Taking Sides

Plot synopsis:
In Berlin at the end of World War II, Wilhelm Furtwängler (Stellan Skarsgård) is conducting Beethoven's 5th Symphony when yet another Allied bomb raid stops the performance. A minister in Hitler's government comes to Furtwängler's dressing room to advise him that he should go abroad, and escape the war. The film then jumps to some time after the Allied victory, and we see U.S. Army General Wallace (R. Lee Ermey) task Major Steve Arnold (Harvey Keitel) with "getting" Furtwängler at his denazification hearing: "Find Wilhelm Furtwängler guilty. He represents everything that was rotten in Germany".
Arnold gets an office with Lt. David Wills (Moritz Bleibtreu), a German-American Jew, and Emmaline Straube (Birgit Minichmayr), daughter of an executed member of the German resistance. Arnold questions several musicians, many of whom know Emmaline's father and say that Furtwängler refused to give Hitler the Nazi salute.
Arnold begins interrogating Furtwängler, asking why he didn't leave Germany in 1933 like so many other musicians? Why he played for Hitler's birthday? Why he played at a Nazi rally? And why his recording of Anton Bruckner's 7th Symphony was used on the radio after Hitler's death? Arnold gets a second violinist to tell him about Furtwängler's womanizing and the conductor's professional jealousy of Herbert von Karajan.
In a sub plot, Arnold is assisted by a young Jewish lieutenant from the Big Red One. The young officer begins to have sympathy for the conductor as well as for the young German girl who works as a clerk in their office. This causes friction between Arnold and his job investigating former suspected Nazis.
In a voice-over, Arnold explains that Furtwängler was exonerated at the later hearings but boasts that his questioning "winged" him. Actual footage of the real Furtwängler shows him shaking hands with Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels after a concert. The conductor surreptitiously wipes his hands with a cloth after touching the Nazi.

Tags: flashback

Review:
I'm sure that they didn't even want to go near the fact that the people who ran the de-nazification program were Americans with close ties to the Nazis themselves.Also, Furtwängler's rationale for staying in Germany was somewhat more philosophical than the film implies.
This time the story is based on real-life events: while most of his colleagues fled the country, Wilhelm Furtwängler, this truly exceptional conductor stayed in Germany during the Nazi era and continued his career with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.
The first one is stated by the American officer (played excellently by Harvey Keitel), who believes that Furtwängler is morally guilty, as he accepted a shining career from the Nazi's hand.
The second answer is presented by Furtwängler himself who tries to defend himself by stating that in order to help (by "help" he both meant practical assistance - as he did save many Jews during the war - and a spiritual message - as he claimed that his music maintained the inner good in his nation's soul even in the time of Evil) he had to compromise with the Nazis, but he never really collaborated with them.
I think these lengthy talks are the best proof that this is an excellent film and it has achieved its aim.The story has several layers (I particularly liked the way differences of American and German cultures are presented), the characters are exciting and well played: if you like thought-provoking movies, go for this one!.
There are two constituencies for director Istvan Szabo's "Taking Sides," a story of famed conductor (and not so well known composer) Wilhelm Furtwangler's accountability for his actions in Germany and occupied Europe during World War II.
Did he believe his presence would preserve essential elements of the German music heritage until a better day?"Taking Sides" addresses Furtwangler's role and focuses, with flashbacks, on an American major's investigation - shrill, unsophisticated, uncultured American Philistine at its best (worst?) - of Furtwangler's role.
"Taking Sides" is a somewhat less sophisticated descendant of Spencer Tracy and Maximillian Schell's blazing encounter in "Judgment at Nuremberg" Schell, acting the part of a judge in Nazi Germany who slowly accepted the abnegation of the rule of law, was forced to confront his true contribution to evil.
Spencer Tracy saw to that and, in any event, Harvey Keitel is no Tracy.Furtwangler in the film is never suspected, much less accused of any crime other than being a championed symbol of German "kultur." That was not a war crime and in reality figures like Furtwangler and composer Richard Strauss (another difficult case) were processed through denazification proceedings fairly quickly and usually were cleared.
Furtwangler definitely knew that composers and musicians disappeared with no forwarding addresses.Keitel and Skarsgard act out a morality inquisition that does provoke the viewer to think and question but the ultimate issue, should Furtwangler have fled, is irritatingly vague.
