The Colony (Colonia).

Although it stated at the beginning of the film that it was based on real life events my initial thoughts while watching the movie was that what I was experiencing on screen was too far fetched to be true.  Then during the end credits we were shown actual pictures of Colonia Dignidad followed by director and co writer Florian Gallenberger stepping up to explain that this place really did exist and was still in existence today, admittedly a milder version designed to attract tourist’s and was now called Villa Baviera.

 

Colonia Dignidad.

The movie is based on the real life events that took place in the Colony which was run from 1961 by an ex Nazi preacher Paul Schafer who was attributed by his followers to have spoken the word of God (credibly portrayed by Michael Nyqvist who played Mikael Blomkvist in the Dragon Trilogy) and located in a remote part of Chile. At the time it had 300 residents mainly Germans who were said to be fundamentalist Christians with men and women living mainly segregated lives behind high barbed wire fences, watch towers and spotlights. This authoritarian regime ran all elements of its member’s lives, even regulating the birth of children who as it turned out were open to sexual abuse; later Schafer was actually charged with sexual abuse of children and sent to prison. Other criminal activities were discovered which included weapon sales and money laundering.

 

Paul Schafer with some of his victims.

When Pinochet’s Chilean coup, backed by the USA, deposed the democratic President of Chile Salvador Allende in 1973 it put the country under military rule for years. Reprisals followed against Allende supporters and this is where Gallenbergers film begins. A German activist Daniel  (Daniel Bruhl) who has been campaigning for Allende is joined in Chile by his air stewardess girlfriend Lena (Emma Watson) for a four-day break between Lufthansa flights. After her arrival the coup takes place and both Daniel and Lena get arrested. While Lena gets released Daniel is identified as the artist behind pro Allende posters and is taken away.

The results of Pinochet's military coup.

We find out that Paul Schafer is collaborated with the military regime and provides a warren of tunnels under the remote pseudo religious camp were dissidents of the regime are tortured and killed. It’s in these tunnels that Daniel finds himself. Daniels brain function is affected following a long period of horrendous torture sessions and he’s put to work in the camps smithy carrying out menial tasks. Lena finds out where he is held and decides to join the commune with the intention of rescuing her brain dead boyfriend.  

 

Michael Nyqvist with Emma Watson.

The main purpose of this well-intentioned film is to expose the terrible goings on that took place at Colonia Dignidad both above and below ground and the 40 year long complicity and protection offered by Chile’s German Embassy, remembering that the right wing German state had close ties with Pinochet and his brutal regime, believing that they were supporting the fight against communism. To this end the director of The Colony (2015) succeeds and gives us the added bonus of an exciting and fast moving thriller. As usual in a lot of modern films the villain gets the best lines and for this reason the movie is always better when Michael Nyqvist is on screen.

 

The arrest of Schafer. 

Florian Gallenberger told the audience at the 2016 Edinburgh International Film Festival where the film was receiving its UK premiere that he knew about the existence of the camp since he was a child in Germany but it was not until much later that he realised the true nature of the colony. It took him four years to research the story and during that time won the trust of the camps inmates also getting sight of the archives that were finally released well after the 30-year limit. He also explained that he did have a nightmare raising the money for the film because of its subject matter. Also casting initially gave him problems but he did not explain. Asked why he did not go into more detail about the child abuse that was associated with Schafer and other members of the commune he said that he deliberately underplayed both the torture scenes and the child abuse because he wanted to open the film to a wider audience and not put people off of seeing it. The 30000-acre colony is now open as a tourist attraction but this legitimacy can hide its legacy. The original members now in there ninety’s have been offered treatment but most have refused and do not want to leave the commune. Its problematic for those who were the young abused who still have great problems living in normal society. Most of the younger members who avoided the abuse have managed to live normal lives. Even after Schafer left others took over and carried on his cruel and abusive teachings.  Not surprisingly Chile still struggles with this episode of its history.

The Face of an Angel.

And yet another movie with a promising synopsis that did not come off! Maybe its me but I thought I was about to see a feature film based on the real-life story of American Amanda Knox who along with her boyfriend were accused of the murder of 21 year old Meredith Kercher in Perugia, Italy in 2007. How wrong can you be?

