Night Will Fall, a feature-length production about the filming of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps, picked up two awards at last night’s Focal International Awards.
It won in the Best Use of Footage in a History Production and in the Cinema Production categories.
The Imperial War Museum’s work in restoring, preserving and completing the work that Sidney Bernstein started on the German Concentration Camps Factual Survey, which formed the bulk of the archive clips in Night Will Fall, received a surprise Special Award for its contribution to the film.
The Focal awards honour the work of those working in the fields of archive and restoration. Focal’s international jury sifted through 265 submissions from 24 countries to select the winners.
The ceremony was hosted by former chief news reporter for the BBC and presenter of Radio 4’s From Our Own Correspondent Kate Adie, who spoke about the importance of capturing events on film and preserving...
It won in the Best Use of Footage in a History Production and in the Cinema Production categories.
The Imperial War Museum’s work in restoring, preserving and completing the work that Sidney Bernstein started on the German Concentration Camps Factual Survey, which formed the bulk of the archive clips in Night Will Fall, received a surprise Special Award for its contribution to the film.
The Focal awards honour the work of those working in the fields of archive and restoration. Focal’s international jury sifted through 265 submissions from 24 countries to select the winners.
The ceremony was hosted by former chief news reporter for the BBC and presenter of Radio 4’s From Our Own Correspondent Kate Adie, who spoke about the importance of capturing events on film and preserving...
- 5/22/2015
- ScreenDaily
Kevin Macdonald, Stephen Woolley, Ken Loach and others speak about their respect for Tessa Ross.
Film4 head Tessa Ross’ decision to step down from her job next September (story here) has taken the UK film industry by surprise.
Leading industry figures have been lavish in their praise of Ross’ achievements since she joined Channel 4 in 2000. (She became Head of Film4 in 2003, followed by Controller of Film and Drama in 2008.) Some have also expressed wariness that a period of instability could follow her departure from the Channel.
Oscar winning director Kevin Macdonald, in post-production on Film4-backed The Black Sea and who also has a new feature on the Lockerbie bombing in development at Film4 with producer Christopher Young, acknowledged he had no prior inkling of Ross’ plans. “I only heard this morning. Tessa sent an email saying what was happening. I think it is going to leave a huge hole in British film that will be...
Film4 head Tessa Ross’ decision to step down from her job next September (story here) has taken the UK film industry by surprise.
Leading industry figures have been lavish in their praise of Ross’ achievements since she joined Channel 4 in 2000. (She became Head of Film4 in 2003, followed by Controller of Film and Drama in 2008.) Some have also expressed wariness that a period of instability could follow her departure from the Channel.
Oscar winning director Kevin Macdonald, in post-production on Film4-backed The Black Sea and who also has a new feature on the Lockerbie bombing in development at Film4 with producer Christopher Young, acknowledged he had no prior inkling of Ross’ plans. “I only heard this morning. Tessa sent an email saying what was happening. I think it is going to leave a huge hole in British film that will be...
- 3/26/2014
- by geoffrey@macnab.demon.co.uk (Geoffrey Macnab)
- ScreenDaily
FremantleMedia
Home Entertainment
is proud
to announce
The World at War
40th Anniversary release
Available to buy
on DVD & Blu-ray
from 31st October 2013
“Spectacular series”
Director Oliver Stone
This ‘jewel in the nation’s crown’ is being re-released to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of its first broadcast which took place on 31st October 1973
The World at War is regarded by many to be one of the greatest documentary series of all time. This BAFTA and Emmy Award winning documentary series, which was first broadcast 40 years ago, was the first factual series of its kind to document the full history of World War II. The series was memorably narrated by legendary screen actor and stage icon
Sir Laurence Olivier.
The World at War has been inspiring film makers and historians for the past 40 years including such programmes as the BBC’s ‘Nazis a Warning from History’, produced by Laurence Reece, and...
Home Entertainment
is proud
to announce
The World at War
40th Anniversary release
Available to buy
on DVD & Blu-ray
from 31st October 2013
“Spectacular series”
Director Oliver Stone
This ‘jewel in the nation’s crown’ is being re-released to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of its first broadcast which took place on 31st October 1973
The World at War is regarded by many to be one of the greatest documentary series of all time. This BAFTA and Emmy Award winning documentary series, which was first broadcast 40 years ago, was the first factual series of its kind to document the full history of World War II. The series was memorably narrated by legendary screen actor and stage icon
Sir Laurence Olivier.
The World at War has been inspiring film makers and historians for the past 40 years including such programmes as the BBC’s ‘Nazis a Warning from History’, produced by Laurence Reece, and...
- 9/24/2013
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Eva Braun was the most intimate chronicler of the Nazi regime, capturing Hitler's private life with her cine-camera. But it was only the obsession of artist Lutz Becker that brought her films to light. Robert McCrum and Taylor Downing uncover the story of the footage that shocked the world
Lutz Becker was born in Berlin, he says, "during the anno diabolo, 1941. Mine was the generation that was sent into a dark pit." Meeting this survivor of the Third Reich, now in his 70s and living in Bayswater, London, it's hard to suppress the thought that Becker, a distinguished artist and film historian, has conducted most of his life in a circle of hell.
Becker's childhood passed in the fetid, terrifying atmosphere of Berlin's air-raid shelters as the Allied raids intensified and the city was reduced to burning rubble. He recalls the radio announcements – "Achtung, achtung, ende ende, über Deutschland sinfe bender.
Lutz Becker was born in Berlin, he says, "during the anno diabolo, 1941. Mine was the generation that was sent into a dark pit." Meeting this survivor of the Third Reich, now in his 70s and living in Bayswater, London, it's hard to suppress the thought that Becker, a distinguished artist and film historian, has conducted most of his life in a circle of hell.
Becker's childhood passed in the fetid, terrifying atmosphere of Berlin's air-raid shelters as the Allied raids intensified and the city was reduced to burning rubble. He recalls the radio announcements – "Achtung, achtung, ende ende, über Deutschland sinfe bender.
