by Allan Fish
(Germany 2004 679m) DVD2
Aka. Die Dreite Heimat
The cosmos is mercilessly punctual
p Robert Busch d Edgar Reitz w Edgar Reitz, Thomas Brussig ph Thomas Mauch, Christian Reitz ed Susanne Hartmann m various art Michael Fechner
Henry Arnold (Hermann Simon), Salome Kammer (Clarissa Lichtblau), Michael Kausch (Ernst Simon), Mathias Kniesbeck (Anton Simon), Christian Leonard (Hartmut Simon), Larissa Iwlewa (Galina), Nicola Schössler (Lulu Simon), Uwe Steimle (Gunnar Brehme), Tom Quaas (Udo Trötzsch), Peter Schneider (Tillman Becker), Julia Prochnow (Moni Becker), Heiko Senst (Tobi Neubauer), Karen Hempel (Petra Brehme),
The first thing that must be said is that Heimat 3 is not quite up to the standard of its two predecessors. I think there are very few of its adherents who would claim as much. To which the resulting inquiry must be as to why it is included? The fact is that it is still a masterpiece, a film we would be trumpeting as a gargantuan achievement if the earlier epic instalments didn’t exist. Yet it is only through having watched the entire saga, since Paul Simon returned home to the family smithy in 1918, that one can appreciate its infinite depth, subtlety and power.
When we took leave of Hermann and Clarissa in 1970 it would have seemed doubtful that they wouldn’t meet for the best part of twenty years. Yet so it is when, on that fateful day, 9th November 1989, they meet just as the Berlin Wall is coming down. Soon they are making love and begin another ten year journey through meetings, near-meetings, and watching their families – siblings and children – grow up before their eyes.
The third instalment has the same old transformations from colour to black and white and back again, which originally infuriated but now is all part of the magic. (Though Reitz has said much of the black and white used in the opening episodes was of East German places, the former country now but a memory.) The plot takes us through many memorable moments of the time, from the aforementioned breaking down of history, through West Germany winning the world cup in 1990, to Unification, the impact of AIDS, nuclear disarmament, the solar eclipse in 1999 and the final disappearance of everything the home village of Schabbach once stood for. Indeed, the village is much more to the fore than in the previous series, when it was only glimpsed in the opening and closing sequences. Finally the village itself turns out at the funeral of the kindly old pub landlord Rudi, the last remaining tie to the old times. The village, and the Simon family in particular, now as much a thing in the past as the statue of Lenin recovered in the early episodes. As in the previous series the characters search for their very own heimat, a homeland of the physical and spiritual that they can call their own. Ultimately, it is a reunion Millennium party on New Year’s Eve 1999 that brings the disparate family and friends together. Continually throughout the piece, we are being warned not to forget; be it neglecting the ones we love, Rudi’s castigation of the locals in the pub, Clarissa singing Purcell’s immortal ‘When I Am Laid in Earth’, or in Galina’s final words that “life is a carousel.” Homages to numerous film-makers can be spotted, from Syberberg to Bergman (one recalls an immortal shot of countless people holding hands on a dusky horizon), and it’s with a sad eye, mirroring that of the parting shot of Lulu, that he closes the final episode, appropriately called ‘Farewell to Schabbach.’ Is it farewell? The ending could be read to indicate Lulu taking up the baton as the central protagonist and, as David Parkinson observed, the hosting of the World Cup in 2006, the election of the German pope and the ramifications on Europe of 9/11 would provide an excellent backdrop. But one must ask, why should he? He owes us nothing. He owed us nothing after the original in 1984. Let us sign off by saying that the trilogy is arguably the most monumental achievement in the history of German cinema, that ‘Scott Joplin’s ‘The Entertainer’ will bring a tear to your eye on future remembrance and that, to paraphrase Lennon and McCartney, “in our lives, we’ve loved them more.”
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Nothing but praise for this series. EPIC is always effusively used, GRAND would be another adjective. I’ve heard nary a detracting word and, still, I haven’t the gumption to sit through these piecemeal. I’m biding my time, revving up for the end of the summer where, as a surprize to my employer, I will, astoundingly, take a two-week vacation. Funny thing is, I’ll probably spend most of it bathed in the light of a television screen, allowing this and its predecessors wash over me. You can feel Allan’s love and admiration for ALL 3 of these films in every word and sentence of his triple reviews. I don’t think he just likes HEIMAT, he probably ADORES them.
Sam, did you not say that the second Heimat was the best one? I’m not sure. But it would appear that all three need to be seen, and I have been “informed” of Mr. Fish’s great regard. I’ll need time. A lot of it.
Only 50 hours for the lot, Frank. Piece of cake.
“The first thing that must be said is that Heimat 3 is not quite up to the standard of its two predecessors. I think there are very few of its adherents who would claim as much. To which the resulting inquiry must be as to why it is included? The fact is that it is still a masterpiece, a film we would be trumpeting as a gargantuan achievement if the earlier epic instalments didn’t exist. Yet it is only through having watched the entire saga, since Paul Simon returned home to the family smithy in 1918, that one can appreciate its infinite depth, subtlety and power.”
This opening says it all. I am also a very big fan of the HEIMAT films, (or marathons in the best sense) and find that even with this third multi-hour work, the story did not remotely wear out its welcome, and the visual tapestry is as ravishing as these caps suggest. It’s a cycle of life story, that as Allan suggests may well be the most monumental in the history of German cinema. For various reasons DIE ZWEITE HEIMAT (HEIMAT 2) is my favorite by the first and third push close, and are all timeless.
At Allan’s recommendation I sat down in my house and invested 50 hours in this venture. It was a wise undertaking.