Taking Sides
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Movie Reviews of Taking Sides
Movie Review: Self-Righteous Delusion & The Failure of Good Intentions.
Summary: 5 Stars
"Taking Sides" is a fact-based account of the attempt to bring Dr. Wilhelm Furtwangler (Stellan Skarsgard), the globally renowned conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, to trial for "serving the Nazi regime". The film is based on the play by Ronald Harwood, who also wrote the script. The story takes place in 1946 while Berlin was occupied by American and Russian militaries. Major Steve Arnold (Harvey Keitel) of the U.S. Army has been assigned the task of determining who among Germany's artistic community aided the Nazi cause during the regime's 12-year reign. Dr. Furtwangler is suspect because he is not dead, and because his work was admired by prominent members of the Reich, including Adolph Hitler himself. The events depicted in "Taking Sides" did take place, although I'm not sure how accurate the film is in the details. The character of Furtwangler has been expanded upon to serve the film's themes. "Taking Sides" is deliberately morally ambiguous, preferring that the audience decide for itself who is guilty of what. Stellan Skarsgard and Harvey Keitel are both in top form. Skarsgard is one of cinema's finest character actors, and here he plays a man who has been defeated, at least temporarily, by the tide of history and who is at a loss to comprehend attacks on his character and good intentions. Keitel is perfection as the well-meaning Major Arnold, whose own intentions lead him to self-righteous delusion. As this was a play, the film takes place primarily on one set. But the occasional change of venue prevents this from becoming conspicuous. "Taking Sides" would be worth seeing for its fine performances. Although it takes place 58 years ago, its subject matter will never go out of style. Both Furtwangler and Arnold seem to have failed in their good intentions to one degree or another, or at least been too indiscriminate in their patriotism .
The DVD: Bonus features consist of 9 interviews with cast and crew members and some behind-the-scenes footage entitled, appropriately enough, "Behind the Scenes". The interviews are all brief. Particularly worth seeing are those with actors Stellan Skarsgard and Ulrich Tukur, in which they speak about their characters. "Behind the Scenes" is just random film footage from the set without any narration. It's not actually a documentary.
Movie Review: Art against politics : the eternal fight
Summary: 5 Stars
The disturbing question around the inquirer Arnold is are you i nvolved or not with the Nazis? . He doesn't understand how you can face the enemie without being outside the country as others did it. Toscanini, Klemperer, Schoenberg or Bruno Walter.Wilhelm Furtwangler holds his reasoning of keeping inside, holding the struggle face to face.
There have always been these two points of view about how deal with that. Is really the politics more important than the art? It depends on you; and how you face the life; the ancient greeks used call idiot to this kind of people who just care about his personal business; forgetting perhaps the meaning of what citizenship means.
That's why Furtwangler develops his art of cobducting. The art will always survive far beyond the politics ; due his goals are timeless ; the politics turns around another level , a minor level obviously , because the material needs of the human being concern to a major number of people than the art ; whose purpose is by its own nature more reduced, less popular , more aristocratic.
And we are then before a democratic choice ; the art has been always in a less proportion than politics. The Reinassance fact concerned juist about a few minds and men ; and it's hard to think about if the achievements made by all this reborn spiritual could have been understood by the whole population.
This film show both positions ; the trascendence against the present moment ; the aristos facing the vulgarity .
Keitel and Sanksgard sre flamboyant in every role . Szabo with his camera and enlighting are fisrt rate.
The issues delaed in this movie are timeless discussion , tht's why this picture is an important document about the awful facts after the WW2 about Wilhelm Furtwangler the greatest conductor in any age.
Watch this film and please don'nt forget that the little K inscribed himself twice with the Nazis.
Pitifully Ferenc Fricsay , the conductor designed by Furtwangler as the future conductor would die in 1962 , a fact that allowed to the little K conduct the Berlin Philarmonic till his death in 1986.
