The Angel Of History 2019 DEU MULTISUB 1080p WEB-DL x264

Year: 2019
Country: Germany, France, Spain
Director: Eric Esser
IMBD: Link

Language : German
Subtitles : Belarusian, Polish, Italian, French, Spanish, English, Portuguese





Over the last decade, the EU has gleefully gutted the welfare states of members like Greece and Ireland to line the pockets of private interest – pushing many within its borders beyond breaking point. Meanwhile, particularly along its Mediterranean perimeter, the EU has refused safe passage to those fleeing the poverty, climate crises and wars Europe’s economic and foreign policies have had a hand in creating.

This is the critical contradiction that Eric Esser and credited ‘Co-Author’ Evelyn Rack so bravely grapple with in the commendable short film The Angel of History. This thought-provoking video essay takes us on the misty-eyed myths of fervent Europhiles, striking a perfect balance between recognising the progress that has been made in Europe since the EU’s inception, and its repetition of the same old mistakes on a continental basis.

As Esser and co. take us on an impressionistic guided meditation through the now-defunct border towns of France and Spain, it is hard not to read the English subtitles in the Bavarian lilt of Werner Herzog. Not wanting to tar all German filmmakers with the same brush however (especially as Esser is from Berlin), this comparison is not merely borne from my typically tone-deaf English ear; rather it is prompted largely by the film’s unconventional, dream-like approach to ‘documentary’.

For one thing, Esser does not seem especially concerned with building a film from talking heads. While many filmmakers feel this is a more authentic or organic way of presenting ‘truth’ on camera, the editing process means it can be manipulated as easily as something entirely scripted – so arguably it’s just as constructed as if you write and read an essay anyway. Instead, The Angel of History sees the Director construct his own narrative more overtly, referencing 1920s Weimar art, and building upon the eclectic philosophy of Walter Benjamin to craft an intellectually hefty yet stylised central argument.

Complimenting this a great deal, the film’s thesis is delivered over a series of moving postcards. This simple yet effective framing mechanism sees the camera focused on one lengthy shot of a deserted locale, with which an old photograph of the border communities in Spain and France is then aligned.

This not only allows for some eye-catching cinematography – for which Michael Zimmer deserves a great deal of credit – but it helps encapsulate the overarching message of the film; the more things change, the more they seem to stay the same – much to the despair of history’s observers. At the same time, it brings a welcome change in pace to catch us off guard, as the photographs of scenic streets which seemingly harked back to a peaceful past suddenly morph into bygone images of guarded migrant camps, of people being turned away or hounded by officials they’d dared hope might help them.

As Esser recounts a history of Europe failing to support those most in need, we see those fleeing Civil War in Spain appear in photos, fenced in on beaches with little shelter, held up to an otherwise picturesque modern beach. We see great lines of people – in what today seem to be quaint streets – hoping to escape the horrors of Nazi-occupied France into Spain, only to be told like Walter Benjamin himself that many would be met with threats of deportation.

Benjamin’s own musings on history, delivered via his thoughts on the Paul Klee painting Angelus Novus help this theme come alive further – as his same melancholy view of historical process as an unceasing cycle of despair is still sadly as relevant as it ever was. While he might have finished his 1940 essay on the matter with an assertion that the storm forces of “progress” will move us on in spite of the wreckage before, it is an assertion that has only partially been realised on the EU’s watch. 80 years after Benjamin took his own life, as a Jewish refugee facing deportation to Nazi territory, the bodies of thousands of men; women and children now line the Mediterranean. They have fled wars, poverty and environmental collapse fuelled by the policies of the EU, which now turns its back on them.

Illustrating this, photographs of nameless children adorn the modern day town square, whether these are simply people in the town or missing children is never stated, but regardless the board of pictures conjures up thoughts of the present day refugee crisis, and its horrific human cost. The EU might see Europeans better looked after, representing some glimmer of progress, but essentially it is now behaving like a larger version of the nation states which came before it. (Jack Benjamin)

[ About file ]

Name: The Angel Of History.Eric Esser.2019.WEB-DL..mkv
Date: Mon, 22 Sep 2025 14:40:41 +0200
Size: 318,944,907 bytes (304.169566 MiB)

[ Magic ]

File type: Matroska data
File type: EBML file, creator matroska

[ Generic infos ]