Directed by Michael Winterbottom The Face of an Angel (2014) is said to be inspired by the book Angel Face that in its self was drawn from crime coverage by Newsweek/Daily Beast writer Barbie Latza Nadeau, who in the film is Simone Ford (Kate Beckinsale) but the murder and the trial form only the periphery of our story. Winterbottom’s movie mainly concerns a film director called Thomas Lang (Daniel Bruhl) who is asked to develop a script for a movie to be based on the trial of US student Jessica Fuller and her Italian boyfriend who are accused of murdering an English student Elizabeth Pryce. But what the film is really about is Lang’s crisis of conscience that involves him taking vast quantities of cocaine and having some dodgy nightmares – but to be honest with you I’m not really sure? All I am sure about is this confusing and pretentious nonsense is another movie that’s not worth your time.

Woman in Gold.

This season of the Robert Burns Centre Film Club was concluded with the screening of the 2015 British/American film Woman in Gold directed by Simon Curtis who you may remember as the director of My Week with Marilyn (2011) and also the award winning 2008 TV drama starring Julie Walters A Short Stay in Switzerland. This season has included some very good movies from World Cinema, America and this season two very different films from the UK,  Still Life (2013) directed by Uberto Passolini and starring Eddie Marsan and Peter Strickland’s The Duke of Burgundy (2015) starring Sidse Babett Knudsen which in my humble opinion was the highlight of the season.

 

The young maria with her Aunt Adele Bloch-Bauer.

Getting back to Curtis’s latest outing we were informed by our host for the evening, Alec Barclay, that the movie was based on a true story and Alec gave us some very interesting background to a story that involved a famous painting and the women who eventually took the country of Austria to court in an attempt to get this valuable piece of art work back to its rightful owner.  I have replicated Alec’s introduction for your information something I believe will enhance your understanding and enjoyment of the movie adaptation:

‘Tonight’s film is based on a true story, which deals with the struggle to return valuable property looted by the Nazis during World War Two. The Nazis were highly organised in that scouts were sent into countries before they were invaded and works of art identified in private and public collections. Gestapo teams then moved in and removed the chosen works.

The film’s title refers to the portrait originally entitled ‘Adele Bloch-Bauer’. The subject was the Jewish wife of a successful Austrian banker and industrialist Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer. She was a socialite living in Vienna, the cultural centre of Austria, and achieved intellectual stimulation by surrounding herself with some of the great writers and artists of the day. Ferdinand wanted a portrait of his wife. Gustav Klimt was chosen for the work, who at that time was a successful painter at the height of his artistic powers. It is estimated that what Ferdinand paid for the finished article could have purchased a reasonable sized villa in the suburbs. Frank Whitford in his book entitled ‘Klimt’ puts the work into perspective. ‘The painting creates an impression of wealth, influence and sensuality by means of its rich and polished surface. Klimt shows Adele Bloch-Bauer not as she really was, nor even as she might have wished herself to be, but rather as her husband desired her to be seen by others. The portrait is adorned with ornament for much the same reason that she wore the gowns, furs and jewellery her husband gave her – not only to enhance her beauty but also to exhibit his taste and affluence: the painting, after all, was hung in a prominent position in the sitter’s home, where it proclaimed her husband’s artistic discernment and status. Itself one of Ferdinand Bloch’s possessions, the portrait depicts the other: his wife.’

The painting forms part of Klimt’s gold period, along with perhaps the more famous work, ‘The Kiss’. (Both these paintings reached a wide audience in the 70’s reproduced as posters and prints).  A second portrait of Adele, executed in a different style, was completed in 1912.

The work on the painting featured in the film was started around 1903/04 and took till 1907 to complete. There were around 200 working sketches produced during this time. The painting measures 54 inches by 54 inches and uses oil and gesso along with gold and silver leaf.

Affairs seemed to be common amongst the upper class in Vienna, and it was strongly rumoured that Adele and Klimt had a 12-year affair. Allegedly only her maid and physician were in on the secret. Testimony to this could be the fact that Adele appears as one of the figures in ‘The Kiss’, and also semi-clad in various other paintings. Like most notable artists, Klimt caused controversy and outrage, in his case by showing women in what was regarded to be highly provocative poses, sometimes verging on pornographic.

In January of 1925 Adele died suddenly of meningitis. Ferdinand turned her room into a shrine, the only decorations being the collection of Klimt paintings, which were the 2 portraits and 4 landscapes, and a photograph of Klimt at the bedside, along with fresh flowers. In her Will Adele had asked her husband to donate the paintings to the Belvedere, which is the Austrian State Gallery, but Ferdinand revoked this. However, the Belvedere was soon to become the keepers of the work when Hitler came to power.

