WHO PAYS THE PRICE IN THE DEBT ? During the Allied occupation of Germany, arrest warrants were served on many Nazis, including Adolf Eichmann and Josef Mengele, both of whom fled the country in the chaos. In 1960, Israelis captured Eichmann in Argentina, and flew him to Israel for trial. They knew that Mengele, the […]

MOZART’S SISTER DEPICTS HER HARD LIFE, BUT FILMVIEWERS ALSO SUFFER DURING THE BIOPIC Although the biography of Nannerl Mozart is worthy of a film, the wooden acting and plodding screenplay are not even redeemed by magnificent musical refrains. All that remains of note is the costuming. The director, René Féret, dooms the production by writing

SARAH’S KEY OPENS MORE SECRETS THAT SHE EVER IMAGINED Some 17,000 French Jews were rounded up during mid-1942 and eventually sent to Auschwitz. Sarah Starcynski’s fictional Parisian family is among those never heard from again. But not Sarah (played by Mélusine Mayance), then 10 years of age. When the gendarme knocks on the front door

In a film that begins in 1899, with titles indicating the impoverishment of the Qing Dynasty and the growing power of the Boxers to expel foreigners from China, Empire of Silver (Baiyin Diguo) describes the banking system, with currency backed by silver, which emerged earlier but was on the verge of collapse when Nationalist Forces

Beginning of the Great Revival (Jian Dang Wei Ye) is epic in scale, beginning with the overthrow of the monarchy in 1911, formation of the Chinese Community Party on July 1, 1921, and leaps forward to 1941 without any mention of Chiang Kaishek. As Western powers have capitalized on the weakness of the empire, carving

IS TAKING CHANCE AN ANTI-WAR FILM? Only those who subscribe to HBO on cable had an opportunity to see the awardwinning film Taking Chance on Memorial Day 2011. Directed by Ross Katz, the film is a true story based on a journal written into a screenplay by Lt. Col. Michael Strobl, who volunteers as military

THE TREE OF LIFE PUZZLES SOME FILMVIEWERS The Tree of Life, written and directed by Terrence Malick, may provoke single members of audiences to walk out, as they did recently at a screening in chic West Los Angeles. Those who are married and have kids will remain, transfixed. Memories of childrearing combined with a lyrical

COURT INTRIGUE FEATURED IN THE PRINCESS OF MONTPENSIER In 1567, there was an ongoing civil war in France. Government forces were suppressing the Protestants (Huguenots), even going from door to door in a manner resembling the persecution of the Jews in Nazi Germany. Marriage within the aristocracy is controlled by parents to advance themselves so

LEGEND OF THE FIST PAYS HOMAGE TO CHINESE NATIONALISM While some 150,000 Chinese fought in Europe to defeat the Germans, Japan seized German concessions in the Shandong Peninsula (including Shanghai) while engaging its navy against Germany in Asia. The Treaty of Versailles, rather than recognizing the role of the Chinese soldiers, awarded the German concessions

THERE BE DRAGONS IS ANOTHER KILLING FIELDS Roland Joffé, who won a Political Film Society award for The Killing Fields (1984) has gone back to a bloody battlefield, this time the Spanish Civil War. There Be Dragons is a biopic of Josémaría Escrivá (played by Charlie Cox), the founder of Opus Dei, who was declared