Is that fair?German conductors had powerful patrons and without doubt Furtwangler's brilliant conducting served the interests of both the leaders and audiences that hungered, through bombings and the approach of defeat, for some relief through music.
Von Karajan was destined to be a great conductor but he was also a first-class careerist who joined the Nazi party to advance his prospects (and lied about it for years until confronted with the evidence).Anyone seriously interested in classical music during the Third Reich must read Douglas Kater's three-volume, well-written and extensively researched history of that period.
Harvey Keitel plays Major Steve Arnold, a small man in insurance, from New York.
Stellan Skarsgård plays Furtwängler, a genius who was loved and courted by the Nazis.The Major pursues Furtwangler like a rabid dog, determined to show that that Furtwangler was guilty of something.Why didn't Furtwangler leave when he had the chance?
It it the anger of a small man who feels spat upon by life, suddenly given the chance of bring down someone once so High and Mighty?FurtWangler is aloof, distant, full of easy platitudes about the redemptive quality of Art. Major Arnold is mean and streetwise, quick to attack and condemn those who he does not understand.Who is in the wrong?
Based on a true story, and set at the time of the Nuremberg trials following WWII, Taking Sides is the tale of US Denazification investigator, Major Steve Arnold's (Harvey Keitel) mission to establish the guilty association of renowned Berlin conductor, Dr. Wilhelm Furtwangler (Stellan Skarsgard) with the Nazis.
Yet he had become a hero to the German people, because of his famous refusal to give the Nazi salute to Hitler himself after the birthday performance; as well as his reputation for assisting the escape from Germany of  several Jewish musicians.
In a relentless confrontation with Furtwangler and his defenders, Arnold casts an unblinking light on the common human motives  - fear and personal ambition - behind Furtwangler's 'heroism' - and behind the inaction of the innumerable German people who claimed ignorance as a justification for their inaction in the face of Nazi evil.
Yet Furtwangler's defence - that art must be above politics, and that his music  was was needed by his people to remind them of the sublime possibilities of the human spirit -  finds passionately sympathetic support from Arnold's own young assistants, Jewish American, Lt. David Wills (Moritz Bleibtreu), and Emmi Graube (Birgit Minichmayr).
Hungarian filmmaker István Szabó returned to the screen in 2001, with this adaptation of Ronald Harwood's stage play about the controversial case of Wilhelm Furtwängler, the most famous orchestra conductor in Germany during the Nazi regime.
Harvey Keitel is an excellent choice for the military, while Stellan Skarsgård brings aplomb and dignity as Furtwängler, who has the support of Keitel's assistants (played by Birgit Minichmayr, and Moritz Bleibtreu of 'Run, Lola, Run' fame.) A short film, considering the length of Szabó's films as 'Mephisto' and 'Colonel Redl.'.
Don't take you eyes off the black and white archive film running behind the end-of-film credits that the director repeats (plays TWICE for you,so that you especially do NOT miss it) as this footage gives you the truth about Furtwängler and how he felt about the (former) present regime in Germany..
Harvey Keitel plays an American officer in post-World-War-Two Germany who is given the job of dealing with Wilhelm Furtwangler, perhaps the best classical music conductor in the world.
Harvey Keitel and Stellan Skarsgaard give equally riveting performances, but Skarsgaard stands out because he depicts a type that films don't often focus on: a man so dedicated to his high art that he comes across as an extraterrestial when confronted with concrete concerns.
In 'Mephisto' and 'Hanusses' he was also dealing with the Nazi era, but by telling WWII stories the Hungarian director does nevertheless talk also about all dictatorships, or specifically the Communist rule he knew directly.The action of the film happens after the war, when Wilhelm Furtwängler, one of the greatest directors of the century stands on trial in a denazification tribunal for his cooperation with the Nazi regime.
He was not a Nazi party member, and he intervened to save lives of Jewish musicians, but yet was used a propaganda tool until the very end of the war.The balance of the movie lies in the balance of the superb acts of the two principal actors.
Harvey Keitel plays the American prosecutor major Arnold, while Wilhelm Furtwängler is played by the Sweidish Stellan Skarsgård.
