“There is no such thing as accident. It is fate misnamed.” Massively moving, Erich von Stroheim’s The Wedding March declares loveless marriage “a sacrilege and a mockery.” But for one reason or another, “true lovers” aren’t the ones who marry here.      1914 Vienna, before the war. The Hapsburg reign wanes; indefatigable playboy Prince “Nicki” von […]

I was mightily impressed by Christian Bale’s bravura performance as a World War II P.O.W. escapee in Werner Herzog’s Rescue Dawn (2007), but Hardy Krüger’s performance in a nearly identical role in The One That Got Away, also as an actual person, is more powerful still. Krüger plays Oberleutnant Franz von Werra, the only Second […]