BERLÍN OCCIDENTE

Congresswoman Phoebe Frost travels to postwar Berlin to investigate reports that an American officer may be protecting cabaret singer Erika von Schlütow, the former mistress of a leading Nazi. Miss Frost falls for her military escort Captain Pringle, unaware that he is in fact the singer’s paramour.

A classic of post-war and early Cold War cinema, Billy Wilder showcases a decimated Berlin in this genre-bender starring Marlene Dietrich. Nominated for screenwriting Oscar, the film remarkably finds comedy and love in the ruins, but never fails to take a grave look at Allied-occupied Germany.