WOMAN IN GOLD CELEBRATES A VICTORY OVER WAR CRIMES
Article 46 of the Second Hague Convention of 1899, which requires military occupation authorities to respect private property, was not honored by the Nazis. Instead, they looted some 100,000 works of art, many of which were never returned to the owners after war. Some ended up in the Austrian national museum in Vienna, the Belvedere, including five paintings of Gustav Klimt to which octogenarian Maria Altmann (played by Helen Mirren) fell heir when her sister died in 1998. Woman in Gold is about how Ms. Altmann recovered those paintings, in particular a portrait of her aunt wearing a gown embroidered with gold patches that became known as the Mona Lisa of Austria after the war in an Austria governed by those who tried to forget its complicity with Hitler. Rather than a simple handover of the painting, worth more than $100 million, the Austrian government fought to keep the painting by every legal means possible, passing up so many of her pleas for compromise that she became determined to win her case. Filmviewers are able to observe that process from an Austrian restitution commission hearing to a federal court in Los Angeles, the Supreme Court of the United States (541 US 677), and finally to an arbitration court in Vienna, thanks to dogged legal assistance from E. Randol Shönberg (Ryan Reynolds), grandson of the composer, who quit his job in a high-paying Los Angeles legal firm to come to her aid over a period of eight years. Interspersed throughout the film are recreations of good times of the Viennese Jews, including the Altmanns and their relatives, and bad times after the Anschluss of 1938. Perhaps the most important revelation in the film is contained in Mrs. Altmann’s speech about two Austrias—one complacent about the past, the other eager to bring about democracy and justice. The latter is personified by crusading journalist Hubertus Czernin (Daniel Brühl), who suddenly pops up in Vienna during the film. (In actuality, he wrote Mrs. Altmann to encourage her to regain the paintings). The portrait now hangs at the Neue Gallery in New York, though the film does not mention that she sold all five paintings in 2006 after she gained possession. A title informs filmviewers that she died in 2012 at the age of 97. Directed by Simon Curtis, Woman in Gold has been nominated by the Political Film Society for best film exposé and best film on human rights of 2015. MH
1915 DENOUNCES THE FAILURE TO RECOGNIZE WAR CRIMES
In 1915, the Ottoman Empire, allied with Germany, decided to force millions of Armenians out of Turkey toward Armenia. They were not transported by bus or train; instead, many were forced to walk in what became a death march. Armenians want the world to acknowledge that the Turks committed genocide, but they have enjoyed little diplomatic or juridical success with allies of Turkey. The film 1915, directed by Garin Hovannisian and Alec Mouhibian, is one effort to bring the matter to public attention—not only to non-Armenians but also as a lecture to Armenians; in the words of the film’s tagline, “You can’t escape the past.” Instead of a straightforward documentary or dramatization, 1915 is about a play with the same title. What filmviewers observe is that the play’s director, Simon (played by Simon Abkarian), rounds up a group of actors to depict various scenes. But they are not enthusiastic about their roles. Meanwhile, protesters outside the theater where the play is to be performed for a single night believe that justice is appropriate but that the play is a mere commercialization of their holocaust and oppose the subplot of a Turkish soldier saving an young Armenian lady (Angela Sarafyan). Various facts about the mistreatment of Armenians are recited in the film, but the backstage drama is unimpressive, supposed ghosts appear contrived, and the play itself seems pedestrian in comparison with the significance of the topic. MH