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
The screenwriting debut of German actor Armin Mueller-Stahl is inauspicious, but he has directed one of the most courageous and interesting films of recent times.
"Conversation With the Beast", at the Berlin International Film Festival, is about a man in present-day Berlin who claims to be Adolf Hitler and convinces an American historian -- who is Jewish -- to interview him. Hitler has miraculously survived the end of the war, possibly through dark magical powers he claims to have. Now more than 100 years old, he wants the world to know he is still around.
Writer-director-star Mueller-Stahl, one of Germany's most important actors and this year an Academy Award nominee for his supporting role in "Shine", plays Hitler as a feisty, ridiculous dictator in retirement whose power games are restricted to secretly spitting out his medicine when his wife turns her back or nostalgically burning the occasional book in a kitchen pot.
Robert Balaban ("Close Encounters of the Third Kind") plays the intimidated but vengeance-driven historian with closed-mouth intensity. Though the movie is almost entirely restricted to the Fuhrer's living quarters in a basement ("I was crazy about bunkers"), Balaban's wonderful performance manages to bring a fresh scent of humanity into the restricted confines of Hitler's bunker and brain.
Mueller-Stahl's understated comic performance makes the Beast ridiculous -- and therefore human. There may be no other portrayal of Hitler on film that makes him so human, even though here, too, we are not one step closer to understanding the world's most infamous dictator and killer.
Look out for Dieter Laser's scene stealing as one of Hitler's doubles who, after the war, tries to make a name for himself as an actor but can only act Hitler well. When he gives the "To be or not to be" soliloquy from "Hamlet" and makes it sound as if Hitler were reciting it before a million marching soldiers, it is a solitary comic gem.
Mueller-Stahl as a director is surprisingly adept, and the camera work by Gerard Vandenberg is excellent, though the entire film is held in depressingly dark tones. The only thing not up to par, sadly, is Mueller-Stahl's script. Much in it is comic, and here Mueller-Stahl tries to create a variation on Chaplin's "The Great Dictator", but it only works in places. In others, it rambles and the end is predictable.
However, cineastes, historians and many specialist groups will admire Mueller-Stahl for attempting to do to his country's most hated and embarrassing public figure what none of his countrymen could.
CONVERSATION WITH THE BEAST
Santa Monica Pictures
A Rudolf Steiner production
An Armin Mueller-Stahl film
Director Armin Mueller-Stahl
Producer Rudolf Steiner
Writer Armin Mueller-Stahl with Tom Abrams
Director of photography Gerard Vandenberg
Production designers Rainer Schaper,
Heinz Roeske
Editor Ingo Ehrlich
Costume designer Barbara Jaeger
Color/stereo
Cast:
Adolf Hitler, Andreas Kronstaedt
Armin Mueller-Stahl
Dr. Arnold Webster Robert Balaban
Hortense Katharina Boehm
Running time -- 96 minutes
No MPAA rating...
"Conversation With the Beast", at the Berlin International Film Festival, is about a man in present-day Berlin who claims to be Adolf Hitler and convinces an American historian -- who is Jewish -- to interview him. Hitler has miraculously survived the end of the war, possibly through dark magical powers he claims to have. Now more than 100 years old, he wants the world to know he is still around.
Writer-director-star Mueller-Stahl, one of Germany's most important actors and this year an Academy Award nominee for his supporting role in "Shine", plays Hitler as a feisty, ridiculous dictator in retirement whose power games are restricted to secretly spitting out his medicine when his wife turns her back or nostalgically burning the occasional book in a kitchen pot.
Robert Balaban ("Close Encounters of the Third Kind") plays the intimidated but vengeance-driven historian with closed-mouth intensity. Though the movie is almost entirely restricted to the Fuhrer's living quarters in a basement ("I was crazy about bunkers"), Balaban's wonderful performance manages to bring a fresh scent of humanity into the restricted confines of Hitler's bunker and brain.
Mueller-Stahl's understated comic performance makes the Beast ridiculous -- and therefore human. There may be no other portrayal of Hitler on film that makes him so human, even though here, too, we are not one step closer to understanding the world's most infamous dictator and killer.
Look out for Dieter Laser's scene stealing as one of Hitler's doubles who, after the war, tries to make a name for himself as an actor but can only act Hitler well. When he gives the "To be or not to be" soliloquy from "Hamlet" and makes it sound as if Hitler were reciting it before a million marching soldiers, it is a solitary comic gem.
Mueller-Stahl as a director is surprisingly adept, and the camera work by Gerard Vandenberg is excellent, though the entire film is held in depressingly dark tones. The only thing not up to par, sadly, is Mueller-Stahl's script. Much in it is comic, and here Mueller-Stahl tries to create a variation on Chaplin's "The Great Dictator", but it only works in places. In others, it rambles and the end is predictable.
However, cineastes, historians and many specialist groups will admire Mueller-Stahl for attempting to do to his country's most hated and embarrassing public figure what none of his countrymen could.
CONVERSATION WITH THE BEAST
Santa Monica Pictures
A Rudolf Steiner production
An Armin Mueller-Stahl film
Director Armin Mueller-Stahl
Producer Rudolf Steiner
Writer Armin Mueller-Stahl with Tom Abrams
Director of photography Gerard Vandenberg
Production designers Rainer Schaper,
Heinz Roeske
Editor Ingo Ehrlich
Costume designer Barbara Jaeger
Color/stereo
Cast:
Adolf Hitler, Andreas Kronstaedt
Armin Mueller-Stahl
Dr. Arnold Webster Robert Balaban
Hortense Katharina Boehm
Running time -- 96 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 2/20/1997
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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