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Harvey Karten's Reviews

Review: The Rape of Europa

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#1 of 1 Posted 8/30/07 10:28 PM

From Harveycritic Posts 1637 Last Jan-30
To All [Msg # 22610.1 ]

THE RAPE OF EUROPA

Reviewed for CompuServe by Harvey S. Karten
Menemsha Films
Grade: B+
Directed by:    Richard Berge, Bonni Cohen, Nicole Newnham
Written By: Richard Berge, Bonni Cohen, Nicole Newnham from book by Lynn H. Nicholas
Cast:   Joan Allen, narrator
Screened at: Review 2, NYC, 8/30/07
Opens: September 14, 2007

Sixty-two years after the defeat of the Axis forces in World War II, movies and books about the Nazi regime are still a powerful attraction for readers and cinephiles. As long as documentaries and fiction films each treat a different aspect of the phenomena of the Holocaust and the war, such pics are essential viewing, even if they’re over-the-top melodramas like the vivid, engrossing “Black Book.” “The Rape of Europa” treats the German aggressors with an original look: that of Hitler’s treatment of the art works of the European countries his forces occupied, many of which were stolen from museums and homes of wealthy, Jewish collectors. The topic is far from dated given the ongoing controversy over whether some immensely valuable paintings should be returned to their original owners or to the museum from which they originated.

In this documentary by Richard Berge, Bonni Cohen and Nicole Newnham, the writer-directors intricately weave archival clips from the war into recent talking-heads interviews and still photos which graphically show the destruction wrought by Germany 1939-1945 in a war that resulted in fifty million deaths, and also the bombings by allied forces that virtually leveled major areas of Germany. The doc is narrated in a matter-of-fact tone (some would say static) by Joan Allen, featuring interviews by mostly older Europeans, children when they witnessed the massive destruction of buildings and robberies of paintings, and also by folks who were museum curators, some of whom had to pack up the treasures of their collections swiftly to avoid theft by approaching German armies.

Among the insights that any high-school kid should be able to tell you about is the thought that the war, which began under the charismatic leadership of the 20th century’s greatest villain, might have been averted entirely if Hitler’s application to the Vienna School of Fine Arts had not been rejected. Hitler was deemed by the admissions officials to be of mediocre, though not terrible, talent: we see some of his early canvases, not available to the general public because of their controversy-arousing potential–and to my eyes, they did not look bad at all. If only the Vienna officials were not such snobs! Also suggested is that many of the judges on the admissions committee were Jewish, a fact that would have increased Hitler’s already voracious anti-Semitism.

Hitler, then, already possessing an interest in painting, was determined to steal what he could, much of the loot–1,700 works of art in fact–winding up in Hermann Goering’s hunting lodge–while others which Hitler considered degenerate such as the surreal and even some impressionists condemned to literal fire.

Among the most intense scenes is that of Parisians getting together to transport the treasures of the Louvre out of Paris and into hiding places, with particular emphasis on the carrying of the huge, two-millennia-old “Winged Victory” statue down the stairs of the museum where one fall might have broken the sculpture in a thousand pieces.

Every time that Hitler himself is seen staring admiringly at a work of the Old Masters, one thinks, “Yes, the Germans are a people with a history of culture,” while at the same time one wonders how this Central European nation could have committed some of the worst atrocities of all time.
The film will be of particular interest to patrons of art history, to war freaks, and to cinephiles able to admire a well-done piece of celluloid on a neatly focused niche of history.

Not Rated.    117 minutes   © 2007 by Harvey Karten Member: NY Film Critics Online

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Harvey Karten's Reviews

Review: The Rape of Europa

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