Hôtel Terminus
Director Marcel Ophuls
Countries Germany, France, United States
Duration 267 min
Synopsis
"The life of Barbie, in itself, doesn’t interest me. What interests me, it is what comes out of the trial..." Mr Levy, a Jew from Lyon, leaning over the green covered table in a billiard hall of the Red Cross, studies the stakes involved. In so doing, he calmly sums up the author’s point of view. More than 40 years after the events, the trial of Barbie Klaus, a famous Nazi war criminal, suddenly unfolds, is urgent, unavoidable, distressing. But what is the usefulness of making a film on such a man and his long and complicated journey? A form to tell the story, a style, a tone had to be found: irony and derision prevail over the seriousness of the "official version". School friends, neighbours, ex-employers and his victims who come face to face with a man, his crimes, and his times, which are also our own, alas. The film won the 1988 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
"The life of Barbie, in itself, doesn’t interest me. What interests me, it is what comes out of the trial..." Mr Levy, a Jew from Lyon, leaning over the green covered table in a billiard hall of the Red Cross, studies the stakes involved. In so doing, he calmly sums up the author’s point of view. More than 40 years after the events, the trial of Barbie Klaus, a famous Nazi war criminal, suddenly unfolds, is urgent, unavoidable, distressing. But what is the usefulness of making a film on such a man and his long and complicated journey? A form to tell the story, a style, a tone had to be found: irony and derision prevail over the seriousness of the "official version". School friends, neighbours, ex-employers and his victims who come face to face with a man, his crimes, and his times, which are also our own, alas. The film won the 1988 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.