A Hidden Life (2019)- BFI London Film Festival 2019

Review

174min

Genre:     Fact-based, Drama, Romance, War

Director:  Terrence Malick

Cast:      August Diehl, Valerie Pachner, Karl Markovics…and more

Writers:   Terrence Malick

-Synopsis-

In the picturesque valleys and mountains of wartime Austria, a devout Christian farmer and conscientious objector has a crisis of conscience when drafted to serve in the German Wehrmacht, refusing to fight for the Nazis or swear allegiance to Hitler—putting untold pressure on his devoted wife and family and forcing him to pay the ultimate price for his beliefs and convictions.

After a string of existentialist American-set musings on the human condition and our place in the universe, dividing both fans of the singular and enigmatic filmmaker and critics struggling to contextualise his cinematic voice, Terrence Malick continues the most prolific period of his career and focuses his distinct cinematic eye on Europe and its dark definitive early 20th century history. Turning to a little-know true story of resistance and dignity in the face of heartlessness, and a more traditional narrative . . . but sacrificing none of his pensive profundity and slow-burn esoteric charm.

August Diehl stars as Austrian peasant farmer Franz Jägerstätter, a devout Christian working the lush land and panoramic valleys of upper Austria with his wife Fani (Valerie Pachner) and their three young daughters in the late 1930s, a humble and idyllic existence which is about to be crushed under the boot of German oppression with the annexation of their country. But when his reluctant conscription turns into a call to active duty with the escalation of World War II, and his conscience conspires with his refusal to fight or take Hitler’s oath, Franz sacrifices everything but his convictions—charged with sedition, branded a traitor and jailed, while his family become pariahs in their own community . . . and he pays the ultimate price for it all.

It may be pure coincidence that in these times of social upheaval and extreme ideologies returning to mainstream Western politics, Malick chooses to go the rare biographical route to tell a tale of struggle against oppression, both in the world around us and within. But it feels like he’s trying to tell us something by applying his signature style and cinematic spiritualism to a very different and truly troubled time, through a story of very personal dignified and quiet resistance—addressing it to a distinctly loud and undignified era.

It’s probably fair to say that a Terrence Malick picture is generally something of an acquired taste, often unfolding as a visually arresting existential musing where narrative is something of an abstract concept, and plot is virtually inconsequential, saying little but telling us much. But anchored by true events and real people, ‘A Hidden Life’ is probably one of the director’s most easily digestible films for a while. And yet Malick’s unmistakable fingerprints are all over it, a deliberate slowly unfolding introspective human story free from melodrama but plenty moving, taking its time . . . and then some, as it uses its near three-hour runtime to accentuate one man’s simple but profound inner struggle against the world in which he finds himself.

And whilst this subtle and subdued struggle may pale in comparison to the terrors of the World War II frontlines, the oppression of the innocent, and the horrors of the Holocaust, it is in fact driven by all those very things, and is framed as a personal moral duty but also a choice. And considering Franz’s ultimate fate and the pain endured by the Jägerstätter family, it sends a truly transcendent and powerful message, feeling like a righteous and holly act of resistance true to the nature of Christ . . . even if you don’t subscribe to the religion.

If there’s something we’ve come to expect from a filmmaker who clearly understands the power of the cinematic artform, it’s a combination of arresting visuals and a dynamic shooting style, and Malick delivers in spades here. Reuniting with Jörg Widmer in cinematographer mode to do justice to one of the film’s early lines “we lived above the clouds” by serenely and stunningly capturing the beauty of northern Italy, doubling for the Austrian highlands which it borders. Framing landscapes and rural imagery so picturesque that they look like postcards, and creating an agrarian slice of heaven on Earth which can’t escape the darkness of the world beneath it, or the jackboots of hate marching across the continent.

There’s no shortage of Malick’s signature camerawork either, including low angle extreme closeups and a dynamic, constantly moving and occasionally frenetic camera—placing the audience right in there with Franz and the Jägerstätters, yet somehow maintaining a thin other-worldly veil between us. Just as impressive as the visuals are the sounds, particularly the extraordinarily beautiful, powerful and almost ethereal classical score from James Newton Howard, violin and organ-heavy in nature and occasionally unleashing some choral majesty.

Into this part pensive personal small-town polemic and part harrowing prison drama are thrown the actors, including a strong supporting cast of European talent led by Karl Markovics as the entrenched local mayor and Franz Rogowski as Jägerstätter’s fellow conscript and prisoner, and brief appearances by bigger names like Matthias Schoenaerts, as well as the late Michael Nyqvist and Bruno Ganz in their final screen appearances.

But it’s the film’s two leads who are the spiritual and metaphysical heart of a piece defined by both characteristics, as August Diehl displays untold levels of poise and nuance in portraying a man in the deepest of existential crises, forsaking his life on Earth as an ideological choice but also a moral obligation, and for the sake of his soul, essentially setting an example few will follow and becoming a reluctant quiet martyr whom no one will likely know—were it not for people like Malick and writers who keep his story alive. Meanwhile as his wife, Valerie Pachner is equally moving as a young woman caught between her obligation to protect her daughters in world in which they are social pariahs, and the unwavering devotion to her husband, with the unthinkably difficult acceptance of his life-altering (and ending) moral conviction making ‘A Hidden Life’ a true love story like no other.

Although ‘A Hidden Tale’ is clearly a Christian story of piety and religious conviction—sharing as much with Martin Scorsese’s feudal Japanese Christianity tale ‘Silence’ as it does with Mel Gibson’s WWII conscientious objector soldier drama ‘Hacksaw Ridge’—it’s far from a dogmatic exercise or a sermon. Instead it’s woven together as a very personal and universally relevant tale of internal struggle with the world, told through a truly righteous and holly act of resistance, one true to the nature and teachings of Christ but without the millennia of ideological add-ons—something to appreciate and admire.

Perhaps Malick’s greatest achievement here is to leave us thinking and asking questions of Franz Jägerstätter, and ourselves. Questions about whether he was foolhardy or naïve in sacrificing the real and tangible for symbolic metaphysical idealism, and the promise of a better humanity, or whether it was in fact the greatest example of bravery and selflessness imaginable. And whether we would or could follow his example in the same situation . . . for which the answer is almost certainly no. Ultimately this Greek tragedy about a county which lost its soul is a quiet call to arms for resistance against tyranny and oppression, because the people who allowed the rise of Hitler and the Third Reich are the same who could have stopped it—all of us.

The Bottom Line…

Terrence Malick reverts to a more traditional narrative but sacrifices none of his penchant for ponderous existentialism, delivering with style and grace a powerful and poignant meditation on martyrdom, a moving tale of righteous quiet resistance, and a melancholy love story from the darkest recesses of 20^th century European history—captivating us with his finest film for a long while along the way.

‘A Hidden Life’ is out on the 17th of January 2020 in UK cinemas.

Similar films you may like (Home Video)

Hacksaw Ridge (2016)

Mel Gibson returns to the director’s chair after a 10 year absence for a biographical drama about Desmond Doss; a World War II hero, Seventh-day Adventist and combat medic who refused to carry a weapon or kill, only to become the first conscientious objector in U.S. Army history to be awarded the ‘Medal of Honor’.

Directed by Mel Gibson and starring Andrew Garfield, Sam Worthington and Teresa Palmer among others.

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