- 1/27/2013
- by Robert McCrum
- The Guardian - Film News
The channels' director is proud about offering audiences something he believes they can't get anywhere else
James Hunt is thinking about Jon Hamm. In the bath. With Daniel Radcliffe. The Sky Arts channel director's interest is entirely professional, looking ahead to his adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov's A Young Doctor's Notebook, in which the two men will star.
"For Sky Arts to attract Don Draper and Harry Potter in the same production, in the same bath even, it's a dream come true," says Hunt. "It shows not only the ambition of the channel, but the ambition Sky has in trying to attract the world's top talent."
Radcliffe and Hamm play the same doctor at different stages of his life in the four-part series, which begins on 6 December. The drama has been described by the Mad Men star as mixing "madness and the macabre", and it stands every chance of delivering Sky Arts' biggest-ever audience.
James Hunt is thinking about Jon Hamm. In the bath. With Daniel Radcliffe. The Sky Arts channel director's interest is entirely professional, looking ahead to his adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov's A Young Doctor's Notebook, in which the two men will star.
"For Sky Arts to attract Don Draper and Harry Potter in the same production, in the same bath even, it's a dream come true," says Hunt. "It shows not only the ambition of the channel, but the ambition Sky has in trying to attract the world's top talent."
Radcliffe and Hamm play the same doctor at different stages of his life in the four-part series, which begins on 6 December. The drama has been described by the Mad Men star as mixing "madness and the macabre", and it stands every chance of delivering Sky Arts' biggest-ever audience.
- 11/26/2012
- by John Plunkett
- The Guardian - Film News
★★☆☆☆ In war, there are many indignant grey areas suppressed from widespread knowledge, tacit actualities that rarely see the light of day. Whilst Jeremy Isaacs' gloriously outdated World at War series and Downfall (2004) skits are enough for some, there are a handful of discerning filmmakers dead-set on calling attention to the tales of the unsung. Released next week on DVD, French-Moroccan director Ismaël Ferroukhi presents Free Men (2011); a slow-burning footnote of political insurgence within Paris' Muslim community.
Read more »...
Read more »...
- 9/18/2012
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Since January 27, Geoff Manaugh of the widely acclaimed Bldgblog has been hosting Breaking Out and Breaking In: A Distributed Film Fest of Prison Breaks and Bank Heists, "an exploration of the use and misuse of space in prison escapes and bank heists, where architecture is the obstacle between you and what you're looking for." The idea is to have anyone and everyone watch the films, wherever we may be, and then discuss them at Bldgblog: "It's a 'distributed' film fest; there is no central venue, just a curated list of films and a list of days on which to watch them. There's no set time, no geographic exclusion, and no limit to the food breaks or repeated scenes you might require. And it all leads up to a public discussion at Studio-x NYC on Tuesday, April 24." Discussions opened so far: Renoir's Grand Illusion (1937), Bresson's A Man Escaped (1956), John Sturges...
- 2/27/2012
- MUBI
BAFTA Fellowship: Few Women, Few Outside UK/Hollywood, Steven Spielberg Before Ingmar Bergman, Federico Fellini, Billy Wilder [Photo: Laurence Olivier] 1971 Alfred Hitchcock 1972 Freddie Young 1973 Grace Wyndham Goldie 1974 David Lean 1975 Jacques Cousteau 1976 Charles Chaplin, Laurence Olivier 1977 Denis Forman 1978 Fred Zinnemann 1979 Lew Grade, Huw Wheldon 1980 David Attenborough, John Huston 1981 Abel Gance, Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger 1982 Andrzej Wajda 1983 Richard Attenborough 1984 Hugh Greene, Sam Spiegel 1985 Jeremy Isaacs 1986 Steven Spielberg 1987 Federico Fellini 1988 Ingmar Bergman 1989 Alec Guinness 1990 Paul Fox 1991 Louis Malle 1992 John Gielgud, David Plowright 1993 Sydney Samuelson, Colin Young 1994 Michael Grade 1995 Billy Wilder 1996 Jeanne Moreau, Ronald Neame, John Schlesinger, Maggie Smith 1997 Woody Allen, Steven Bochco, Julie Christie, Oswald Morris, Harold Pinter, David Rose 1998 Sean Connery, Bill Cotton 1999 Eric Morecambe & Ernie Wise, Elizabeth Taylor 2000 Michael Caine, Stanley Kubrick, Peter Bazalgette 2001 Albert Finney, John Thaw, Judi Dench 2002 Warren Beatty, Merchant Ivory Productions (James Ivory, Ismail Merchant) 2002 Andrew Davies, John Mills 2003 Saul Zaentz, David Jason 2004 John Boorman, Roger Graef 2005 John Barry, David Frost 2006 David Puttnam,...
- 1/4/2012
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
David Cronenberg, Ralph Fiennes to Become BFI Fellows. [Right: Bette Davis.] The list of those who have received a British Film Institute Fellowship since it was first handed out in 1983 is quite extensive. [See below.] BFI Fellows include not only Britishers, but also numerous foreigners who have somehow or other been associated with either the film world or the BFI itself, among them directors (Michelangelo Antonioni, Marcel Carné), producers (John Brabourne, David Puttnam), film executives (Harvey Weinstein, Sidney Bernstein), editors (Thelma Schoonmaker), cinematographers (Jack Cardiff), actors (from Alec Guinness to Bette Davis, from Jean Simmons to Isabelle Huppert), writers (Graham Greene), critics (Dilys Powell), and philanthropists (J. Paul Getty). There are a number of puzzling omissions, however. For instance, the following are a few British actresses who have left an indelible mark on world cinema: Anna Neagle (left out perhaps because she died in 1986), Margaret Lockwood, Julie Andrews, Julie Christie, Lynn Redgrave, and Greer Garson.
