tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18925963.post5326035911161181029..comments2023-03-29T11:12:50.596+02:00Comments on Ramblings and ravings: 20, July 1944Benjamin Thomas Sutpenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07657026660772257313noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18925963.post-39451202996479007342007-08-08T16:52:00.000+02:002007-08-08T16:52:00.000+02:00I don't really see how this is related to my main ...I don't really see how this is related to my main point. To me it emphasises one of my criticisms. I don't want people to concentrate on this failed attempt as if it was the only one, especially considering that these officers mostly were disgustingly conservative and nationalistic members of the nobility. Their glorification and the limitation of the resistance to Hitler to them is exactly what I despise about this project.Benjamin Thomas Sutpenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07657026660772257313noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18925963.post-71226209620543498752007-08-08T14:26:00.000+02:002007-08-08T14:26:00.000+02:00FYI: Last week's 'Economist' takes an interesting ...FYI: Last week's 'Economist' takes an interesting stance on the issue: <BR/><BR/>Filming German history<BR/>The good German<BR/><BR/>Aug 2nd 2007<BR/>From The Economist print edition<BR/>Should Tom Cruise star in a film about Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg?<BR/><BR/>“IN MY entire childhood few events were as frequently discussed during supper at home as July 20th 1944,” says Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, a German director who won an Oscar earlier this year for his film about East German spies, “The Lives of Others”. When talk turned to the plotters, led by Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg, who tried to assassinate Hitler on that fateful summer day, his mother, who was normally pretty rational, would cry “I admire nobody more than Stauffenberg, nobody, nobody!” For her generation the Stauffenberg plot was more than a failed plan that cost hundreds of lives, including those who just knew about it. It was the symbol of German resistance against Hitler, proof that in the darkest hours of German history, decency and honour survived.<BR/>AFP Spot the real Stauffenberg (Cruise is on the right)<BR/><BR/>Young Germans still grow up with the hagiography of the plotters, but few outsiders now know who they were. This is likely to change. Two weeks ago in Berlin, Bryan Singer, an American director, began filming “Valkyrie” in which Tom Cruise, one of America's biggest stars, is playing Stauffenberg. When the film is released next year it will almost certainly be a box-office hit: millions of devoted fans watch any film so long as Mr Cruise is in it.<BR/><BR/>In Mr Henckel von Donnersmarck's view, Mr Cruise will do more for Germany's image than ten football World Cups. Yet Berthold von Stauffenberg, the plotter's son, is opposed to the film because he thinks in such cases drama always takes precedence over facts. Some German politicians have protested against the casting of Mr Cruise. And the defence ministry refused to allow filming at the Bendler Block, where Stauffenberg and others were executed, on the ground that the actor is a follower of Scientology, which in Germany is seen as a cult with totalitarian tendencies (it is not banned but is kept under surveillance).<BR/><BR/>But film-goers are aware that film-makers have poetic licence. So long as a director does not distort the essence of the story—a patriotic officer breaks his oath of loyalty to the German army to kill a tyrant—he must be allowed his interpretation of events. And Mr Cruise is an actor, not some contemporary version of Stauffenberg. Nobody, after all, probed Liam Neeson's ethics when he played Oskar Schindler in “Schindler's List”, a film about the man who saved hundreds from death in a concentration camp.<BR/><BR/>The Stauffenberg group will always occupy a special place in German history. They were not perfect: some had the anti-Semitic prejudices common among members of their aristocratic class, others had sympathies for authoritarian regimes. But they gave their lives trying to get rid of one of the most evil regimes in history. As such they should be remembered by as many as possible for as long as possible. A film by one of America's best directors, with one of its most successful actors in the main role, may well help that legacy.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18925963.post-45853372649970229672007-07-04T10:18:00.000+02:002007-07-04T10:18:00.000+02:00Tout à fait d'accord ! J'ai bien peur que ce film ...Tout à fait d'accord ! J'ai bien peur que ce film soit très énervant.. On s'est rencontré la première fois dans le musée de la Résistance, là où les SS résistants du 20 juillet 1944 furent fusillés.. et on avait vu beaucoup de choses à leur gloire avec Camille et tu nous avais dis ce que tu pensais.. et c'est exactement redit là, c'est bien Ben ;) tu restes intègre :DAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com