Movie Review: Furtwangler! A Conductor of Great Magnitude
Summary: 5 Stars
I saw the play in N.Y. before I saw the movie. The late Raymond Massey Jr. played Furtwangler in the play version. With all due respect to Massey, there is no comparison to the Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgard. Skarsgard is the great Furtwangler! Am I a self-proclaimed authority on the conductor? No, not really, but I have read the three existing biographies about him. I tell you that Skarsgard, without a doubt, is as close to the conductor as possible. His portrayal is worth seeing the film alone! Harvey Keitel as the interogator, WHOA! Although there are several other fine actors in this film, Skarsgard and Keitel make seeing this film a must. If your a classical music buff, what are you waiting for? The central issue of this film was, did Furtwangler offer his artistic talents to the government and thus deemed a colaborator? Or, did he simply have a love for Germany and his art to the extent he felt he needed to stay in Germany as a symbol of his and other German citizens opposition to the Nazis. Although at times he made compromises with the government, as a whole he was clearly anti- Nazi and was about to be arrested by the SS for his support of Jewish muscians just before he left the country for Switzerland. You may think I'm too sympathetic to Furtwangler, but after reading three books, I'm both a supporter of the man and his art. So,I highly recommend you see the movie and decide for your self. Lastly, while your watching this film you will probably feel that he should have left Germany a long time ago, if he really wanted to do the "right thing". However, let me tell you something most people do not know about Furtwangler. He was told by the government at one point that if he left Germany at any time, his elderly mother would be put in jail! My source is from a book written by Yehudi Menuhin's dad. Those of you who know classical music are familiar with the close relationship between the Menuhin family and Furtwangler. See the movie, there was no one like Furtwangler!Movie Review: A Difficult Subject, A Brilliant Result
Summary: 5 Stars
TAKING SIDES achieves what so many other attempts at exploring the extremes of the human psyche under duress do not. That nether land of doubt that exists when aftermath 'truths' can only be postulated and not proved is the fodder from which writer Ronald Harwood (who also wrote 'The Pianist') has created a terse and tense examination of the investigation by the Allied Forces of Conductor Wilhelm Furtwangler. Was he a Nazi sympathizer or a protector of Jews during the Holocaust? Director Istvan Szabo maintains the format of the original play to keep the story confined to the interrogation room, straying only momentarily to develop the characters of this quasi-trial. Stellan Skarsgard is extraordiarily fine as the controversial Furtwangler, even taking on his body language and conducting moments to the realist edge. As the Allied Forces interrogator Steven Arnold, Harvey Keitel is brilliant - seethingly angry, a hell-bent Major who refuses Furtwangler any semblance of respect. Assisting Keitel are his secretary Emmi (in an astonishingly fine performance by Birgitt Minichmayr) and an Allied observer David (the equally fine Moritz Bleibtreu), a Jew who still holds the subject Furtwangler in deep respect. But the magic is in the duets by Keitel and Skarsgard, sparring with personal venom and personal despair. We are not given a decision as to the truth of Furtwangler's investigation, but we are told the results of the interviews. All of the music is Beethoven and Schubert and Bruckner (the use of the Adagio from the Bruckner Symphony No. 7 is especially eloquent and meaningful) and is played from recordings by Furtwangler and the Berlin Philharmonic as well as by Daniel Barenboim and the Staatskapelle of Berlin. This film is every bit as fine as the author's film of his THE PIANIST, but for some unknown reason it simply opened and closed in the theaters without making the impact it so justly deserves. Highly recommended on every level.Movie Review: Art for Facists?
Summary: 5 Stars
A fascinating study of the "de-nazification" of conductor Wilhelm Furtwangler (perhaps the most famous and respected musician of his time prior to World War II, and through much of the war as well, at least in the Third Reich) Furtwangler refused to do the Nazi salute and never actually joined the party, helped many Jewish musicians, and tried to get the music of the so called "entartete musik" (degenerate music, ultimately even music composed by Jews, such as Franz Schreker and Gustav Mahler. Problematic "philosophical" music by Paul Hindemith was also included.) Furtwangler was removed from his position as Music Director of the Berlin Philharmonic for trying to champion Hindemith's "Mathis der Maler". Furtwangler was never reticent to take the offense with party leaders, with the exception of Hitler himself. But he tacitly accepted the control of his programming, even though he was forbiddin to conduct music by Felix Mendelssohn or any composer with the "taint" of "Jewishness"!
This is an intriguing interpretation of Furtwangler's trying to be understood by a rabidly American anti-Nazi. There are more than 2 sides to Furtwangler's story. Herbert von Karajan HAD joined the Nazi Party twice, but he was de-Nazified far more quickly and was back on the podium well before Furtwangler. Can art be used to further evil intentions? Watch for the short historic footage at the film's ending, when Hitler shakes hands with Furtwangler. This film will have you asking more questions than are answered regarding the artist's responsibility and culpability when living in a plainly devilish machine. Google Furtwangler after you view this must-see cinematic question mark and see what you think. The parts are well played, and the story is spun out in a profound manner. But is it all this simple?
Order the film and try to put your self in each of the two protagonists moral positions. Nuf said.