All The World's A Stage - The Work of Ralph Fiennes

[Mary Frances]

http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/reviews/2008-10-15-schindler_N.htm

Memoir: Schindler's story behind book, movie

By Don Oldenburg
Special for USA TODAY
October 18, 2008

When Australian author Thomas Keneally entered the handbag shop in Beverly Hills that sultry October morning in 1980, he was shopping for a new briefcase before flying back to Sydney. What he got, besides a briefcase, was one of the most extraordinary stories he'd ever come across.

The shopkeeper, Leopold "Poldek" Page, was a Holocaust survivor. And he wasn't going to let the writer leave his store without first hearing a largely unknown piece of history.


Universal Studios

The movie: Ben Kingsley, left, and Liam Neeson, who played Oskar Schindler.

There was this German industrialist, a black-market operator named Oskar Schindler, Page told Keneally. A womanizer and unlikely humanitarian who "drank cognac like water" and tricked SS officials, Schindler was a Nazi who devised heroic schemes to save nearly 1,200 Jews from the death camps during the Holocaust. Indeed, he saved Poldek's life.


Courtesy of Steve Spielberg

The author and the director: Steven Spielberg, right,
based his movie on the book written by Thomas Keneally.

For Keneally, that chance meeting began a remarkable odyssey of researching and writing the best-selling 1982 "non-fiction novel" Schindler's List (initially titled Schindler's Ark) It received the Booker Prize for fiction and later became the basis for Steven Spielberg's 1993 film, which won seven Academy Awards.

Now Keneally is telling the story behind the writing of the book and the making of the movie.

In this touching and often humorous memoir, he recounts months traveling to Germany, Israel, Austria, the U.S. and Poland with Poldek to interview "Schindlerjuden" — the survivors rescued by Schindler. He describes walking the wintery streets in Krakow where brutal Nazi murders took place, feeling suffocated during visits to Auschwitz and being consumed by this story that he was convinced could make the hard-to-grasp atrocities of the Holocaust into an understandable tale.

Keneally engages the reader with tales about himself as well. He writes about becoming a novelist, his creative anxieties that fueled the writing process, his experiences with publishers and the toll writing the book took on him and his family.

Hollywood anecdotes about Spielberg and the film's stars, including Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley and Ralph Fiennes, provide a fascinating insider view of how movies are made.

What's hard to fathom is that before Keneally walked into Poldek's shop nearly three decades ago, Schindler was hardly known. This is the story of how that changed forever.

[Mary Frances]

Below is an article from Entertainment Weekly that brings, for our perusal, a flash from the past - the 1993 Best Supporting Oscar race. Ralph Fiennes was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his chilling performance as Amon Goeth in Steven Spielberg's monumental 'Schindler's List'.

Check out the EW website and vote for the actor you feel best represented Best Actor status.

http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2008/11/recall-93supact.html

Recall the Gold: The 1993 Best Supporting Actor race

By Gary Susman
Entertainment Weekly
November 4, 2008,

The supporting acting Academy Award categories often give unsung and unknown performers a chance to shine, and that was certainly the case with the 1993 Best Supporting Actor nominees, a group that included two or three unforgettable villains and at least three starmaking performances. Ralph Fiennes went from unknown to star overnight with his chilling turn as the Nazi commandant in Schindler's List. Pete Postlethwaite also found himself suddenly on the map, thanks to his understated but devastating performance as Daniel Day-Lewis' dad and cellmate from In the Name of the Father. Leonardo DiCaprio went from promising child actor to serious thespian with his thoroughly convincing portrayal of Johnny Depp's developmentally disabled brother in What's Eating Gilbert Grape. John Malkovich found his signature bad-guy role as the would-be presidential assassin who toys with Clint Eastwood from In the Line of Fire. And Tommy Lee Jones, after two decades as a reliable character actor, became a bankable star for the rest of his career with his all-business turn as the relentless marshal who pursues Harrison Ford in The Fugitive.

Fiennes might have ridden the momentum that allowed Schindler to sweep the Oscars that year, but perhaps the Academy figured he and DiCaprio and Postlethwaite were new talents who'd have another shot at a statuette later. That left two actors who played antagonists in big box-office hit action movies. Malkovich was typically excellent, but voters may have felt he was just playing a typical Malkovich villain. That left Jones, who seemed to rise above the genre material and make his character a real person, even a sympathetic one. Jones won the trophy, though 15 years later, it's DiCaprio's performance that still astonishes, Postlethwaite's that still seems sadly underrated, and Fiennes' that still freezes the blood.

