Georg Wilhelm Pabst’s The Last Ten Days is the chronicle of the end of an era that would nevertheless have many consequences, even after many years. Sporadic ironic moments serve to soften the dramatic nature of the events. Particular care and elegance in the mise-en-scene make the film extraordinarily full of pathos.
Minderjärige klagen an, while partly retaining the original intentions of Harald Röbbeling’s excellent Asphalt (since it is in fact a much more softened reworking of it), is much weaker, much less incisive than the original and decidedly uncohesive, with a frame story that seems almost artificial, to the point of making it scarcely credible.
Asphalt takes its cue from some real-life stories and adopts a mise-en-scene that closely resembles Neorealism. And so, the result is a film divided into five episodes, incredibly rational in its irrationality. A film that openly speaks out against the war and – although the war has been over for many years now – points the finger directly at a hypocritical and conservative society.