Thematically Germany Year Zero should be paired with Isao Takahata's animated Grave of the Fireflies. Stylistically, though, Rossellini is far less sparring of the audience than Takahata's quiet Studio Ghibli animation. With Rossellini we follow a desperate child, thinking surely somehow, someone is going to pluck him from the remorseless ruins of his world, like we later saw Montgomery Clift do in The Search. Instead, as the boy's prospects remain relentlessly grim, despair takes over. I always assumed despair was an adult experience. But in the last moments of his film Rossellini taught me otherwise. No! No! No! I stared at the screen, stunned. This is one of those movies I think is a masterpiece, which I'm not sure I want to see again. It's already seared inside.
Review of Germany Year Zero