- 10/6/2011
- Alt Film Guide
Did you perhaps ever wonder, prior to it's rebranding, just what The History Channel was so desperate to emulate with all that unending analysis of World War II that they used to run 24/7? Well, it was this; the now defunct Thames Television's monolithic 26-part serial, The World At War, the depths of which have since served as the benchmark by which all other retrospectives shall be judged.
Supreme in scope, yet personal in detail, The World At War remains an unparalleled achievement in the realm of historical documentary filmmaking. Not least due to it's courageous level of dispassion; commendable for a nation not yet a generation removed from the devastation and one still reeling from the effects of rationing and widespread social unrest. The startlingly simple yet hauntingly effective title sequence - a series of anonymous photographs turned to ash by a naked flame - affirms a commitment to...
Supreme in scope, yet personal in detail, The World At War remains an unparalleled achievement in the realm of historical documentary filmmaking. Not least due to it's courageous level of dispassion; commendable for a nation not yet a generation removed from the devastation and one still reeling from the effects of rationing and widespread social unrest. The startlingly simple yet hauntingly effective title sequence - a series of anonymous photographs turned to ash by a naked flame - affirms a commitment to...
- 11/21/2010
- by Neil Pedley
- JustPressPlay.net
Ever wanted to see the definitive program on World War II, featuring over 26 hours of content ranging from newsreels to interviews with veterans, known as The World at War? How about seeing it remastered in stunning hi-def? It has everything you could ever ask for including candid interviews with Alger Hiss and an outstanding narration by Sir Laurence Olivier - this is the set to be owned if you consider yourself a student of history. You couldn't ask for a better or more in-depth look at the events of World War II, and JustPressPlay is giving one reader the chance to win a copy of The World at War on Blu-ray. To find out how to win, just read on.
Informative, unbiased and narrated by Academy Award® winner Laurence Olivier, The World at War on Blu-ray is a visually arresting edition featuring over 12 hours of bonus materials and new features,...
Informative, unbiased and narrated by Academy Award® winner Laurence Olivier, The World at War on Blu-ray is a visually arresting edition featuring over 12 hours of bonus materials and new features,...
- 11/10/2010
- by Lex Walker
- JustPressPlay.net
My father, Ian Warren, who has died aged 96, enjoyed the fine things in life: fast cars, dashing clothes, good food, fine wine and entertaining friends. He also loved music and rugby. He was one of the earliest jazz fans in Britain, had his own band while still a schoolboy (he played the saxophone and clarinet) and jammed with many of the big names of the day at his parents' house in Kensington, west London.
He befriended Duke Ellington and his band, and introduced himself to Louis Armstrong, who offered my father his first – and only – reefer in his dressing room at the Holborn Empire, central London. Later, in the Us, he met George Shearing, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker and Peggy Lee.
Ian's father was in the army before becoming an Egyptologist, and his mother was a member of the Seligman merchant banking family. Ian was educated at St Paul's school,...
He befriended Duke Ellington and his band, and introduced himself to Louis Armstrong, who offered my father his first – and only – reefer in his dressing room at the Holborn Empire, central London. Later, in the Us, he met George Shearing, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker and Peggy Lee.
Ian's father was in the army before becoming an Egyptologist, and his mother was a member of the Seligman merchant banking family. Ian was educated at St Paul's school,...
- 12/21/2009
- The Guardian - Film News
He got his big break playing Quentin Crisp in The Naked Civil Servant and now, 34 years later, John Hurt is at it again
There's something disturbing about John Hurt. That familiar Mount Rushmore face seems to have ironed itself out. It was once compared to a komodo dragon – even his lines seemed to have lines – but today he looks peachy as a schoolboy. You've been on the Botox, haven't you? He roars with how-dare-you laughter. "Nah! Hahahaha! No. Don't say that. That would be awful. Not in a million years would I do that." He's got a point: take away the cracks and creases, and his job prospects would diminish no end. His face is one of the most distinctive in the movies. Almost as distinctive as his voice, dripping with honey and acid, often at the same time. Look, he admits, there might well be a reason for his...
There's something disturbing about John Hurt. That familiar Mount Rushmore face seems to have ironed itself out. It was once compared to a komodo dragon – even his lines seemed to have lines – but today he looks peachy as a schoolboy. You've been on the Botox, haven't you? He roars with how-dare-you laughter. "Nah! Hahahaha! No. Don't say that. That would be awful. Not in a million years would I do that." He's got a point: take away the cracks and creases, and his job prospects would diminish no end. His face is one of the most distinctive in the movies. Almost as distinctive as his voice, dripping with honey and acid, often at the same time. Look, he admits, there might well be a reason for his...
- 11/21/2009
- The Guardian - Film News
London -- It is unusual for organizers of any long-running international movie festival to find themselves immersed in controversy before anyone has seen anything -- but that is just what Edinburgh International Film Festival organizers are mulling Thursday.
The Eiff booked Tel Aviv University graduate Tali Shalom Ezer's "Surrogate" into this year's lineup and took receipt of £300 ($470) from the Israeli Embassy towards the costs of getting her to the Scottish capital to support the film.
But after protests from many areas of the filmmaking community, and most notably veteran British director Ken Loach who is an oft outspoken opponent of Israel's policies, the festival returned the cash.
Bad move it seems as prominent industry-ites such as Jeremy Isaacs, the former Channel Four chief and other Jewish organizations called the festival's move a form of censorship.
"It must be good for cinemagoers at an international film festival to see films by Jews,...
The Eiff booked Tel Aviv University graduate Tali Shalom Ezer's "Surrogate" into this year's lineup and took receipt of £300 ($470) from the Israeli Embassy towards the costs of getting her to the Scottish capital to support the film.
But after protests from many areas of the filmmaking community, and most notably veteran British director Ken Loach who is an oft outspoken opponent of Israel's policies, the festival returned the cash.
Bad move it seems as prominent industry-ites such as Jeremy Isaacs, the former Channel Four chief and other Jewish organizations called the festival's move a form of censorship.
