Susan Granger’s review of “Taking Sides” (New Yorker Films)
Can art ever be separated from politics? That’s the pivotal question in Istvan Szabo’s controversial drama about Wilhelm Furtwangler, the world-renowned conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic orchestra under the Third Reich. When Adolf Hitler took power in 1933, many Jewish artists fled from Germany. Others were forced out. Some barely escaped and, among them, were musicians aided by Furtwangler, who enjoyed the privilege of being Adolf Hitler’s favorite. Immediately after the war, Furtwangler was suspected of being a Nazi collaborator. Major Steve Arnold (Harvey Keitel) of the American Denazification Committee is dispatched to gather war crimes evidence against Furtwangler. Assigned to help the brash, self-righteous American are a German Jewish assistant (Moritz Bleibtreu), whose parents died in the camps, and a secretary (Birgit Minichmayr), whose father was executed for plotting against Hitler. During his interrogation, the weary, soft-spoken Furtwangler (Stellan Skarsgard) insists he’s a principled patriot who refused to leave his country, preferring, instead, to subtly protest from within while, at the same time, accepting honorary titles from Goebbels and Goering. Raising a series of moral and ethical questions, screenwriter Ronald Harwood (“The Pianist”) has adapted the real-life Furtwangler story from his stage play, which is reflected in the inherent claustrophobia of its theatrical confinement. Despite horrific film clips of Nazi atrocities, along with Keitel’s ranting and raving, the end result is surprisingly bland and ambiguous. All in all, Szabo’s “Sunshine” (1999) was more effective. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Taking Sides” is a flawed but fascinating 7. The problem with “Taking Sides” is that it never does.