Looking back from today's perspective, which of these performances do you think is the best? Vote in our poll, and list your comments below. (For a refresher, watch the clips embedded after the jump, which may contain some NSFW language.) Remember, we'll be running the Recall the Gold surveys every Tuesday and Thursday until January, so you may go back at any time and vote in the other polls (click here to see them all), reexamining the Oscar races of 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 years ago. On Thursday, Nov. 6, we'll look at the 1988 Best Actor competition. Watch also for commentary and context throughout EW.com, including on Dave Karger's new Oscar Watch blog.

[Mary Frances]

http://www.vcreporter.com/cms/story/detail/legacies_of_pain/6485/

Legacies of pain

Documentary visits the Holocaust’s residual impact on children of Nazis and their victims

By Scott Patrick Wagner
VCRReporter
December 4, 2008



During a visit with the woman I consider a second mother, I asked what she had been doing that summer for fun. “Reading books about the Holocaust,” was her response. My own mother had a different approach to being a member of the Holocaust generation of Jews: she boycotted all German merchandise, from Mercedes sedans to Braun coffeemakers. Never mind that the war had been over for 25 years by that point; shame to the Jew who supported Them.

It is difficult being from the generation after the Holocaust generation. When asked about my religious upbringing, I tend to tell people that I was raised as a Jew-Without-a-Clue. That is, I was brought up in relative obliviousness to the religious tenets of the faith. I was, however, deeply indoctrinated into the prevalent cultural belief: Remember what They did to us and never forget Their evil. What makes this problematic is being next-gen Us, interacting with next-gen Them. While there is validity in remembering the past so it isn’t repeated, there is also a profound qualm in carrying the sins of the parents over to the children. I know that the Germany of my present — even the one from my childhood — is not the one that killed millions of us. Yet I can’t help but have that sick feeling. As Bette Midler said as she described being in Germany during her first European tour: “Get me the duck out of here!”

As part of its P.O.V. series of documentaries, PBS presents this Wednesday an extraordinary film called Inheritance. It focuses, for 50 percent of its dual view, on Monika Hertwig, who has the lanky appearance of an aging, Germanic Laura Dern. We soon learn that this gentle, sad woman is the daughter of Amon Goeth, the brutal Nazi commandant of Poland’s Plaszow concentration camp (portrayed in the film Schindler’s List by Ralph Fiennes). Central to Inheritance is Monika’s struggle to reconcile her father’s crimes and her mother’s crimes of avoidance, and to find absolution for a guilt she never caused yet unavoidably owns.

The second focus of the film is Helen Jonas, a lovely and gracious Holocaust survivor who was the housemaid-cum-slave of Monika’s father during the atrocities. With Monika’s earnest beseeching, Helen agrees to meet her in Poland, at the site of her abuse. Helen hopes it will bring closure; Monika seems unsure whether she deserves it.

It is easy, as well as familiar terrain, to place one’s sympathy with Helen, and I admit that my emotions ran quite toward her, particularly during a last-reel share that is undeniably personal yet speaks for millions. What sets this documentary apart, moves it into new territory, is the parallel inclusion of the child of the “perpetrator” (as Amon Goeth is described when a dispassionate voice is necessary). Sympathy for Monika is not as easily reconciled, though logically we realize that there is no good reason to withhold it. And Monika herself is a walking example of this ambivalence, struggling not to loathe herself for her genetics as she admits that she felt nothing but disgust for the children of other Nazis.

The scenes between these two women, along with Helen’s accompanying American daughter, are unforgettable, particularly those within Goeth’s house. There are four archetypes onscreen here: the perpetrator, the victim and the children of each. It is a fascinating and deeply human interaction that is captured among them, and we are invited to tap into any or all of those within ourselves.

Monika and her husband are raising their 4-year-old grandson, David, whose mother is out of the picture due to drug addiction. Though not discussed, there is a Nazi elephant in the living room regarding what subliminal shame and torment made a straight-line path from Monika’s father to her daughter. Whatever it is, Monika has vowed not to carry it through to David and his generation. In one memorable confrontation between Helen and Monika, Helen also vehemently insists that the stories and denials of the past should cease, and that only truth should be spoken from this point forward.

