A Letter Without Words (1998) User Reviews

Amazing images of prewar Germany

[MattN-2 · 8/10 · 8 May 1999]

An attempt at reconstructing a the life of a wealthy, amateur Jewish filmmaker of Weimar Republic and early-Nazi Germany on the basis of filmic testimony found by her granddaughter.

As noticed by other viewers, the film did exhibit some fragmentation -- only honest, however, in light of the fragmentary nature of the historical evidence in question.

Worth seeing for some very rare non-Nazi color (!) footage from the period 1933-7.

In Need of Direction

[avon · 6/10 · 1 December 1998]

I read the summary in the Sundance program and could not wait to see this film. The subject matter is captivating. But, as the movie wore on, I grew bored and ready to see the feature film. I even fell asleep. Reason being, I couldn't tell what the director/producer/screenwriter was trying to say with the film. It wandered all over.

It needed a stronger hand in editing, clocking in at 62 min. With some writing help, this movie could be a much stronger and powerful documentary from a time period that few understand.

Wonderful reconstruction of a family's history

[Simone-6 · 10/10 · 17 May 2001]

Lisa Lewenz does a wonderful job of reconstructing her family's history. Just as an historian tries to recreate a time and place with whatever evidence s/he can gather, so does Lewenz attempt to piece together her family's life in pre-World War II Berlin through her grandmother's silent film footage and diary, as well as through interviews with the surviving children.

Unlike many documentary filmmakers, Lisa Lewenz does not try to portray her version of history as the final word on the subject. She cuts back and forth from seemingly unrelated shots in order to make the viewer more aware of the sources she is using, the limitations of these sources, and how she has chosen to interpret them in this particular work of film. As such, the documentary is not so much fragmented as it is intentionally thought-provoking. I highly recommend this film for anyone who is interested in German-Jewish identity before and after National Socialism and the Shoah.