"It must be good for cinemagoers at an international film festival to see films by Jews,...
- 5/22/2009
- by By Stuart Kemp
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
An Italian film director sets out to recreate an epic Chinese story as an independent film and entirely in English and goes on to win nine Oscars. Sound unlikely? Well, in most cases it probably would be, but Bernardo Bertolucci did just that with The Last Emperor in 1987 as he set out to tell the story of a 3-year-old boy who became Emperor of China with 400 million people as his subjects on an unlikely path to becoming a gardener in Peking. The success of the film is almost as unimaginable as the story behind it and Criterion has set out to ensure you know Everything there is to know about this movie and its place in history with a Blu-ray edition that takes three (of the four) DVDs worth of material and places it all on one disc. Speak ill of the high-definition format no more as the thought of...
- 1/5/2009
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
TORONTO -- The upcoming World Congress of History Producers will feature Jeremy Isaacs (The World at War), Peter Snow (Battlefield Britain), Alexandre Trudeau (Embedded in Baghdad) and Al Jazeera's Richard Gizbert as its headline speakers, organizers said Thursday. The annual forum for TV history and biography fare, to be held in London in November, will feature the Emmy award-winning Isaacs as part of its In Conversation With series, while BBC presenter Peter Snow will lead "The Great Debate: Producers vs Academics." In addition, filmmaker Trudeau and journalist Gizbert will take part in the war zone-themed panel "The Dangers of Covering History in the Making." The World Congress of History Producers, which runs Nov. 16-19, will be produced by Toronto-based Achilles Media Ltd., which also runs the the Banff World Television Festival.
During the opening prologue to "Taking Sides", the latest effort by director Istvan Szabo ("Sunshine"), a philharmonic orchestra is performing a Beethoven symphony in a magnificent Berlin hall as the sound of explosions from overhead fighter planes intrude upon, but fail to drown out, the concert.
It's a sequence that effectively sets up the conflict between artistic expression and political responsibility that serves as the picture's running theme.
But though studiously crafted and boasting a pair of contained but commanding performances by Harvey Keitel and Stellan Skarsgard, the film, adapted by Ronald Harwood from his acclaimed play of the same name, is dramatically flat.
Especially coming off the epic sweep of "Sunshine", there's a boxed-in staginess and overly measured pace that tend to hold any lasting emotional resonance at bay.
Still, as intellectual exercises go, "Taking Sides" provides ample food for thought in addition to the rock-solid acting and should have little trouble lining up distributors.
Keitel is Maj. Steve Arnold, a hard-nosed military man assigned to the American Denazification Committee in postwar Berlin.
His immediate task at hand involves one Wilhelm Furtwangler (Skarsgard), the esteemed conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra who had opted to remain in Germany after Adolph Hitler took power in 1933 rather than voluntarily going into exile.
While he steadfastly maintains that he remained politically autonomous when it came to his dealings with the Nazi regime and was even on the record as having helped secure shelter for several Jewish musicians, the Fuhrer's favorite conductor, in the eyes of Arnold, has a lot to answer for.
Aided by a pair of morally conflicted researchers -- including a young German Jewish lieutenant (Moritz Bleibtreu) who lived with relatives in America during the war and a young German woman (Birgit Minichmayr) whose freedom-fighting father was killed by the Nazis -- Arnold is determined to prosecute the seemingly weak-willed Furtwangler by any means necessary.
The two men make for dynamic ideological sparring partners.
Keitel (who happens to play a Nazi in "The Grey Zone", another Toronto International Film Festival entry) impresses with a performance that threatens to push the dramatic envelope before pulling back just in the nick of time, while Skarsgard, in the quieter of the roles, nevertheless makes his case compellingly heard.
Providing a bit of a comic respite in between the heated interrogations is Oleg Tabakov as Russian Col. Dymshitz, who repeatedly attempts to make a deal with Arnold to stop the trial and let Furtwangler conduct in East Berlin in exchange for several other musicians.
Taking place extensively in an old building formerly occupied by the Nazis that has seen its share of mortar shells, the German production bears Hungarian Szabo's customary attention to visual detail.
But despite all the good efforts, screenwriter Harwood, whose "The Dresser" made a more fitting transition to the screen, never succeeds in extricating the production from its fixed proscenium setting.
TAKING SIDES
Maecenas, MBP, Paladin Production and Studio Babelsberg present
Little Big Bear Filmproduction in association with Jeremy Isaacs Prods., Twanpix, Satel and France 2 Cinema
Credits:
Director: Istvan Szabo
Screenwriter: Ronald Harwood
Producer: Yves Pasquier
Executive producers: Rainer Mockert, Rainer Schaper, Jacques Rousseau, Maureen McCabe, Jeremy Isaacs, Michael Von Wolkenstein
Director of photography: Lajos Koltai
Production designer: Ken Adam
Editor: Sylvie Landra
Costume designer: Gyorgyi Szakacs
Cast:
Maj. Steve Arnold: Harvey Keitel
Wilhelm Furtwangler: Stellan Skarsgard
Lt. David Wills: Moritz Bleibtreu
Emmi Straube: Birgit Minichmayr
Col. Dymshitz: Oleg Tabakov
No MPAA rating
Color/stereo
Running time -- 105 minutes...
It's a sequence that effectively sets up the conflict between artistic expression and political responsibility that serves as the picture's running theme.
But though studiously crafted and boasting a pair of contained but commanding performances by Harvey Keitel and Stellan Skarsgard, the film, adapted by Ronald Harwood from his acclaimed play of the same name, is dramatically flat.
Especially coming off the epic sweep of "Sunshine", there's a boxed-in staginess and overly measured pace that tend to hold any lasting emotional resonance at bay.
Still, as intellectual exercises go, "Taking Sides" provides ample food for thought in addition to the rock-solid acting and should have little trouble lining up distributors.
Keitel is Maj. Steve Arnold, a hard-nosed military man assigned to the American Denazification Committee in postwar Berlin.
