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
At the heart of the story is a slow-motion mistaken-identity farce.
Shes confused, as is the narrator, as is the reader.
So he has chosen to drop the period trappings and turn the books occupiers into generic fascists.
But the geographical points (Marseille, etc.)
remain the same and theres no internet; its 1940 with modern cars and fashions.
But its worth shaking off the incongruities and getting on the movies wavelength.
OnceTransits bitterly ironic vision takes hold, it eats into the mind.
Central to its power is Franz Rogowski as the protagonist, Georg.
Thats when the actor and the character win you over definitively.
Maybe theyll escape, maybe they wont.
Those without passage contemplate a dangerous trek to Spain via the Pyrenees.
Recognizing another lost soul, he wants to make a home with her.
Shes not just torn between Georg and her husband, who she doesnt know is dead.
Both novel and film drift toward aCasablanca-like climax, a stirring sacrifice on Georgs part.
ButTransitis set in a different universe, in which such bonds are at best provisional.
Thats the directors voice.
Petzold is part romantic, but the greater part is acrid realism.
Theres no escape for Petzolds protagonists.
But they have the satisfaction of not having shut down or turned callous, no matter the pain.
Emotion is the last refuge.
