Perhaps hoping to cash in on the success of The Pianist, here's a release for another Ronald Harwood scripted film about a classical musician during the Holocaust era.
Directed by the veteran Hungarian Istv谩n Szab贸, Taking Sides begins in post-WWII Berlin, where US Major Steve Arnold (a bullish Harvey Keitel) is charged by his superiors with connecting the renowned conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Dr Wilhelm Furtw盲ngler (Stellan Skarsg氓rd), to the Nazi party.
"HITLER'S BANDLEADER"
The American believes that right is clearly on the victors' side and derides Furtw盲ngler as "Hitler's bandleader", a collaborator who played for the F眉hrer on the eve of his birthday and who was decorated by both Hermann Goering and Joseph
Goebbels. Why hadn't he fled Germany like so many of his fellow artists? The musician's colleagues, however, testify to Furtw盲ngler's integrity, stressing that he never joined the party and risked everything by helping Jews to escape abroad.
With its theatrical set-ups and lengthy, didactic speeches, Taking Sides never breaks free from its stage origins. Particularly ill-served are supporting characters such as the American-Jewish soldier (Moritz Bleibtreu) of German parentage, who falls for the daughter (Birgit Minichmayr) of one of the plotters against Hitler.
Szab贸 and Harwood also load the dice against Arnold's absolutist moral judgements, painting him as an aggressive, bullying Yank, with no understanding of European high culture.
"INTRIGUING EXAMINATION"
But despite these flaws Taking Sides does offer an intriguing examination of the role of an artist under a tyrannical regime - which, in the case of the Nazis, was one that revered classical music. To what extent can an individual be blamed for a society's atrocities?
Was Furtw盲ngler right to say that art, in reflecting man's highest aspirations, is more important than politics? And whilst Keitel, with his boxer's frame and furious eyes, ratchets up his character's anger, the acting honours here - and the main reason to see the film - belong to Skarsg氓rd's impressive performance as the bewildered yet still defiant scapegoat, who can't believe his own downfall.
Taking Sides (2003)