His immediate task at hand involves one Wilhelm Furtwangler (Skarsgard), the esteemed conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra who had opted to remain in Germany after Adolph Hitler took power in 1933 rather than voluntarily going into exile.
While he steadfastly maintains that he remained politically autonomous when it came to his dealings with the Nazi regime and was even on the record as having helped secure shelter for several Jewish musicians, the Fuhrer's favorite conductor, in the eyes of Arnold, has a lot to answer for.
Aided by a pair of morally conflicted researchers -- including a young German Jewish lieutenant (Moritz Bleibtreu) who lived with relatives in America during the war and a young German woman (Birgit Minichmayr) whose freedom-fighting father was killed by the Nazis -- Arnold is determined to prosecute the seemingly weak-willed Furtwangler by any means necessary.
The two men make for dynamic ideological sparring partners.
Keitel (who happens to play a Nazi in "The Grey Zone", another Toronto International Film Festival entry) impresses with a performance that threatens to push the dramatic envelope before pulling back just in the nick of time, while Skarsgard, in the quieter of the roles, nevertheless makes his case compellingly heard.
Providing a bit of a comic respite in between the heated interrogations is Oleg Tabakov as Russian Col. Dymshitz, who repeatedly attempts to make a deal with Arnold to stop the trial and let Furtwangler conduct in East Berlin in exchange for several other musicians.
Taking place extensively in an old building formerly occupied by the Nazis that has seen its share of mortar shells, the German production bears Hungarian Szabo's customary attention to visual detail.
But despite all the good efforts, screenwriter Harwood, whose "The Dresser" made a more fitting transition to the screen, never succeeds in extricating the production from its fixed proscenium setting.
TAKING SIDES
Maecenas, MBP, Paladin Production and Studio Babelsberg present
Little Big Bear Filmproduction in association with Jeremy Isaacs Prods., Twanpix, Satel and France 2 Cinema
Credits:
Director: Istvan Szabo
Screenwriter: Ronald Harwood
Producer: Yves Pasquier
Executive producers: Rainer Mockert, Rainer Schaper, Jacques Rousseau, Maureen McCabe, Jeremy Isaacs, Michael Von Wolkenstein
Director of photography: Lajos Koltai
Production designer: Ken Adam
Editor: Sylvie Landra
Costume designer: Gyorgyi Szakacs
Cast:
Maj. Steve Arnold: Harvey Keitel
Wilhelm Furtwangler: Stellan Skarsgard
Lt. David Wills: Moritz Bleibtreu
Emmi Straube: Birgit Minichmayr
Col. Dymshitz: Oleg Tabakov
No MPAA rating
Color/stereo
Running time -- 105 minutes...
During the opening prologue to "Taking Sides", the latest effort by director Istvan Szabo ("Sunshine"), a philharmonic orchestra is performing a Beethoven symphony in a magnificent Berlin hall as the sound of explosions from overhead fighter planes intrude upon, but fail to drown out, the concert.
It's a sequence that effectively sets up the conflict between artistic expression and political responsibility that serves as the picture's running theme.
But though studiously crafted and boasting a pair of contained but commanding performances by Harvey Keitel and Stellan Skarsgard, the film, adapted by Ronald Harwood from his acclaimed play of the same name, is dramatically flat.
Especially coming off the epic sweep of "Sunshine", there's a boxed-in staginess and overly measured pace that tend to hold any lasting emotional resonance at bay.
Still, as intellectual exercises go, "Taking Sides" provides ample food for thought in addition to the rock-solid acting and should have little trouble lining up distributors.
Keitel is Maj. Steve Arnold, a hard-nosed military man assigned to the American Denazification Committee in postwar Berlin.
His immediate task at hand involves one Wilhelm Furtwangler (Skarsgard), the esteemed conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra who had opted to remain in Germany after Adolph Hitler took power in 1933 rather than voluntarily going into exile.
While he steadfastly maintains that he remained politically autonomous when it came to his dealings with the Nazi regime and was even on the record as having helped secure shelter for several Jewish musicians, the Fuhrer's favorite conductor, in the eyes of Arnold, has a lot to answer for.
Aided by a pair of morally conflicted researchers -- including a young German Jewish lieutenant (Moritz Bleibtreu) who lived with relatives in America during the war and a young German woman (Birgit Minichmayr) whose freedom-fighting father was killed by the Nazis -- Arnold is determined to prosecute the seemingly weak-willed Furtwangler by any means necessary.
The two men make for dynamic ideological sparring partners.
Keitel (who happens to play a Nazi in "The Grey Zone", another Toronto International Film Festival entry) impresses with a performance that threatens to push the dramatic envelope before pulling back just in the nick of time, while Skarsgard, in the quieter of the roles, nevertheless makes his case compellingly heard.
Providing a bit of a comic respite in between the heated interrogations is Oleg Tabakov as Russian Col. Dymshitz, who repeatedly attempts to make a deal with Arnold to stop the trial and let Furtwangler conduct in East Berlin in exchange for several other musicians.
Taking place extensively in an old building formerly occupied by the Nazis that has seen its share of mortar shells, the German production bears Hungarian Szabo's customary attention to visual detail.
But despite all the good efforts, screenwriter Harwood, whose "The Dresser" made a more fitting transition to the screen, never succeeds in extricating the production from its fixed proscenium setting.
TAKING SIDES
Maecenas, MBP, Paladin Production
and Studio Babelsberg present
Little Big Bear Filmproduction
in association with Jeremy Isaacs Prods.,
Twanpix, Satel and France 2 Cinema
Director:Istvan Szabo
Screenwriter:Ronald Harwood
Producer:Yves Pasquier
Executive producers:Rainer Mockert, Rainer Schaper, Jacques Rousseau, Maureen McCabe, Jeremy Isaacs, Michael Von Wolkenstein
Director of photography:Lajos Koltai
Production designer:Ken Adam
Editor:Sylvie Landra
Costume designer:Gyorgyi Szakacs
Color/stereo
Cast:
Maj. Steve Arnold:Harvey Keitel
Wilhelm Furtwangler:Stellan Skarsgard
Lt. David Wills:Moritz Bleibtreu
Emmi Straube:Birgit Minichmayr
Col. Dymshitz:Oleg Tabakov
Running time -- 105 minutes
No MPAA rating...