Duration: 00:10:40 (639.982 s)
Container: matroska
Total tracks: 9
Track nr. 1: video (V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC) {und}
Track nr. 2: audio (A_AAC) [German] {deu}
Track nr. 3: subtitle (S_TEXT/UTF8) [Belarusian] {bel}
Track nr. 4: subtitle (S_TEXT/UTF8) [Polish] {pol}
Track nr. 5: subtitle (S_TEXT/UTF8) [Italian] {ita}
Track nr. 6: subtitle (S_TEXT/UTF8) [French] {fra}
Track nr. 7: subtitle (S_TEXT/UTF8) [Spanish] {spa}
Track nr. 8: subtitle (S_TEXT/UTF8) [English] {eng}
Track nr. 9: subtitle (S_TEXT/UTF8) [Portuguese] {por}
Muxing library: Lavf62.1.103
Writing application: Lavf62.1.103

[ Relevant data ]

Resolution: 1920 x 1012
Width: multiple of 32
Height: multiple of 4
Average DRF: 14.637364
Standard deviation: 9.518843
Std. dev. weighted mean: 9.506452

[ Video track ]

Codec ID: V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Resolution: 1920 x 1012
Display resolution: 256 x 135 (display aspect ratio)
Frame aspect ratio: 480:253 = 1.897233
Pixel aspect ratio: 2024:2025 = 0.999506
Display aspect ratio: 256:135 = 1.896296
Framerate: 25 fps
Stream size: 305,468,474 bytes (291.317438 MiB)
Duration (bs): 00:10:40 (639.96 s)
Bitrate (bs): 3818.594587 kbps
Qf: 0.078611

[ Audio track ]

Codec ID: A_AAC
Sampling frequency: 48000 Hz
Channels: 2
Sample size: 32-bit
Stream size: 13,095,091 bytes (12.488452 MiB)
Bitstream type (bs): AAC LC (Low Complexity)
Frames (bs): 30,000
Duration (bs): 00:10:40 (640 s)
Chunk-aligned (bs): Yes
Bitrate (bs): 163.688638 kbps VBR
Sampling frequency (bs): 48000 Hz
Mode (bs): 2: front-left, front-right

[ Video bitstream ]

Bitstream type: MPEG-4 Part 10
User data: x264 | core 158 r2984 3759fcb | H.264/MPEG-4 AVC codec
User data: Copyleft 2003-2019 | http://www.videolan.org/x264.html | cabac=1
User data: ref=4 | deblock=1:-1:-1 | analyse=0x3:0x113 | me=hex | subme=8
User data: psy=1 | psy_rd=1.00:0.15 | mixed_ref=1 | me_range=16 | chroma_me=1
User data: trellis=2 | 8x8dct=1 | cqm=0 | deadzone=21,11 | fast_pskip=1
User data: chroma_qp_offset=-3 | threads=24 | lookahead_threads=4
User data: sliced_threads=0 | nr=0 | decimate=1 | interlaced=0
User data: bluray_compat=0 | constrained_intra=0 | bframes=3 | b_pyramid=2
User data: b_adapt=1 | b_bias=0 | direct=3 | weightb=1 | open_gop=0 | weightp=2
User data: keyint=75 | keyint_min=38 | scenecut=0 | intra_refresh=0
User data: rc_lookahead=50 | rc=cbr | mbtree=1 | bitrate=6000 | ratetol=1.0
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User data: vbv_bufsize=6000 | nal_hrd=none | filler=0 | ip_ratio=1.40
User data: aq=1:1.00
SPS id: 0
Profile: [email protected]
Num ref frames: 4
Aspect ratio: Custom pixel shape (2024:2025 = 0.999506)
Chroma format: YUV 4:2:0
PPS id: 0 (SPS: 0)
Entropy coding type: CABAC
Weighted prediction: P slices - explicit weighted prediction
Weighted bipred idc: B slices - implicit weighted prediction
8x8dct: Yes
Total frames: 15,999
Drop/delay frames: 0
Corrupt frames: 0

P-slices: 4602 ( 28.764 %) ######
B-slices: 11183 ( 69.898 %) ##############
I-slices: 214 ( 1.338 %)
SP-slices: 0 ( 0.000 %)
SI-slices: 0 ( 0.000 %)

