Taking Sides

I usually hesitate to purchase DVDs of films that I had not seen before, but in this case I was drawn by the scenario of the great German conductor Wilhelm Furtwangler being tested by the postwar American authorities as to the extent of his Nazi sympathies. I am glad that I made the purchase.

Based on Ronald Harwood's stage play (indeed he wrote the screenplay for the film), the film focusses on the reasons Furtwangler had for remaining in Germany to lead the Berlin Philharmonic when some of his fellow conductors and musicians left. In an interview that also comes with the DVD as well as in the accompanying commentary to the film, Harwood emphasises that he deliberately produced a finely balanced portrait and leaves the audience to 'take sides' based on the evidence produced.

The film can, of course, also be read in a modern context. What would you have done if you were in his shoes? Would you have stayed and fought from the inside, no matter how much they required some subservience to uncomfortable moral standpoints, or would you have bailed out but left those you loved and cared for (family and friends, Jews as well as former communists, homosexuals etc) to their fate? The film has some diversions, but the focus is largely on this argument.

The film is finely acted - not one 'duff' performance (apart, maybe from the Russian general and the ham-acted American general intorducing harvey Keitel to the job he had to do). The Hungarian director, Istvan Szabo, used some of the best in the business in his production team. Full credit to the editor and especially the cameraman - the colouring is spot on and some of the exterior shots very impressive. Impressive too are the interior scenes, finely crafted by Bond production designer, Ken Adam. Indeed, my two-DVD special edition includes a wonderful homage to Ken Adam, as he returns to his roots in East Berlin at the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Overall, then, a very good film indeed. One that will test your moral bearings and stimulate your visual senses at the same time.

I found this film about the pre-trial interrogation of Wilhelm Furtwaengler, conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic during the Third Reich, both disturbing and compelling. My discomfort arose from the one-sided nature of the interrogation, since Major Arnold (Harvey Keitel) has been given the mandate of securing a conviction against Furtwaengler by any means including humiliation. The Major is both a zealot and a bully who makes no effort to see the dilemma of the great maestro--whom he dismisses as a "bandleader,"--who has chosen to remain in Germany and has been forced to walk a "tightrope" in order to co-exist with and survive an intolerable regime. The Major, a philistine who has no understanding of the conflict between art and politics, furthermore, does not even speak the same language, figuratively speaking, as the shattered Furtwaengler. His interrogation methods, in fact, are recognized by Emmi, his jobbed-in German Secretary, as being reminiscent of those of the Gestapo.

The acting is superb, especially on the part of Stellan Skarsgard, whose nuanced portrayal of Furtwaengler is tremendously moving. Although Keitel's performance begins on such a high note that it has no place to go, it is nevertheless appropriate given the circumstances of his task of getting a conviction at any cost. Under director Istvan Szabo's guidance, however, the temptation to "take sides" with Furtwaengler, because of the Major's bullying, is subtly subverted by questions of conscience and motivation on the part of the maestro.

The recreation of post-war Berlin is superb. Two outstanding scenes take place at concerts: the first, of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, at a baroque church in the last days of the war, as allied bombers drop their payloads on Berlin; and the second, of the adagio of the Schubert string quintet, at the ruins of the same church, which has been bombed out. In the middle of the performance of the latter, the rain pours in and the black umbrellas go up, and no one thinks of leaving. The choice of music is emblematic: Beethoven with it's beat ( . . . -) [ V for Victory, for those too young to remember] accompanies the defeat of the Third Reich, while the sublime Schubert adagio offers consolation to the Berliners who are left to live with the consequences of that demented regime.

One of the aspects of this film that I liked the best is that it asks difficult questions of the viewer, but provides no answers--perhaps because there are none.

A most gripping story in which Furtwangler, the greatest conductor of the century and a man who lives only for music, is challenged by an American officer about his co-operation with the Nazis during Hitler's reign of intimidation and world war. Harvey Keitel is typically bullish as the self-righteous, uncompromising interrogator; Stellan Skarsgard superb as the lofty, philosophical and haunted German maestro. To the movie's credit, there is no clear bias although it is hard to sympathise with the American's bullying, simple-minded and eventually incoherent finger-pointing. The closing footage of the real Furtwangler is very revealing. Keitel fans and those interested in the scenario shouldn't hesitate.