Fatherland (1994)

Directed by Christopher Menaul. Written by Stanley Weiser and Ron Hutchinson from the book by Robert Harris. Photography, Peter Sova. Editing by Tariq Anwar. Production design, Veronica Hadfield. Art direction, Martin Maly. Music, Gary Chang. Cast: Rurger Hauer, Miranda Richardson, Peter Vaughan, Michael Kitchen, John Woodwine, Jean Marsh, et al. Produced for TV (HBO.) 106 minutes.

Not to be confused with other films by that title, including a 1986 one by class-conscious Ken Loach, a good film that seems to have passed unnoticed and is hard to find.

The 1994 "Fatherland" is a made-for-TV (HBO) item, filmed in the Czech Republic.This is a fantasy, "what if" thriller set in 1964 Europe now called Germania. Why? Because the Nazis have won World War II, except for conquering the USSR where the fighting goes on and onŠ

I will skip the plot details and twists since they are what keeps the viewer interested. Hitler, of course, is still alive, kicking and considerably aged (75 or so) though, if memory serves me right, the statues, portraits and photos of the Fuehrer that pervade Germania are not those of an old man.

"Fatherland" does not stint on sights, production values and interesting "mises en scene." And there's some good acting in it, too.

At one level, that of face value, this could be a silly movie. But at another, since so many of its people, developments, and much of its "stimmung" (atmosphere, mood) have elements that could be plausible for those who lived WWII or have studied it, this work is a chiller.

I am being cryptic, I know, but I cannot spoil this original subject by revealing its details. To see or not to see? Rather yes if you know your history. Rather no, if you are young and/or in the dark about Naziism. On the whole, I'd say " give it a twirl."

STORY OF ADELE H. (HISTOIRE D'ADELE H., L') (France, 1975) *** 1/2

Director, Francois Truffaut. Writers, Jan Dawson, Jean Gruault, Frances Vernon Guille, Suzanne Schiffman, Francois Truffaut, from Adele Hugo's Diary. Photography, Nestor Almendros. Editing, Martine Barraque,Yan Dedet, Jean Gargogne. Production design, Jean-Pierre Kohut. Music,Maurice Jaubert. Producers, Marcel Berbert, Claude Miller. Cast: Isabelle Adjani, Bruce Robinson, Sylvia Marriott, et al. 96 minutes. Color. Subtitled.

Truffaut's touching triumph in casting Isabelle Adjani as the daughter of the literary giant Victor Hugo. She abandons everything to follow everywhere a young officer who is indifferent to her --but she loves him madly as well as literally so, to the point of true madness. The balance between historical picturesqueness and fictionalism, between pathos and lightness, sober cinematography (Nestor Almendros) and symbolic color, is handled with superb restraint, a total lack of cheap dramatics, a true understanding of a woman who is not easy to comprehend and explain.

In a sense this is a portrait of a stalker, but one who has nothing in common with the garden variety of such persons. Hers is a historically true, touching fixation. Whether unique or not in real life, it is unique in the history of cinema so far as I know.

Isabelle Adjani, about 20 when the film was made, had been in a half-dozen movies and TV films since for a half-dozen years, but this work is what really launched her and made her a star. In Europe she is a household name. Not so however in the U.S.A, even though some audiences are familiar with imports such as Polanski's "The Tenant," Techine's "The Bronte Sisters.," Herzog's "Nosferatu," Chereau's long "Queen Margot," Besson's "Subway," or Nuytten's "Camille Claudel." ." It did not help that her American movies "Ishtar" and "Diabolique" were thumbs down items.