Alternate Best Actor 2019: August Diehl in A Hidden Life

August Diehl did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Franz Jägerstätter in A Hidden Life.

A Hidden Life tells the true story of a conscientious objector who refuses to fight for the Nazi regime.

A Hidden Life is a partial return to any form for director Terrence Malick. A director who has more recently been swallowed whole by his own excesses. This taking his innovative ideas regarding film making, and instead of using them to amplify a story in a unique way, as he had done in say a The Thin Red Line, he instead lets his style overwhelm the story. This as it becomes less about how the technique accentuates the drama and rather just a display of technique. A Hidden Life does have a story, with a beginning middle and end. This is the return to form in that sense but much of Malick's indulgences remain. This in his scattered editing, repetitive scenes of nature and humans basically as observed animals in a certain sense. Although there are choices here that add to the story, largely how poignant the sense of the bliss of a provincial life can be, his refusal to kill his darling or his excesses diminish the overall important story of this real man who stood up against the Nazi regime. Although I'd typically perish the thought, this is an example of a film that could've used a strong second voice, and frankly I'd pay to see a talented editor find the essential parts of the film as is, or even better, take a look at Malick's raw footage. The man played here interestingly by August Diehl who is best known to audiences as the other cunning Nazi in Inglourious Basterds, and gets a chance to play against that nefarious type. This in the opposite quite strictly as a man persecuted by the Nazis, though who more than anything wishes to live a relatively simple life, however wishes to do so with his beliefs intact.

This performance is strictly connected with the work of Valerie Pachner as Franz's wife Franziska. The two of them together realize the essential heart of the film through being at the center of so many of Malick's lingering shots of people seeming to be one within their natural environment. This here though in the couple that we are granted a sincerity of love. This created between both performers that is rather special in their chemistry. This in that there is, even as we don't see a courtship beyond a few glimpses, an honest depth within their affection for one another. It is easy to feel the years of a marriage through the comfort each have in each other's presence and just the sense the two exude as together as one in a way. Of course the amount of scenes Malick devotes to this is beyond the point of the rule of any repetition, but they do offer that fundamental grace Malick is looking for. The two are not boring together, and there is something very potent and powerful of just seeing two people in love experiencing their simple life. The performances capture that and in these moments manage to feel more tangible than merely models for Malick's landscapes. This seemingly perfect existence though is broken by the Nazi regime that demands Franz swear loyalty to Hitler and fight for his army.

This is then the process of the film as we see Franz in his gradual journey to his tragic end. This is where Diehl's performance itself is most specific in portraying Franz's state, even though he has very few words to speak regarding his individual thoughts. Diehl's work though does realize them and illuminate the state of the man. This in portraying Franz not as this loud and passionate ideolog, but rather a man with a faith and truth that he must stand by. Diehl finds something rather striking in this in portraying it as this certain burden, as he portrays the early moments of men attacking his position, with this quiet internalized intensity reflecting his thoughts. This as his eyes convey the determination in his mind, even as he exudes a meekness of a man who doesn't wish to influence others, but rather must follow his belief no matter where they may take him. This is most remarkable in his scenes with where even  Franziska is not entirely with his resolve, given that it will lead to his death. Diehl is fantastic in these interactions though as he captures the heartbreak within Franz towards his wife, portraying a man who certainly has the desire within him to take the easy way out, yet knows that he cannot betray his essential truths. Diehl finds an unusual martyr in creating a purity of the beliefs, showing them as this given of a man who knows simply what is right, and in the same way is aware he will have to suffer for this belief.

The film's second half is unfortunately rather repetitive in showing Franz's slow progression towards his eventual execution, where he goes from one imprisonment to another, one interrogator to another, while maintaining contact to his family through letters. The harrowing nature of this journey sadly is somewhat reduced again by Malick's insistence on indulging, rather than narrowing towards the heart of the drama, which he seemed to have filmed yet refuses to focus upon. I have to admit I do find this extremely frustrating because when the scenes do appear, they are astonishing within themselves. Take the moment of his trial, where Diehl's expression is downright haunting again in as his face captures all of the wear of his imprisonment, his exile away from his family, yet too the conviction within himself is there all the same. What is perhaps the best scene in the film, is where Malick lets Franz speak a few more words to the prociding General (Bruno Ganz) who questions his actions. Diehl is outstanding in this scene as he does speak his words with not an outward passion, but rather that rather divine conviction. The sense of weight of the choice permeating in every word, yet Diehl's quietly inspirational by evoking this fundamental certainty, this honest soulfulness of a man suffering through his reality yet quietly assured by the spirit. There is nothing I can say against what Diehl does here, as even in Malick's seemingly ending scenes of Franz's staring, people standing, random movements, or more provincial scenes of solemn beauty, Diehl's work remains a moving tapestry of emotions within itself. This in each successive shot continuing that heartbreaking journey towards death, slowly being worn within a grief in his eyes, yet still always maintaining some sense of comfort all the same. His final letter, which Malick really should've ended the film on as a montage, is unquestionably evocative, made all the more affecting through Diehl's sincere delivery of each word that represents both the horrible tragedy of the man's story, and the reaffirming sense of love and faith that defines who Franz is. Watching the film for a second time I found it a more vexing experience than the first, as I could see the greatness of Malick so vividly again, yet the indulgence of Malick kept rearing its head to get in the way of this. This creating an unneeded distance from the tragedy just for the sake of technique, and excess. Malick compromises earnest emotion, for the sake of contrived, so called, naturalism. This is when the film is allowed to sit with the people, the performances of Diehl and Pachner, it is nearly masterful, but sadly that is too often lost to needless navel gazing. I hate that can't expresse a greater love for Diehl's performance here, as I think the greatness is there, Malick just refuses to let us experience it without compromise.