This wonderful film almost lost me in the opening scene which is devoted to some explicitly athletic sex. Oh dear... just another European skin flick.... Well!!! It turned out to be one of the finest films I've ever seen. The acting is superb, even watching it with subtitles. Even more impressive is the artful photography. Every shot is carefully and creatively composed and staged. The colour, for day and night, summer and winter, sunny and grey, is like that from a master's palette. The superb camera work is enough in itself to make this a memorable movie. Then, near the beginning, there are wonderful scenes of an antique steam train. As a train buff, a war buff and a photography buff, I was close to nirvana. This is a film Hollywood producers should watch to learn how it should be done. I have but one criticism. At over two hours, it runs a little long.
