Kattiera Nana I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Merolliv I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Mathster The movie runs out of plot and jokes well before the end of a two-hour running time, long for a light comedy.

Haven Kaycee It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

ma-cortes During WW2 a priest named Henry Kremer(Ulrich Matthes) imprisoned in concentration camp of Dachau is freed along a period of 9 days. He's threatened by a SS Unterstumfuhrer(August Dhiel) to convince the Luxemburg bishop(Tathe) to write a declaration for supporting the Nazi regime . The priest is affected because of his decision whether or not to collaborate with the Nazis.This is an intelligent and thought-provoking film , correctly based on real events. The director covers a wide variety of plot developments at a rare pace by means of continuous flashbacks in which remembers horrible events at concentration camp of Duchau. Excellent performances by main cast as Ulrich Matthes (Goebbles in ¨The downfall¨) and August Dhiel(Ingorious bastards). Good secondary cast as Bibiana Beglau (Legend of Rita by Schlondorff) as the affecting sister . The musical score is often despairing and screeching with surprising witty touches , it is composed by Russian musician Alfred Schnitke(1934-88). The motion picture is well directed by Volker Scholondorff. He's an expert on Nazi issues as proved in ¨Tim drum¨ , ¨The ogre¨ and this one. Schlondorff does a very unusual pictures with important insight into how the past affects the present and root causes of war. His first feature film, ¨Young Torless¨ was showed around the world and he was pretty heard by international viewers when directed ¨The lost honour of Katharine Blum¨, getting similar success his fellow-countrymen as Fassbinder, Herzog and Wenders. His reputation was greatly enhanced when his phenomenal movie ¨Tin drum¨ was awarded the Oscar as best foreign-language film. Later on,Schlondorff consolidated with ¨Circle of deceits¨. Since then his films have been less satisfactory as ¨Murder in the Bayou¨ , ¨Handmaid's tale¨and ¨Palmetto¨.Rating : Very good , Schlondorff's one the last impressive film to date. The film is admirable coherent , though in complicated narrative and never sags under its approx. hundred minutes . The movie will appeal to Nazi theme buffs

Jiri Severa **** may contain spoilers ******I am not surprised nor offended that some reviewers find the Ninth Day a Catholic propaganda and Ullrich Matthes' silences a witness to his lack of Thespian credentials. Quite the contrary, such comments confirm that the movie, and the basis of morality which it examines, is not intellectually available or esthetically pleasing to simple-minded people. That in itself marks its quality.There are some absolutely gripping moments in the Schloendorff's masterpiece: the mocking of the Polish priest before he is hoisted on the cross (he was not "crucified" - that just would not capture the horrific sadism in the act - the movie makes a point in altering the method of using the cross by a Dachau commandant), the reading by Gebhardt of Kremer's human weakness and sense of inferiority (the offering of the chocolates after Kremer contemptuously refuses a cigarette was a devilish coup - Kremer tries to justify his defeat by offering the sweet to an unknown little girl), Gebhardt's theory of "Judas" as the most pious Christian, his cool reception of Kremer's volcanic "noli venire inter Domine et me", Gebhardt's contempt for the cowardice of Kremer's brother ("you were right, the eggs are excellent")...no, this is no Catholic propaganda, on the contrary, the body of Christ failed Kremer by signing the Concordat with the Antichrist, in his search for the vindication of his faith he is alone, ...this has all the markings of a great classic: ingenious, complex, haunting, obsessional, true.

siegfried hasse Mr. Schlöndorff's "Ninth Day" is clearly in the tradition of Veit Harlan's old Terra movies. The recipe is simple: the director takes some historical events, distorts the inconvenient facts, invents some convenient facts to meet the ax he has been given to grind, and then he shoots away.In this case historical names are changed and events are invented to make the point that the Catholic Church behaved honorably during World War II. Whereas Joseph Philippe, the historical wartime bishop of Luxembourg has acquired the sobriquet "The Silent One," for refusing to speak out against the atrocities committed by the Germans, in this film he is presented as boldly resisting the Germans. With the bishop's celluloid moral credentials thus firmly established, Mr. Schlöndorff expects us to buy the defense of Pope Pius XII's silence about the Holocaust, simply because it comes from the bishop's mouth. Trouble is, the bishop's February 1942 argument rests on events in the Netherlands that haven't even taken place as yet, and were not going to take place until July 1942. What sloppiness! Pope Pius XII may be a controversial figure, and while the case for his defense is far from easy, it is certainly not helped by this kind of massive and careless falsification of history. When you falsify history, you better not land in some trivial contradictions. Much as he would have been pleased by Mr. Schlöndorff's attempt, Dr. Goebbels would not have tolerated such amateurishness. Unfortunately, artistically as well, this film does not hold a candle to its Goebbels-Harlan model.

Carel Kremer There is this story about a Catholic priest (Abbé Henri Kremer / Monsignore Jean Bernard) allowed by Nazis out of the concentration to go back home to Luxembourg for eight days to bury his mother. He was to return to the camp on the ninth day. The incredible actually happened. The priest in question returned to the camp, was finally released in 1942 (why?) and wrote a book about his ordeal. The book has about 100 pages and the part taken for the film is a small fraction from that book, not even a couple of pages. Several questions arise: how became it possible that the Nazis gave leave to someone from a camp? Who intervened in high places that his might be possible? The bishop from Luxembourg, mentioned in the film, earned the nickname 'The silent one' during the war because he did not speak out against the occupation. It leads to think that he might have intervened in some kind of Machiavellic plot to turn the whole of the lower clergy to the Nazi side by showing the doubters among them that the Nazis were not the monsters after all. The book on which the film is based was first published in the 1950s by the leading Catholic newspaper publisher. Over the years it became thicker because of the many introductions and forewords added. It was the same newspaper publisher who pushed the filming of the story, who got Schlöndorff on the director's seat and who is pushing now the viewing of the film by handing out free tickets and making a huge publicity. To me this whole film is nothing but propaganda for the role of the C. Church and a kind of manipulation of history by not releasing the real facts about this story. Like any propaganda movie it should be rated 0 out of 10. Sit down Mr. Schlöndorff and go over your homework once again!