Perhaps I should have watched Rossellini first. The sheer bleakness of this film sheds a certain light on later neorealist influenced cinema; this has no affectation about it. The camera fully falls into a role as an observer, albeit one that drifts through events and chooses what we need to see.

I can see Fassbinder's BRD trilogy in a new light too, particularly The Marriage of Maria Braun. Germany Year Zero's wreckage and desperation is Fassbinder's launch pad.

Rossellini was so clear about what we were seeing. I knew what the final shot would be the first time Edmund was wandering around on those upper floors. The world was precisely delineated and the characters were true to themselves; the conclusion was thus preordained.