As a renowned collector, Ferdinand also had some old German masters in his possession. A Doctor Friedrich Fuhrer, from the Gestapo, was tasked with collecting the Bloch-Bauer paintings. He knew that Hitler and Goering would be interested in the German work but not in the Klimt’s, so he sold the two portraits and a landscape to the Belvedere (and kept a landscape for himself). The gallery were keen to display the work, so as ‘Adele Bloch-Bauer’ was an easily recognised Jewish name, this was changed to ‘Lady in Gold’.

 After the war all the Klimt’s were reunited in the Belvedere, where they stayed for many years, with the ‘Lady in Gold’ becoming the Austrian equivalent of the ‘Mona Lisa’ and attracting many visitors. The painting was eventually sold to Ronald Lauder in 2006 for $135 million”.[1]

 

Maria and her husband attempt to escape the Nazis.  

The film not only deals with the struggle Adele’s niece Maria had in trying to recover what once belonged to her family but also goes back to when Maria Altman was a very young girl and takes you through her life starting in Vienna, demonstrating how the German National Socialists were accepted by the Austrians, the treatment of the Austrian Jewish families and how the Nazis took their belongings, valuables and their apartments, leading to Maria’s eventual escape to America with her husband leaving behind her beloved mother and father. This period of history is cleverly intercut with the present day where we find Maria living in Los Angeles and working in her dress shop. Its not until she discovers letters in her dead sisters belongings, which reveal an unsuccessful attempt to get the famous painting back, that she enlists the help of an inexperienced young lawyer, Randol (Randy) Schoenberg, to make a claim to the art restitution board in Austria which will eventually take this elderly Jewish lady on a ten year legal journey. 

Maria with her Lawyer Randy Schoenberg. 

Hubertus Czernin the Investigative Journalist. 

The film feature’s exceptional performances from Helen Mirren as Maria Altmann, Ryan Reynolds as Schoenberg with German actor Daniel Bruhl as the left leaning Austrian Investigative Journalist Hubertus Czernin. Also in significant, but small roles are Curtis’s wife Elizabeth McGovern and Jonathan Pryce. Some critics have accused the film of being dull but I found it quite the opposite in that it was a very interesting and thought-provoking film. Perhaps these critics did not have the benefit of Mr Barclay’s introduction?

The real Maria Altmann in front of 'that painting'

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[1] Alec Barclay Introduction to Woman in Gold at the RBC 27^th May 2015.

Good Bye Lenin!

It must be great to love and care for your mother as much as Alex Kerner does in her remaining months following a heart attack. The main part of this wonderfully heartfelt film is set in East Berlin and covers the period before the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the German reunification a year later. As well as his mother Christine (Katrin SaB) the twenty two year old Alex also shares their flat with his sister Ariane (Maria Simon) her baby daughter and the baby’s father Rainer. Alex’s father fled to the capitalist side of the wall in 1978, abandoning his wife and children. Following this traumatic family upheaval Christine, working for the betterment of the GDR, joined the Socialist Unity Party of Germany and dedicated her spare time to improve the lives of her fellow socialists.   But things were beginning to gradually change and when she sees her son take part in an anti-government street demonstration, were he gets arrested, she has a near fatal heart attack and collapses in the road. After being in a coma for eight months she is finally allowed home. Unbeknown to her the borders between East and West Germany have crumpled and with the doctor warning Alex that any sudden shock could kill his mother he decides to deceive her into believing that nothing of importance has happened in the last eight months!  With the help of his family and friends they manage to recreate the old East Germany in her bedroom.  As many of Christine’s old friends still retain a nostalgia for a time and a country they preferred it was not difficult to persuade them to help, Pioneer Scouts sing socialist songs to her on her birthday, attempts are made to procure foodstuffs that existed under the old regime including mothers favourite ‘Spreewald gherkins’ and Alex’s friend and workmate Denis (Florian Lukas) cobbles together mothers favourite news programme Aktuelle Kamera, some authentic and some forged, with the help of a video player for her to watch on the TV.  As Alex explains to the viewer ‘The GDR that I have created for my mother increasingly became the one I myself had always wished for”

 

Does Christine say Good Buy Lenin?

Co-written and directed by Wolfgang Becker the award winning Good Buy Lenin! (2003) stars Daniel Bruhl who we have seen recently portraying WikiLeaks former spokesperson Daniel Domscheit-Berg in 2013’s The Fifth Estate and the same year he played Niki Lauda in Rush. But it was his role of Alex that not only garnered him the European Film Award and the German Film Award for Best Actor but gained him a lot of international recognition.