It's a sequence that effectively sets up the conflict between artistic expression and political responsibility that serves as the picture's running theme.
But though studiously crafted and boasting a pair of contained but commanding performances by Harvey Keitel and Stellan Skarsgard, the film, adapted by Ronald Harwood from his acclaimed play of the same name, is dramatically flat.
Especially coming off the epic sweep of "Sunshine", there's a boxed-in staginess and overly measured pace that tend to hold any lasting emotional resonance at bay.
Still, as intellectual exercises go, "Taking Sides" provides ample food for thought in addition to the rock-solid acting and should have little trouble lining up distributors.
Keitel is Maj. Steve Arnold, a hard-nosed military man assigned to the American Denazification Committee in postwar Berlin.
His immediate task at hand involves one Wilhelm Furtwangler (Skarsgard), the esteemed conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra who had opted to remain in Germany after Adolph Hitler took power in 1933 rather than voluntarily going into exile.
While he steadfastly maintains that he remained politically autonomous when it came to his dealings with the Nazi regime and was even on the record as having helped secure shelter for several Jewish musicians, the Fuhrer's favorite conductor, in the eyes of Arnold, has a lot to answer for.
Aided by a pair of morally conflicted researchers -- including a young German Jewish lieutenant (Moritz Bleibtreu) who lived with relatives in America during the war and a young German woman (Birgit Minichmayr) whose freedom-fighting father was killed by the Nazis -- Arnold is determined to prosecute the seemingly weak-willed Furtwangler by any means necessary.
The two men make for dynamic ideological sparring partners.
Keitel (who happens to play a Nazi in "The Grey Zone", another Toronto International Film Festival entry) impresses with a performance that threatens to push the dramatic envelope before pulling back just in the nick of time, while Skarsgard, in the quieter of the roles, nevertheless makes his case compellingly heard.
Providing a bit of a comic respite in between the heated interrogations is Oleg Tabakov as Russian Col. Dymshitz, who repeatedly attempts to make a deal with Arnold to stop the trial and let Furtwangler conduct in East Berlin in exchange for several other musicians.
Taking place extensively in an old building formerly occupied by the Nazis that has seen its share of mortar shells, the German production bears Hungarian Szabo's customary attention to visual detail.
But despite all the good efforts, screenwriter Harwood, whose "The Dresser" made a more fitting transition to the screen, never succeeds in extricating the production from its fixed proscenium setting.
TAKING SIDES
Maecenas, MBP, Paladin Production
and Studio Babelsberg present
Little Big Bear Filmproduction
in association with Jeremy Isaacs Prods.,
Twanpix, Satel and France 2 Cinema
Director:Istvan Szabo
Screenwriter:Ronald Harwood
Producer:Yves Pasquier
Executive producers:Rainer Mockert, Rainer Schaper, Jacques Rousseau, Maureen McCabe, Jeremy Isaacs, Michael Von Wolkenstein
Director of photography:Lajos Koltai
Production designer:Ken Adam
Editor:Sylvie Landra
Costume designer:Gyorgyi Szakacs
Color/stereo
Cast:
Maj. Steve Arnold:Harvey Keitel
Wilhelm Furtwangler:Stellan Skarsgard
Lt. David Wills:Moritz Bleibtreu
Emmi Straube:Birgit Minichmayr
Col. Dymshitz:Oleg Tabakov
Running time -- 105 minutes
No MPAA rating...
During the opening prologue to "Taking Sides", the latest effort by director Istvan Szabo ("Sunshine"), a philharmonic orchestra is performing a Beethoven symphony in a magnificent Berlin hall as the sound of explosions from overhead fighter planes intrude upon, but fail to drown out, the concert.
It's a sequence that effectively sets up the conflict between artistic expression and political responsibility that serves as the picture's running theme.
But though studiously crafted and boasting a pair of contained but commanding performances by Harvey Keitel and Stellan Skarsgard, the film, adapted by Ronald Harwood from his acclaimed play of the same name, is dramatically flat.
Especially coming off the epic sweep of "Sunshine", there's a boxed-in staginess and overly measured pace that tend to hold any lasting emotional resonance at bay.
Still, as intellectual exercises go, "Taking Sides" provides ample food for thought in addition to the rock-solid acting and should have little trouble lining up distributors.
Keitel is Maj. Steve Arnold, a hard-nosed military man assigned to the American Denazification Committee in postwar Berlin.
His immediate task at hand involves one Wilhelm Furtwangler (Skarsgard), the esteemed conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra who had opted to remain in Germany after Adolph Hitler took power in 1933 rather than voluntarily going into exile.
While he steadfastly maintains that he remained politically autonomous when it came to his dealings with the Nazi regime and was even on the record as having helped secure shelter for several Jewish musicians, the Fuhrer's favorite conductor, in the eyes of Arnold, has a lot to answer for.
Aided by a pair of morally conflicted researchers -- including a young German Jewish lieutenant (Moritz Bleibtreu) who lived with relatives in America during the war and a young German woman (Birgit Minichmayr) whose freedom-fighting father was killed by the Nazis -- Arnold is determined to prosecute the seemingly weak-willed Furtwangler by any means necessary.
The two men make for dynamic ideological sparring partners.
Keitel (who happens to play a Nazi in "The Grey Zone", another Toronto International Film Festival entry) impresses with a performance that threatens to push the dramatic envelope before pulling back just in the nick of time, while Skarsgard, in the quieter of the roles, nevertheless makes his case compellingly heard.
