A Time to Love and a Time to Die

Douglas Sirk's penultimate film is something of an anomaly in his body of work, but it's also perhaps the most personal and interesting film he ever made. A Time to Love and a Time to Die is an adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque's novel (which was burned by the Nazis), and in the opening moments the overwhelming sense of destruction and despair instantly establishes it as something far removed from the lush tales we expect from Sirk.

There is a love story here, between John Gavin, playing a German soldier, and the spunky Liselotte Pulver, but it's set against the ruined backdrop of a bombed-out Germany. There's also an awkward but fascinating tension between the traditional Hollywood storytelling mechanics and the bleak realism of the surroundings. Gavin and Pulver lack the chemistry and magnetism of the director's erstwhile stars, but Sirk's direction is as elegant as ever, and A Time to Love and a Time to Die is a strange, beautiful and touching late production from this often undervalued filmmaker. [Philip Concannon]