Keitel gives a strong act, maybe a too strong one, as his rudeness opposed to the doubts and maybe remorse of the German seem to give to the musician a postume and probably not deserved absolution.The last scene shows Furtwängler living the building where the interrogation happened in the sounds of Beethoven's Fifth.
The director switches to a real filmed concert with the same music, at the end of which Furtwängler shares hands with a Nazi dignitary (may have been Goebels, the Nazi minister of propaganda).
I think Keitel plays the role as a non-European -- that is, as not "sophisticated," not "polished," not polite, playing the whole time with the cultural link between stereotypes of "european" and "intelligent." I think the contrast between the army major (and former insurance salesman) and the German conductor is between two ways of being smart, being honest, and being good.
The movie explores big questions in life, such as what is the right thing to do in an evil place, like Nazi Germany.
As for this film, I was only impressed by the fact that Hollywood still makes its propaganda pieces made with Frank Capra style, even though amazed by Harvey Keitels and Stellan Skarsgård's acting, beautiful as always.
The whole film is a perfect poem.seriously.don't want to mince words about it because it simply speaks for itself.heartbreakingly simple yet more profound than a thousand philosophies put together.one may talk and talk and talk but that one scene in the end when he walks away down that symbolic staircase with both the secretaries looking on...its simply mind blowing.i have seen this movie only once and that too 2 years ago,but the scene is etched in my brain forever.art versus politics....the eternal battle.the direction is flawless and the characters are unforgettable.simply like a poem.stoic and poignant.no words of mine can do justice to the poem ...because the scenes speak for themselves..
Taking Sides plays out in the last days, for a solid forty-five years, of Germany's existence as a unified country the aftermath of World War Two, and it centres in on a fierce tryst between an American who is a bully; aggressive and enjoys vaudeville and that of a relatively humble German composer whose life had been dedicated to classical music; appears humble but is suspected of being a Nazi.
István Szabó's film is a wonderful, mostly dialogue driven piece, which in spite of rarely getting out of the office belonging to that of its central American character, takes us on a gritty adventure as the fate of one man's life hangs in the balance and the reputation of another's hangs additionally so.The film begins with a quite wonderful depiction of a full orchestra playing a classical piece to a silent crowd, but as we track and weave our way around the majesty of the location within which they play, it becomes apparent higher members of Germany's Second World War era Nazi party are in attendance and are enjoying as much as we are – the film's soundtrack dipping in pitch as the reveal arrives.
The war will later end, with an air raid ruining this particular performance, and a number of unseen historical events unfolding throughout the world, as we know, go on to bring about the downfall of the Third Reich thus paving way for the arrival of the Allies and their setting up of base camps all over the ruined nation.Enter Harvey Keitel's American Major, Steve Arnold; a man charged with investigating those whose role in Germany's European reign of Fascism were often enough to make a difference but were often too what they were in their nature to occupy the proverbial radar.
He works with Birgit Minichmayr's Emmi and Moritz Bleibtreu's former soldier, David Willis; two people brought in on a secretarial basis but whose own bond actually comes to form a substantial an often softer, refreshing pit-stop alternative to the predominant office set berating.The man he's asked to interrogate and suss out the true one-time identity of is a composer named Wilhelm Furtwängler, played by Stellan Skarsgård.
The members of Furtwängler's orchestra speak highly of him when interviewed by Arnold, and in a film all about the perception of someone and an individual's true nature, we recall the dishevelled and somewhat sleepy look of the man during that opening when he conducted through the air raid and wonder if their claims are indeed as authentic as they seem.Above all else, Keitel does a superb job with his role; a man who has often played unlikeable people but whose tales we find ourselves drawn toward - here, he plays a bit of a bully and a bit of a boor, but is essentially a member of an Allied force attempting to wedge out those guilty of the things we, the audience, freely observed earlier on in the found footage session as those responsible for rather shocking manoeuvres are sought out to be brought to justice.
But sometimes life forces one into taking sides; and 'Taking Sides' is the name of this film, about the German conductor Furtwangler and his relationship with the Nazis.
What doesn't quite ring true is the slant of the officer's antagonism: he wants to hold Furtwangler responsible more for the German people's collective acceptance of the concentration camps than his own direct collaboration; this is not implausible, but the film would work better if we were presented with his motivation also in personal terms, but it passes unquestioned.