Providing a bit of a comic respite in between the heated interrogations is Oleg Tabakov as Russian Col. Dymshitz, who repeatedly attempts to make a deal with Arnold to stop the trial and let Furtwangler conduct in East Berlin in exchange for several other musicians.
Taking place extensively in an old building formerly occupied by the Nazis that has seen its share of mortar shells, the German production bears Hungarian Szabo's customary attention to visual detail.
But despite all the good efforts, screenwriter Harwood, whose "The Dresser" made a more fitting transition to the screen, never succeeds in extricating the production from its fixed proscenium setting.
TAKING SIDES
Maecenas, MBP, Paladin Production and Studio Babelsberg present
Little Big Bear Filmproduction in association with Jeremy Isaacs Prods., Twanpix, Satel and France 2 Cinema
Credits:
Director: Istvan Szabo
Screenwriter: Ronald Harwood
Producer: Yves Pasquier
Executive producers: Rainer Mockert, Rainer Schaper, Jacques Rousseau, Maureen McCabe, Jeremy Isaacs, Michael Von Wolkenstein
Director of photography: Lajos Koltai
Production designer: Ken Adam
Editor: Sylvie Landra
Costume designer: Gyorgyi Szakacs
Cast:
Maj. Steve Arnold: Harvey Keitel
Wilhelm Furtwangler: Stellan Skarsgard
Lt. David Wills: Moritz Bleibtreu
Emmi Straube: Birgit Minichmayr
Col. Dymshitz: Oleg Tabakov
No MPAA rating
Color/stereo
Running time -- 105 minutes...
It's a sequence that effectively sets up the conflict between artistic expression and political responsibility that serves as the picture's running theme.
But though studiously crafted and boasting a pair of contained but commanding performances by Harvey Keitel and Stellan Skarsgard, the film, adapted by Ronald Harwood from his acclaimed play of the same name, is dramatically flat.
Especially coming off the epic sweep of "Sunshine", there's a boxed-in staginess and overly measured pace that tend to hold any lasting emotional resonance at bay.
Still, as intellectual exercises go, "Taking Sides" provides ample food for thought in addition to the rock-solid acting and should have little trouble lining up distributors.
Keitel is Maj. Steve Arnold, a hard-nosed military man assigned to the American Denazification Committee in postwar Berlin.
His immediate task at hand involves one Wilhelm Furtwangler (Skarsgard), the esteemed conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra who had opted to remain in Germany after Adolph Hitler took power in 1933 rather than voluntarily going into exile.
While he steadfastly maintains that he remained politically autonomous when it came to his dealings with the Nazi regime and was even on the record as having helped secure shelter for several Jewish musicians, the Fuhrer's favorite conductor, in the eyes of Arnold, has a lot to answer for.
Aided by a pair of morally conflicted researchers -- including a young German Jewish lieutenant (Moritz Bleibtreu) who lived with relatives in America during the war and a young German woman (Birgit Minichmayr) whose freedom-fighting father was killed by the Nazis -- Arnold is determined to prosecute the seemingly weak-willed Furtwangler by any means necessary.
The two men make for dynamic ideological sparring partners.
Keitel (who happens to play a Nazi in "The Grey Zone", another Toronto International Film Festival entry) impresses with a performance that threatens to push the dramatic envelope before pulling back just in the nick of time, while Skarsgard, in the quieter of the roles, nevertheless makes his case compellingly heard.
Providing a bit of a comic respite in between the heated interrogations is Oleg Tabakov as Russian Col. Dymshitz, who repeatedly attempts to make a deal with Arnold to stop the trial and let Furtwangler conduct in East Berlin in exchange for several other musicians.
Taking place extensively in an old building formerly occupied by the Nazis that has seen its share of mortar shells, the German production bears Hungarian Szabo's customary attention to visual detail.
But despite all the good efforts, screenwriter Harwood, whose "The Dresser" made a more fitting transition to the screen, never succeeds in extricating the production from its fixed proscenium setting.
TAKING SIDES
Maecenas, MBP, Paladin Production and Studio Babelsberg present
Little Big Bear Filmproduction in association with Jeremy Isaacs Prods., Twanpix, Satel and France 2 Cinema
Credits:
Director: Istvan Szabo
Screenwriter: Ronald Harwood
Producer: Yves Pasquier
Executive producers: Rainer Mockert, Rainer Schaper, Jacques Rousseau, Maureen McCabe, Jeremy Isaacs, Michael Von Wolkenstein
Director of photography: Lajos Koltai
Production designer: Ken Adam
Editor: Sylvie Landra
Costume designer: Gyorgyi Szakacs
Cast:
Maj. Steve Arnold: Harvey Keitel
Wilhelm Furtwangler: Stellan Skarsgard
Lt. David Wills: Moritz Bleibtreu
Emmi Straube: Birgit Minichmayr
Col. Dymshitz: Oleg Tabakov
No MPAA rating
Color/stereo
Running time -- 105 minutes...
- 9/18/2001
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
During the opening prologue to "Taking Sides", the latest effort by director Istvan Szabo ("Sunshine"), a philharmonic orchestra is performing a Beethoven symphony in a magnificent Berlin hall as the sound of explosions from overhead fighter planes intrude upon, but fail to drown out, the concert.
It's a sequence that effectively sets up the conflict between artistic expression and political responsibility that serves as the picture's running theme.
But though studiously crafted and boasting a pair of contained but commanding performances by Harvey Keitel and Stellan Skarsgard, the film, adapted by Ronald Harwood from his acclaimed play of the same name, is dramatically flat.
Especially coming off the epic sweep of "Sunshine", there's a boxed-in staginess and overly measured pace that tend to hold any lasting emotional resonance at bay.
Still, as intellectual exercises go, "Taking Sides" provides ample food for thought in addition to the rock-solid acting and should have little trouble lining up distributors.
Keitel is Maj. Steve Arnold, a hard-nosed military man assigned to the American Denazification Committee in postwar Berlin.
