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Paul still battles his own psychological Great War, burdened by the guilt of killing a young German soldier in the trenches of France, a man who scrawls his name upon a letter to a love he will never consummate. Ernst Lubitsch’s film is emotionally brutal and unflinching, exposing the morality of old men who send their sons off to war, fathers who sit around pub tables drinking beer (or wine) while justifying the cost of the enemy’s defeat…but not the price paid in blood. DP Victor Milner’s photography is outstanding with his mis-en-scene, deep focus, and low angles to depict anxiety and trauma. His work is bolstered by the taught editing that cuts and dissolves into powerful images that reveal the message without narration or dialogue. The weakest link of the film is actor Phillips Holmes as Paul Renard, the tormented French soldier. He’s very good at times but his body language tends towards histrionics and the over-exaggeration of silent films: he’s no Frederic March (but then again, who else is?)
In the opening scenes, we see the one-year anniversary of the Armistice as canons blast and soldiers march, and cheering French people fill the streets of Paris. But Lubitsch and Milner show us a low angle shot of the parade through a soldier’s crutches with his left trouser rolled up to the knee, his leg obviously torn off in combat. He’s not cheering. Then high-angle shots of a church services as the priest mutters about peace while old, retired soldiers, dressed in military uniforms with clacking swords and holstered guns, look on with passive duty. Milner tracks along the pews as their sabers scrape the floor, and when they kneel for prayer, he shoots the camera down a long row of jackboots and spurs. The dichotomy between the spoken prayer and the visual reality couldn’t be any more opposed. As the church empties, Milner begins with an extreme high angle crane shot and gently lowers the camera to reveal a solitary figure, hands clenched in prayer. He looks upwards towards the camera, and we see a young handsome man in a suit. Obviously in distress, he approaches the Priest and vomits his guilt: “I murdered a man”. The Priest ushers him towards the confessional and we are told the truth: this man killed an enemy soldier in the trenches a year ago and cannot live with his grief. As he speaks, we witness the flashback to the death in combat, as Paul stares into the eyes of another handsome young man as this man’s life slips away into oblivion. The German soldier struggles with his final testament to sign a personal letter and Paul, who can read and speak German, finishes the final signature: Walter. Over 10 million young men were slaughtered in the Great Way but here, one death is the tragedy. Paul, a violinist drafted into the Army killed another young man Walter and now seeks repentance for a sin that the god of Catholic Church cannot give him.
So, Paul seeks out Walter’s family to tell them that he killed their son in combat as a way to make amends, to possibly pay restitution with his own suicide. That’s the final destination his internal conflict is racing towards. But he fails to tell his family the truth as he, an outsider to this small German community (and a Frenchman!), sees how happy they are when they mistakenly believe he befriended Walter in Paris before his death. Soon, the father and mother adore him, and Walter’s fiancée Elsa (Nancy Carroll) begins fall in love as he becomes a doppelganger in the household. Even he and Walter share the skill of the violin, and when the father hands over his dead son’s instrument to Paul, the lie must become the truth, at least for them. He does admit the truth to Elsa in a harrowing melodramatic scene when she reads Walter’s last letter out loud…and Paul finishes it verbatim. Finally, Elsa realizes that the truth would kill her mother and father and agrees to conceal the secret, as she and Paul begin to make beautiful music together.
Final Grade: (B+)