Inheritance tells aspects of the truth that we haven’t looked at before. I can’t vouch for how visceral the experience is for a non-Jew, but my suspicion is that everyone has felt like the victim or the victimizer, either directly or in trickle-down. Coming to terms with these shadow feelings is, perhaps, the source of our freedom; it is a freedom that many of us are not even aware we are surviving without.

Airing on PBS on December 11, 2008. Check your local listings.

[Mary Frances]

http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2008/12/recall-93pictur.html

Do you really want to take away 'Schindler's List' Best Picture Oscar?

By Adam B. Vary
PopWatch
December 30, 2008

Over the past few months, we've been revisiting all the major Academy Awards from 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 years ago in our Recall the Gold survey, asking the entertainment industry and EW.com readers to decide whether the winners in the top categories are still Oscar worthy after several years of percolating within popular culture. With just three more categories to go, we've finally reached the winner whose Oscar would seem by far the safest: The 1993 Best Picture, Schindler's List. Director Steven Spielberg's haunting and harrowing portrait of the Holocaust often felt as if it was a document rather than a narrative; it feels just as alive and terribly vital today as it did 15 years ago. Asking whether it still deserves its Oscar feels somehow a little wrong and a lot beside the point.

And yet there are those who contend, now and in 1993, that Schindler's List is a flawed film, that Spielberg indulged in some overly sentimental tropes — the girl in the red coat; Oskar Schindler's "I could have done more" speech — as if he couldn't bear to fully face such an uncompromisingly brutal period in history. The other four Best Picture nominees from that year, meanwhile, were worthy films in their own right. The Fugitive may seem now like the One That Doesn't Quite Belong, but in truth, it was really just a dying breed: A contemporary, audience-pleasing, near-perfectly executed Hollywood thriller that also happened to earn a Best Picture nod. In the Name of the Father was a blistering look at the true story of a group of working class Irishmen falsely imprisoned for an IRA bombing. The Piano, a tale about a mute Scotswoman (Holly Hunter) and her young daughter (Anna Paquin) who move to New Zealand for an arranged marriage, felt like a living novel, winning raves, and Oscars, for Hunter, Paquin, and writer-director Jane Campion. (Only the second-ever female Best Director nominee, Campion won for her original screenplay.) And The Remains of the Day, about the life of a buttoned-up butler (Anthony Hopkins) in post-WWI Britain, was yet another impeccable Merchant Ivory literary adaptation (Howards End, A Room With a View) that have since fallen out of favor with the Academy.

These four films lost for one reason: They weren't Schindler's List. The quibbles over Spielberg's softer side were not nearly enough to keep the film from taking home seven Oscars (including Spielberg's first as a director), including, of course, Best Picture. And now, PopWatchers, it's your turn to decide whether, with the benefit of time, that Oscar is still as deserved today as it was in 1993, or should go instead to one of the other nominees. Vote in our poll below; if you need a reminder of the films, check out the clips after the jump. (Some are NSFW.) While you're at it, if you haven't already, vote in all the other polls from our ongoing walk down Oscar's memory lane. Tomorrow, we'll take a look at the 1988 Best Actress race; also, check out coverage of this year's awards contenders in Dave Karger's Oscar Watch blog.

[Mary Frances]

http://www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=996546

Film’s Most Memorable Villains

By Jacci Necpal
The Times (South Africa)
May 17, 2009

Bad guys have always been a Hollywood standard, but not every movie has the kind of criminal that stays in the mind for years to come. From all-out crazy to low-key alarming, here are some of the most vivid screen villains.

Hannibal Lecter: The Silence of The Lambs (1989)

Hannibal Lecter, as played by Anthony Hopkins, gave us the eternal image of a resplendent and calcitrant murderer — a psycho who even made prison-issued garments look good. Having to assist the FBI in locating a serial killer named Wild Bill, Lecter plots his own comeback to outside life through the sincerity of FBI rookie Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster). Although we feel contempt for Lecter and his deeds, we can imagine him enjoying civilian life of normality; intellectual, sophisticated and in good supply of formality.