[ DRF analysis ]

average DRF: 14.629664
standard deviation: 9.534345
max DRF: 42

DRF=1: 62 ( 0.388 %)
DRF=2: 60 ( 0.375 %)
DRF=3: 59 ( 0.369 %)
DRF=4: 74 ( 0.463 %)
DRF=5: 63 ( 0.394 %)
DRF=6: 81 ( 0.506 %)
DRF=7: 82 ( 0.513 %)
DRF=8: 147 ( 0.919 %)
DRF=9: 161 ( 1.006 %)
DRF=10: 361 ( 2.256 %)
DRF=11: 414 ( 2.588 %) #
DRF=12: 504 ( 3.150 %) #
DRF=13: 647 ( 4.044 %) #
DRF=14: 686 ( 4.288 %) #
DRF=15: 712 ( 4.450 %) #
DRF=16: 853 ( 5.332 %) #
DRF=17: 813 ( 5.082 %) #
DRF=18: 666 ( 4.163 %) #
DRF=19: 627 ( 3.919 %) #
DRF=20: 624 ( 3.900 %) #
DRF=21: 681 ( 4.257 %) #
DRF=22: 696 ( 4.350 %) #
DRF=23: 701 ( 4.382 %) #
DRF=24: 561 ( 3.506 %) #
DRF=25: 446 ( 2.788 %) #
DRF=26: 329 ( 2.056 %)
DRF=27: 299 ( 1.869 %)
DRF=28: 299 ( 1.869 %)
DRF=29: 269 ( 1.681 %)
DRF=30: 214 ( 1.338 %)
DRF=31: 143 ( 0.894 %)
DRF=32: 82 ( 0.513 %)
DRF=33: 56 ( 0.350 %)
DRF=34: 28 ( 0.175 %)
DRF=35: 16 ( 0.100 %)
DRF=36: 23 ( 0.144 %)
DRF=37: 24 ( 0.150 %)
DRF=38: 10 ( 0.063 %)
DRF=39: 5 ( 0.031 %)
DRF>39: 9 ( 0.056 %)

P-slices average DRF: 14.468709
P-slices std. deviation: 9.003138
P-slices max DRF: 42

B-slices average DRF: 14.742913
B-slices std. deviation: 9.759084
B-slices max DRF: 42

I-slices average DRF: 12.172897
I-slices std. deviation: 8.295535
I-slices max DRF: 36

[ DRF analysis (corrected) ]

End of start credits time position: 00:00:40 (40.24 s) - ignored frames: 1006

average DRF: 14.637364
standard deviation: 9.518843
max DRF: 42

DRF=1: 57 ( 0.380 %)
DRF=2: 55 ( 0.367 %)
DRF=3: 52 ( 0.347 %)
DRF=4: 67 ( 0.447 %)
DRF=5: 61 ( 0.407 %)
DRF=6: 81 ( 0.540 %)
DRF=7: 79 ( 0.527 %)
DRF=8: 145 ( 0.967 %)
DRF=9: 159 ( 1.060 %)
DRF=10: 361 ( 2.408 %)
DRF=11: 414 ( 2.761 %) #
DRF=12: 503 ( 3.355 %) #
DRF=13: 644 ( 4.295 %) #
DRF=14: 677 ( 4.515 %) #
DRF=15: 703 ( 4.689 %) #
DRF=16: 847 ( 5.649 %) #
DRF=17: 800 ( 5.336 %) #
DRF=18: 651 ( 4.342 %) #
DRF=19: 605 ( 4.035 %) #
DRF=20: 517 ( 3.448 %) #
DRF=21: 467 ( 3.115 %) #
DRF=22: 514 ( 3.428 %) #
DRF=23: 632 ( 4.215 %) #
DRF=24: 539 ( 3.595 %) #
DRF=25: 433 ( 2.888 %) #
DRF=26: 326 ( 2.174 %)
DRF=27: 299 ( 1.994 %)
DRF=28: 299 ( 1.994 %)
DRF=29: 269 ( 1.794 %)
DRF=30: 214 ( 1.427 %)
DRF=31: 143 ( 0.954 %)
DRF=32: 82 ( 0.547 %)
DRF=33: 56 ( 0.374 %)
DRF=34: 28 ( 0.187 %)
DRF=35: 16 ( 0.107 %)
DRF=36: 23 ( 0.153 %)
DRF=37: 24 ( 0.160 %)
DRF=38: 10 ( 0.067 %)
DRF=39: 5 ( 0.033 %)
DRF>39: 9 ( 0.060 %)

P-slices average DRF: 14.513918
P-slices std. deviation: 8.97239
P-slices max DRF: 42

B-slices average DRF: 14.735305
B-slices std. deviation: 9.752613
B-slices max DRF: 42

I-slices average DRF: 12.205
I-slices std. deviation: 8.257298
I-slices max DRF: 36

This report was created by AVInaptic (01-11-2020) on 24-09-2025 04:35:45