A Time to Love and a Time to Die (1958 Douglas Sirk)

A Sirk double-bill continues with this brilliant, grown-up anti-war / pro-love film based on the Eric Maria Remarque novel (who also appears as the professor - how cool is that?) about a couple who fall in love in the ruins - had Sirk seen Ashes and Diamonds? - impossible, it was released the same year, though there are plenty of similarities... The ruins, the displaced people, the furniture that is outside, the tree which blossoms where it isn't burned, an elegant dinner in an air raid...

John Gavin and Liselotte Pulver (a breath of air), Jock Mahoney, Don DeFore (Nazi), Keenan Wynn inhabit this incredibly bombed-out city - there's nothing quite like it...

I love Godard's review, published in Cahiers in 1959: 'those who have not seen or loved Liselotte Pulver running along the banks of the Rhine or Danube or something, suddenly bending to pass under a barrier, then straightening up hop! with a thrust of the haunches - those who have not seen Douglas Sirk's big Mitchell camera bend at the same moment, then hop! straighten up with the same supple movement of the thighs, well, they haven't seen anything, or else they don't know beauty when they see it'.

It's a very special film, enriched by Rozsa's familiar melodies, Alexander Golitzen's art direction, and Metty's sombre Cinemascope photography.

"I'll show you how we do it in the army".