But Skarsgård's performance is poignant; it has a kind of exhausted passivity, suggesting a man who once stood astride the world and now counts himself lucky to be insulted by the likes of Major Arnold."Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle finds that the movie's promise to provide a balanced argument "goes unrealized, and all we're left with is the spectacle of an idiot bullying a genius.
Of the two men, it's the major who acts more like a Nazi."I think they resume very well the great errors of this film.
Back in his room, the conductor is warned by Hitler's architect, Albert Speer, that it might be better if he take a trip out of the country and "get some rest." This scene opens the film Taking Sides, a fictional account of the investigation by Allied officials at the end of the war to find and punish Nazi collaborators as part of its "De-Nazification" program.
Directed by Istvan Szabo and based on a play by Ronald Harwood who also wrote the screenplay, the pre-trial investigation focuses on the role of the artist in a totalitarian society, specifically, whether it is more effective to leave the country in protest or remain to work against the oppressive government from within.The film relies heavily on three interrogation session conducted in an office above a museum between an overbearing investigator, U.S. Major Steve Arnold (Harvey Keitel), and a proud but humbled Furtwangler, perhaps the greatest conductor of his time and the last, great exponent of the German Romantic school.
When he is brutally questioned by Arnold about the high posts he accepted in the government, the concert he gave to celebrate Hitler's birthday, and the fact that his recording of the Adagio from the Bruckner Seventh was broadcast to the nation after Hitler's suicide, Furtwangler says that no one who was not in his shoes could appreciate "the tightrope he walked between exile and the gallows." He asserts that he was only a pawn in the power struggle between Goebbels and Goring, and that his continued presence in Germany was desperately needed to keep the spirit of resistance alive and nourish the soul of the German people in the midst of barbarism.In support of their conductor, musicians from the Berlin Philharmonic testify that Furtwangler was a man of high ideals who disdained politics, refused to join the Nazi Party, give the Nazi salute, or conduct concerts in Nazi-occupied countries, and helped countless Jewish musicians in need of money, employment, or an exit visa out of Germany.
Harvey Keitel plays a character whose mission is to connect a famous conductor Furtwängler (Skarsgård) to Nazis.The movie plays kind of like a court room drama, there are strong dialogs and monologues for and against accusations, all characters getting their word and a few other testimonials thrown in between.
I've seen this film twice- unfortunately each time from 30 minutes in- but the 2nd viewing was better than the first.Harvey Keitel is a first-rate actor.
The movie starts with that Ludvig Van Beeethoven's masterpiece and it ends with the same piece.The movie is set just after The Second World War.Harvey Keitel plays Major Steve Arnold.His job is to find out whether the conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler (Stellan Skarsgård) belong to the Nazi party.Taking Sides (2001) is an impressive movie with a terrific cast.Harvey Keitel is magnificent in the lead.When he raises his voice to Furtwängler...that's really something.Stellan is amazing.Moritz Bleubtreu and Birgit Minichmayr are both great.This is a very well made movie about the true events.I think all those cruel and detestable men had to go down for what they did.This movie makes you think.Tell me this: Is a person who made it all happen worse or a person who knew and didn't do anything?.
In 1946, Wilhelm Furtwängler, one of Germany's greatest musicians and the conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, was put on trial before a denazification tribunal, even though he was a member of neither the German government nor the Wehrmacht.
Furtwängler was charged with supporting Nazism by remaining in Germany, performing at Nazi party functions and with making anti-Semitic remarks.Furtwängler was eventually cleared of all these charges and allowed to resume his musical career, but even so he still remained suspect in many people's eyes.
"Taking Sides", based upon Ronald Harwood's stage play, imagines Furtwängler's pre-trial interrogation by Major Steve Arnold, an American officer.
Yet he defends his decision to remain in Germany as a champion of the humane, enlightened values of high culture, at a time when those values were under attack like never before, to continue playing the music of Beethoven, Mozart and Schubert at a time when the German people most sorely needed to hear it.Harvey Keitel's Arnold is a classic example of the little man given too much power.
Ironically, the main limit of Taking Sides is how it doesn't want viewers to choose which side to take - it's clear who the filmmakers side with.Germany, World War II aftermath: Major Arnold (Harvey Keitel) investigates the involvement of famous conductor Wilhelm Furtwangler (Stellan Skarsgard) with the Nazis.