So Ends Our Night

At first glance, So Ends Our Night is a classic Hollywood war film, which is somewhat complicated by the small fact that it is a Remarque adaptation. The novel "Love Your Neighbor" explores the lives of deported citizens of the Third Reich in 1937, who, without passports, lose their own identity and seek a desperate way out in Central and Western Europe. In the end, it's not a bad film. However, knowing that the original script was offered to Jarmila Novotná invites comparison with her only film of the 1940s called The Search. That is to say, within the plot of So Ends Our Night we also go to Prague and if any of the crew or actors were Czech, the Prague chapter would not have turned out so Hollywood-like. In The Search, Prague and the Czech language sound perfectly adequate, while here it's all so far-fetched - what about free time? When we are on the run and we don't know the day or the hour, what awaits us? This is not exactly an image of 1937 Prague from the family of realistic to documentary art. On the other hand, the scenes with Frances Dee, who represents the ideal German wife who becomes a symbol for the part of the nation that was truly innocent in the war, are quite angelic and I would have welcomed Jarmila in this role. Minimal space, great inward acting, and the impact on the whole plot of the drama. (13.08.2014)