His immediate task at hand involves one Wilhelm Furtwangler (Skarsgard), the esteemed conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra who had opted to remain in Germany after Adolph Hitler took power in 1933 rather than voluntarily going into exile.
While he steadfastly maintains that he remained politically autonomous when it came to his dealings with the Nazi regime and was even on the record as having helped secure shelter for several Jewish musicians, the Fuhrer's favorite conductor, in the eyes of Arnold, has a lot to answer for.
Aided by a pair of morally conflicted researchers -- including a young German Jewish lieutenant (Moritz Bleibtreu) who lived with relatives in America during the war and a young German woman (Birgit Minichmayr) whose freedom-fighting father was killed by the Nazis -- Arnold is determined to prosecute the seemingly weak-willed Furtwangler by any means necessary.
The two men make for dynamic ideological sparring partners.
Keitel (who happens to play a Nazi in "The Grey Zone", another Toronto International Film Festival entry) impresses with a performance that threatens to push the dramatic envelope before pulling back just in the nick of time, while Skarsgard, in the quieter of the roles, nevertheless makes his case compellingly heard.
Providing a bit of a comic respite in between the heated interrogations is Oleg Tabakov as Russian Col. Dymshitz, who repeatedly attempts to make a deal with Arnold to stop the trial and let Furtwangler conduct in East Berlin in exchange for several other musicians.
Taking place extensively in an old building formerly occupied by the Nazis that has seen its share of mortar shells, the German production bears Hungarian Szabo's customary attention to visual detail.
But despite all the good efforts, screenwriter Harwood, whose "The Dresser" made a more fitting transition to the screen, never succeeds in extricating the production from its fixed proscenium setting.
TAKING SIDES
Maecenas, MBP, Paladin Production
and Studio Babelsberg present
Little Big Bear Filmproduction
in association with Jeremy Isaacs Prods.,
Twanpix, Satel and France 2 Cinema
Director:Istvan Szabo
Screenwriter:Ronald Harwood
Producer:Yves Pasquier
Executive producers:Rainer Mockert, Rainer Schaper, Jacques Rousseau, Maureen McCabe, Jeremy Isaacs, Michael Von Wolkenstein
Director of photography:Lajos Koltai
Production designer:Ken Adam
Editor:Sylvie Landra
Costume designer:Gyorgyi Szakacs
Color/stereo
Cast:
Maj. Steve Arnold:Harvey Keitel
Wilhelm Furtwangler:Stellan Skarsgard
Lt. David Wills:Moritz Bleibtreu
Emmi Straube:Birgit Minichmayr
Col. Dymshitz:Oleg Tabakov
Running time -- 105 minutes
No MPAA rating...
It's a sequence that effectively sets up the conflict between artistic expression and political responsibility that serves as the picture's running theme.
But though studiously crafted and boasting a pair of contained but commanding performances by Harvey Keitel and Stellan Skarsgard, the film, adapted by Ronald Harwood from his acclaimed play of the same name, is dramatically flat.
Especially coming off the epic sweep of "Sunshine", there's a boxed-in staginess and overly measured pace that tend to hold any lasting emotional resonance at bay.
Still, as intellectual exercises go, "Taking Sides" provides ample food for thought in addition to the rock-solid acting and should have little trouble lining up distributors.
Keitel is Maj. Steve Arnold, a hard-nosed military man assigned to the American Denazification Committee in postwar Berlin.
His immediate task at hand involves one Wilhelm Furtwangler (Skarsgard), the esteemed conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra who had opted to remain in Germany after Adolph Hitler took power in 1933 rather than voluntarily going into exile.
While he steadfastly maintains that he remained politically autonomous when it came to his dealings with the Nazi regime and was even on the record as having helped secure shelter for several Jewish musicians, the Fuhrer's favorite conductor, in the eyes of Arnold, has a lot to answer for.
Aided by a pair of morally conflicted researchers -- including a young German Jewish lieutenant (Moritz Bleibtreu) who lived with relatives in America during the war and a young German woman (Birgit Minichmayr) whose freedom-fighting father was killed by the Nazis -- Arnold is determined to prosecute the seemingly weak-willed Furtwangler by any means necessary.
The two men make for dynamic ideological sparring partners.
Keitel (who happens to play a Nazi in "The Grey Zone", another Toronto International Film Festival entry) impresses with a performance that threatens to push the dramatic envelope before pulling back just in the nick of time, while Skarsgard, in the quieter of the roles, nevertheless makes his case compellingly heard.
Providing a bit of a comic respite in between the heated interrogations is Oleg Tabakov as Russian Col. Dymshitz, who repeatedly attempts to make a deal with Arnold to stop the trial and let Furtwangler conduct in East Berlin in exchange for several other musicians.
Taking place extensively in an old building formerly occupied by the Nazis that has seen its share of mortar shells, the German production bears Hungarian Szabo's customary attention to visual detail.
But despite all the good efforts, screenwriter Harwood, whose "The Dresser" made a more fitting transition to the screen, never succeeds in extricating the production from its fixed proscenium setting.
TAKING SIDES
Maecenas, MBP, Paladin Production
and Studio Babelsberg present
Little Big Bear Filmproduction
in association with Jeremy Isaacs Prods.,
Twanpix, Satel and France 2 Cinema
Director:Istvan Szabo
Screenwriter:Ronald Harwood
Producer:Yves Pasquier
Executive producers:Rainer Mockert, Rainer Schaper, Jacques Rousseau, Maureen McCabe, Jeremy Isaacs, Michael Von Wolkenstein
Director of photography:Lajos Koltai
Production designer:Ken Adam
Editor:Sylvie Landra
Costume designer:Gyorgyi Szakacs
Color/stereo
Cast:
Maj. Steve Arnold:Harvey Keitel
Wilhelm Furtwangler:Stellan Skarsgard
Lt. David Wills:Moritz Bleibtreu
Emmi Straube:Birgit Minichmayr
Col. Dymshitz:Oleg Tabakov
Running time -- 105 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 9/17/2001
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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