The colossal rubble of Berlin is not just an analogue to the collapse of the social order but an amazing sight, and the movie makes you feel the weight of every smashed faade and fallen stone.

Short and very downbeat, this hits the irony buttons rather too much but is still an uncomfortable, powerful film.

Pic isn't acted but 'lived.' Pro and non-pro cast play it with uniform sincerity. Edmund Meschke is the most impressive of the lot, delivering a poignant, believable portrayal as the young disgraced hero.

Rossellini is perhaps the only filmmaker in the world who knows how to get us interested in an action while leaving it in its objective con- text. Our emotion is thus rid of all sentimentality, for it has been filtered by force through our intelligence.