The Pioneer Scouts help Christine celebrate her birthday.

The film itself captures the popular imagination about East Germany and fanned a wave of nostalgia for the former German Democratic Republic with books and memento’s being freely available as well as a collection of DEFA’s[1] films archived in a library at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. This is the only study centre outside of Europe devoted to the study of a broad spectrum of filmmaking by East German filmmakers or related to East Germany from 1946 to the present.

The Socialist dream.

Unlike other films that portray the socialist living experience Becker’s film does give a more humorous look at the state run GDR and has become the most successful Ostalgie[2] comedy to date.  As Daniela Berghahn explained ‘Good Buy Lenin! marks a breakthrough in the establishment of a unified German film culture. It is one of a small number of films originating in the West that look eastwards and that speak to audiences in both the new and old federal states’[3]. It was shown in more than sixty other countries and has become one of the most successful of Germanys international cinematic exports.

 

Nostalgia for the past.

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[1] East Germany’s state owned film Production Company.

[2] Ostalgie is a German term referring to nostalgia for aspects of life in East Germany. It is derived from the German words Ost (east) and Nostalgie(nostalgia).

[3] Hollywood behind the Wall. The cinema of East Germany by  Daniela Berghahn.

Rush.

To make a film there are obviously some things you will need, besides money that is. You will require a story or at least someone to adapt a story and write a screenplay. Peter Morgan, a British screenwriter who name has been synonymous with films like The Queen (2006), The Other Boleyn Girl (2008), The Damned United (2008) and Clint Eastwood's supernatural drama Hereafter (2010), should fit the bill. Then of course you're going to need a director lets say Ron Howard who most of us will remember as Richie Cunningham in no less than 171 episodes of the TV series Happy Days that originally aired between 1974 and 1984. He made his directorial debut in 1977 and has to his credit award winning films like Cocoon (1985), Apollo 13 (1995) and A Beautiful Mind that won him an Oscar in 2001 for Best Director. Other films of note have included the western The Missing (2003), The De Vinci Code (2006) and the political drama Frost/Nixon in 2008. But of course without the Director of Photography you will have nothing to look at! There are some very good cinematographers but none better than the British camera man Anthony Dod Mantle who was responsible for the camerawork on the first of the film’s made under the Dogme 95 banner Festen (1998) directed by the Dane Thomas Vinterberg, and three films with Lars Von Trier including 2009's controversial Antichrist. He also worked with Danny Boyle on 5 movies including the recent psychological thriller Trance (2013). Now your need a sound track or a score, not all films need one but generally if you intend to produce an exciting drama then you probable will and one of the best composers in the business is Hans Zimmer who has been involved with composing a great many film scores including Gladiator (2000), The Dark Knight (2008) and another award winning Christopher Nolan film Inception (2010).

 

Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Bruhl.

Coincidently this team were used on the recent very well made and extremely exciting biographical sporting drama Rush (2013), a dramatized account of the rivalry between two very famous Formula One drivers. The drivers involved were British born James Hunt, the George Best of motor racing, whose climb to the top started with touring car racing and then the Formula Three route driving for Lord Hesketh’s Racing team and then in 1973 entered Formula One leaving Hesketh to join the McLaren team were he earned most of his success. The other driver involved in this rivalry was the Austrian Niki Lauda who eventually won the F1 World Championship three times.

 

Niki Lauda and James Hunt.

The intense competitiveness between these two totally different men is very well formulated, Hunt comes across as the devil may care playboy who love of racing is only matched by his love of women, whereas Lauda is the technocrat, more interested in mechanical engineering and risk assessment than the high life. Two things make this film very special firstly great casting with Australian actor Chris Hemsworth, best known for his role as the mighty Thor, plays James Hunt with German actor Daniel Bruhl (Good Bye Lenin 2003, The Edukators 2004, Inglourious Basterds 2009) as Niki Lauda. Both actors bear an uncanny likeness to the actual drivers as we witness at the end of the film when we get some archive footage. Secondly its spectacular motor racing sequences which really do have you on the edge of your seat. But what makes the film even more adsorbing is that we are given a glimpse inside two of F1 great characters, and we are left only to decide, as Peter Bradshaw asked ‘which was the champ and which was the chump?’[1]

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[1] Peter Bradshaw The Guardian September 2013