T-800
The Terminator (1984)

In 1984, a deltoidal strapped Herculean with a Teutonic accent would go on to shelve most bravado muscle-men of the ’70s and, indeed, ’80s. By scaling back the flesh and bone and replacing it with a metallic template, the terminator was a cybernetic marvel, restrained in speech and yet quick on resolve. Arnold Schwarzenegger, having to use his physique much less than in previous flicks, wound up gaining notoriety for his inorganic behaviour.


The Joker: The Dark Knight (2008)

The Batman franchise has delivered many a great foe, ranging from Catwoman to Scarecrow and yes, Jack Nicholson’s original Joker. However, these villains all remained on a regressive level, whereas Heath Ledger’s insanely original take on the Joker saw a man bent on fighting Batman on a cerebral level, wanting to set his dark side free. Sadly, Ledger is no more, but as butler Alfred tells Batman’s alter ego, Bruce Wayne, to endure, so too will Ledger’s rendition of that green-haired horror.


Anton Chigurh: No Country For Old Men (2008)

Sporting a near perfect Dorothy Hamill hairstyle and eyes as “blue as lapis. At once glistening and totally opaque. Like wet stones”, Anton Chigurh (pronounced “sugar”) shows about as much emotion as a toaster. A hired gun, he goes in search of 2-million, only to change his mind, kill his employers and seize upon the money for himself. Chigurh’s choice of weapon? A cattlegun and a silencer-equipped shotgun — the kind that separates bodies and brains like wet toilet paper.


Amon Göth: Schindler’s List (1993)

The real Nazi SS officer, Amon Göth, was a bastard, and Ralph Fiennes plays him just so in Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-winning Holocaust epic. Wanting to emulate Adolf Hitler, Göth adopts the fascist stride and nestles in a mansion perched high above a hilltop, keeping watch of his Jewish prisoners at Plaszów Labour Camp. Some antagonists are created for art and are fair game for speculation and debate, but with Göth, we need no speculation and debate, only the silence of the slaughtered innocent.


Eleanor Iselin : The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

Communism is on the march, the US is in need of a new strategy, and the vice-presidential candidate’s wife, Eleanor Iselin (Angela Lansbury), has a plan — stage a successful homecoming for her war-hero son and brainwash him into assassinating the party’s prime candidate, thereby opening the path to the White House for her husband. And all this with straight back and pointed heel.


Dr Christian Szell: Marathon Man (1976)

Sadism is common in cinema. There was Annie Wilkes in Misery, Percy from the The Green Mile, Woo Jin Lee from Oldboy and Mr Blonde from Reservoir Dogs. But Sir Laurence Olivier’s Dr Szell approached his sadistic urges with subtle spirit — he worked as a dentist. Confronted with new allegations of being a former Nazi and in search of stolen diamonds, Dr Szell is forced to pursue and torture the one person who may contain information. Having limited time, he demonstrates to his victim (Dustin Hoffman) the formality for which dentists are renowned — politeness. Gently asking “Is it safe?”, he plucks at the roots of his victim’s teeth.


Norman Bates : Psycho (1960)

Hotel manager Norman Bates was compelled to follow in mom’s footsteps, deliberately controlling all of his thoughts, only to surrender them to her memory. Psycho’s got it all — a peeping-tom, necrophilia and cross-dressing, and like all great thrillers, its third act reveals sympathy and sacrilege.


Darth Vader : Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Can there ever, no wait, will there ever be a more genuine in-your-face, smooth talking (quite literally), fist-clenching, throat-choking, force-wielding original villain in movie history? Despite having no facial expression, Darth Vader (David Prowse) exalts the audience and the movie’s other characters with unforgiving force (just ask Captain Needa). Like all classic tragic figures, Darth Vader was once noble and virtuous, but soon fell from grace only to be redeemed by his children. He’s one of the very few baddies to experience a change of heart, and all toward the closing credits.


Idi Amin: The Last King of Scotland (2006)

Between 1971 and 1979, Ugandan president Idi Amin convinced his countrymen of his dominance by killing hundreds of thousands of innocents. Through the mass murdering, staunch deportation policies and erratic governance, Uganda developed a seminal degradation. Sad, considering that Idi Amin had great popularity in his youth and was well liked among neighbouring countries. Forest Whitaker played Amin with enough charisma and chilling megalomaniac psychosis to award him the Oscar. An unforgettable performance.