IMDb RATING
7.6/10
1.6K
YOUR RATING
A documentary about Klaus Barbie, the Gestapo chief of Lyon, and his life after the war.A documentary about Klaus Barbie, the Gestapo chief of Lyon, and his life after the war.A documentary about Klaus Barbie, the Gestapo chief of Lyon, and his life after the war.
- Won 1 Oscar
- 5 wins & 1 nomination total
Klaus Barbie
- Self
- (uncredited)
Marcel Ophüls
- Self
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaDirector Marcel Ophüls deliberately chose not to show any Holocaust footage as he felt that audiences had become too used to gruesome imagery of that nature.
- SoundtracksPick Yourself Up
Performed by Fred Astaire
Featured review
A Nazi story
I saw "Hôtel Terminus" as part of a cycle of films dealing with Second World War, its protagonists and its effects. This was the last in the series in chronological order, but the first I saw: it was the only one dealing with modern consequences of that war. The film is what some people call a "talking heads", referring to documentaries made primarily of interviews. I did not know the term and heard it for the first time in the late 1980's in the Havana Film School. Students used it in a derogatory way. But as we all know, some talking heads are good. This one is, and a very good one. I am supposing that most everybody knows that Klaus Barbie was a Nazi agent, a torturer, then an anti-Communist spy for the CIA, that he escaped from Europe with the help of the Catholic Church and that he finally dealt with gun traffic in South America. He was caught, sent to France and judged in Lyon. In four hours and a half, Marcel Ophüls (who is not a very nice subject on camera), not only reconstructs Barbie's life, but he covers so much ground that it's noteworthy how his editors were able to maintain one's attention in so many persons, facts, dates and abundant references in the testimonies. I have been told that the film worked as an alert for the resurgence of neo-Nazis and the so-called "ordinary fascism". Well, it should be seen every now and then, because it seems that as long as there are human beings there will be totalitarians, traitors and assassins, and as long as there is a group of nations that want to control the world, there will be new holocausts. We all know that because of all the Klaus Barbies we have seen in power. This one won the Oscar as Best Documentary.
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- EdgarST
- Feb 15, 2003
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Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
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- Also known as
- Hotel Terminus - Leben und Zeit von Klaus Barbie
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $341,018
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