Justice for the Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer

Rating: 7/10 (2 November 2019)

Woman in Gold, directed by Simon Curtis, is based on the true story of Jewish Holocaust survivor Maria Altmann as she fights nearly fifty years later to reclaim ownership of artwork that belonged to her family that was stolen by the Nazis during WWII. Helen Mirren turns in an outstanding portrayal of Maria in her later life; Tatiana Maslany does the same for Maria's years as a young woman fleeing her hometown of Vienna, Austria, when the Nazi regime threatened the survival of the Jews there.
One of the many art pieces stolen from the Altmanns is a stunning Masterpiece by Gustav Klimt; the painting was dubbed the "Mona Lisa of Austria." Stolen by the Nazis in 1941, it had been displayed for decades at the Ã–sterreichische Galerie Belvedere.
The original title of the piece, "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer," was of Maria's Aunt Adele who died of meningitis when she was forty-four. The portrait was one of two portraits of his wife commissioned of Klimt by Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer. By 1900, Klimt was the most popular portrait painter of the wives of the Jewish Viennese bourgeoisie.
In 1998 Hubertus Czernin, an Austrian investigative journalist, (played by Daniel BrÃ¼hl), established that the Ã–sterreichische Galeri Belvedere contained several works stolen from Jewish owners in the war. The gallery refused to return the art to their original owners, or even to acknowledge the crimes. Maria discovered some letters after her sister's death that linked her family to this Nazi art theft.
Enter Ryan Reynolds who turned in an excellent performance as young lawyer E. Randol Schoenberg, the son of a family friend of Maria's. Randy's grandfather was renowned Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg and his grandfather's music was featured in the film.
At first Randy is reluctant to take the job, but once he makes an exploratory fact-finding trip to Vienna, he is on board. Ryan Reynolds and Dame Mirren have a convincing chemistry in this mystery / buddy picture.
Randy tells Maria that she will have to speak at a meeting of the Reunification Commission about the paintings. She too is reluctant, but naturally, her speech is very moving. "When you look at this painting," she says, "you see a work of art. I see my aunt."
With the aid of Czernin, they are able to maneuver the bureaucratic obstacles thrown their way and bat their game to the finish line.
The narrative flips back and fourth from past to the time of the current story, a technique I like. I thought the acting was the strongest part of the movie and the script was slowed down by exposition. If you're interested in this important topic, or want to see Helen Mirren in a stellar performance, with impressive work form the cast, I recommend it.
The way I came to the film was that I recently watched The Art Dealer, (L'Antiquaire), by filmmaker FranÃ§ois Margolin, which also dealt with Nazi theft of Jewish artwork. I was keen to see more films on this topic.
Last week I did a bit of genealogy research on the ancestry site Geni. com when I noticed a Jewish History project. One of the women featured in the project caught my eye because I know her and the photo that was up of her was not the correct person with that name. I found a photo of her, replaced the erroneous one, and shot the curator Randy Schoenberg a quick note to tell him what I did. He wrote back, "Thank you."
Curious, I searched his name online and was led to a Wikipedia page about him. There I discovered that Randy Schoenberg is a U.S. attorney and genealogist, who specializes in legal cases related to the recovery of looted or stolen artworks, particularly those by the Nazi regime during the Holocaust.
"Schoenberg," Wikipedia says, "is widely known as one of the central figures of the 2015 film Woman in Gold, which depicted the case of Maria Altmann against the government of Austria. Schoenberg is portrayed by Ryan Reynolds."
Boom. I had my next film to watch. I also joined Randy's Jewish Genealogy group on Fb. This week, Randy mentioned a name of one of his ancestors that is the same name as one of my great-grandfathers. I asked a cousin if she thought we might be related, but she said no.
I wanted to know what became of the "Mona Lisa of Austria," so I looked it up and found this, "In 2006, following eight years of effort by the Bloch-Bauer heirs, the painting was returned to the family; it was sold the same year for $135 million, at the time a record price for a painting. Since July 13, 2006, the painting has been on public display in the Neue Galerie in New York City."
Harvey Weinstein was a producer of this film and I felt loathe to see it because of the connection with him.