The Ogre (1996/Lionsgate) + Strike (2006/Dark Sky Films)

 

Picture: C/B-     Sound: C/C+     Extras: D/C-     Film: B-/B

 

 

Volker Schlöndorff is one of those directors of note that has not had a huge blockbuster, but has had consistently strong work that people keep talking about.  His The Tin Drum is still the target of controversy and even recent attempts at censorship.  Recently, two of his later films of note have arrived on DVD and both are worth seeing.

 

The Ogre offers one of John Malkovich’s most complex roles as Abel Tiffauges, an isolated Frenchman with no adults friends, is a mechanic, is shunned and likes children a little more than he should, his fortunes shift in the oddest ways during WWII when the Nazis invade, he becomes part of the Nazis and is eventually commissioned by a top Nazi (Armin Mueller-Stahl) to pick children for Nazi Youth League-like groupings.  Not the shallow good/bad many such films would be, plus the screenplay by Jean-Claude Carriere and Schlöndorff is never exploitive or cheap.  The film runs two hours and is always intriguing and shows a director serious about mature, adult subject mater and one of increasingly few who knows how to put such material up on the screen.

 

Undimmed ten years later, Strike bolds tells the story about the ugly conditions in Poland that portray the rise of Solidarity in dangerous, oppressive, Communist Poland where another one of Schlöndorff’s loner individualists faces the rising tides of disturbing change.  This time, it is Agnieszka (Katharina Thalbach) who believes in the system until it turns on her.  Older, illiterate and a single mother to boot, she stands up for against the injustice of the widows of 21 killed workers being denied benefits from a state mistake and the result is the biggest work stoppage and becomes a hero.  It is not as simple or easy as it sounds, but Schlöndorff (with a solid Andreas Pfluger/Sylke Rene Meyer) makes it very real and palpable, the ugly Stalinist conditions for which ordinary people had to rise against.

 

The result are two films that deserve wide recognition and viewing in the U.S. and Schlöndorff should be taken more seriously in U.S. film school studies.

 

Both films are here in anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 transfers, but Ogre has detail and depth issues that show it is an old analog transfer, while Strike is newer and has only some minor detail issues.  Color can be good on both, but different.  Ogre can look more naturalistic, but Strike is still consistent despite a monochromatic tendency.  Both only have Dolby Digital encoding, with both offering 2.0 mixes and Strike having a 5.1 mix.  Orge’s sound is a few generations down as well and no extras, while Strike only has a trailer.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo