Please note: Due to a scheduling conflict, Mr. Schlöndorff will not appear in person at this screening as announced in BAM/PFA Art & Film Notes.

(Die Fälschung). Schlöndorff affects concentric circles of deceit and analysis in this adaptation of a novel by Nicolas Born, a poet-novelist who was appalled by the cold sensationalism of Western media's treatment of the civil war in Lebanon and its tragedies. Bruno Ganz portrays a German journalist on assignment in Beirut, dealing with a disintegrating marriage and the disintegrating reality around him. An affair with a German woman (Hanna Schygulla) who is immersed in Arab life, and the acerbic observations of his photojournalist companion (played by Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski), only confound his comprehension of such sights as children playing on a beach riddled with human skulls. Shot on location, with fighting going on nearby, Circle of Deceit was a provocative film in the debate concerning the use of troubled locales to provide authenticity. Painterly cinematography certainly makes this unending battle visually beautiful, and therefore compelling. The war must go on. The show is hell.