Tomorrow is the first proper screening of our new season and we will be showing The Book Thief. I've not read the novel , but it's a film I've wanted to see for a while - despite the less than enthusiastic reviews.
After binging on WW1 history books recently I've now moved on to Nazi Germany and after finishing The Origins of the Third Reich, which covered German history from unification through to 1932/33, the second volume - The Third Reich in Power - covers the period up to war in 1939. The final volume The Third Reich at War covers the period from 1939 to the end of the Third Reich, and that is next on my reading list. The books are all masterpieces of research and writing and put the whole terrible history of the rise of Hitler and the Nazis into fascinating context.
Hence this film has come along at an opportune time.
As I could few reviews that could offer positive headline quotes I've selected a few anti-Nazi (and anti anyone else who burns books for political or ideological reasons) quotations instead.
Here are my notes:
“You see these
dictators on their pedestals, surrounded by the bayonets of their soldiers and
the truncheons of their police. Yet in
their hearts there is unspoken - unspeakable! - fear. They are afraid of words and thoughts! Words spoken abroad, thoughts stirring at
home, all the more powerful because they are forbidden. These terrify them. A little mouse - a little tiny mouse! - of
thought appears in the room, and even the mightiest potentates are thrown into
panic."
Brian Percival started his career with the BBC where he directed several prestige projects including adaptations of North and South, The Ruby in the Smoke and The Old Curiosity Shop. Since then he has worked for ITV where he has directed six episodes of Downton Abbey. The Book Thief is his first film.
Here's the trailer:
And here's the sound track
After binging on WW1 history books recently I've now moved on to Nazi Germany and after finishing The Origins of the Third Reich, which covered German history from unification through to 1932/33, the second volume - The Third Reich in Power - covers the period up to war in 1939. The final volume The Third Reich at War covers the period from 1939 to the end of the Third Reich, and that is next on my reading list. The books are all masterpieces of research and writing and put the whole terrible history of the rise of Hitler and the Nazis into fascinating context.
Hence this film has come along at an opportune time.
As I could few reviews that could offer positive headline quotes I've selected a few anti-Nazi (and anti anyone else who burns books for political or ideological reasons) quotations instead.
Here are my notes:
The
Book Thief
USA 2013 131
minutes
Director: Brian
Percival
Starring: Roger Allam, Sophie
Nelisse, Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson
Awards
and Nominations
- Nominated
for Oscar for Best Score (John Williams)
- 3
wins for Sophie Nelisse
- A
further 4 nominations.
Heinrich
Heine (1797-1856)
Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
In Nazi Germany
Liesel (Sophie Nelisse),
an illiterate young orphan is taken in by foster parents Hans (Geoffrey Rush)
and Rosa (Emily Watson). Liesel learns
to read and after witnessing a Nazi book burning begins to steal books to
read. Her story is narrated by Death (Roger
Allam) and he finally tells what happened to Liesel after she survived the war.
The film is based on
the Young Adult novel of the same name by Australian author Marcus Zusak that
was on the New York Times Best Seller List for more than four years. However although a work of fiction the story
is set against genuine historical events: from the time that it consolidated
its seizure of power in 1933 the Nazis instituted book-burning campaigns
against authors whose work was deemed subversive or which undermined Nazi
ideology; Kristallnacht was a Nazi pogrom
against Jews in both Germany and Austria in November 1938; and the Second World
War broke out in September 1939.
Brian Percival started his career with the BBC where he directed several prestige projects including adaptations of North and South, The Ruby in the Smoke and The Old Curiosity Shop. Since then he has worked for ITV where he has directed six episodes of Downton Abbey. The Book Thief is his first film.
Here's the trailer:
And here's the sound track
