USA/France/Italy/Austria/Germany/Poland/Russia,
2006, 117 min
Shown in 2007
CREDITS
- dir
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Richard Berge, Bonni Cohen
- prod
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Richard Berge, Bonni Cohen, Nicole Newnham
- scr
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Richard Berge, Bonni Cohen, Nicole Newnham
- cam
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Jon Shenk
- editor
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Josh Peterson
- mus
-
Marco d’Ambrosio
- cast
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Joan Allen (narrator)
- source
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Menemsha Films, 213 Rose Avenue, 2nd Floor, Venice, CA 90291. FAX: 310 452-3740. EMAIL: neilf@menemshafilms.com.
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COMMENTS
Richard Berge, Bonni Cohen and Nicole Newham attended.
OTHER
Based on Lynn H. Nicholas’ award-winning book of the same name, this fascinating documentary is an epic exploration of how failed artist Adolf Hitler looted, plundered and pillaged the great art of Europe during World War II. The multilayered story unfolds over decades, from Hitler’s rejection by Vienna’s Academy of Fine Arts in 1907 to the long legal battle over ownership of Gustav Klimt’s “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer” that was settled only last year. Hitler’s obsession with art was typically megalomaniacal. He planned to seize the works of Old Masters from the collections of conquered nations—keeping a wish list of works he particularly craved—and build a grand museum in his hometown of Linz, Austria to display them. He also wanted to purge the works of “decadent” modernists, and had many of their works destroyed. Jewish collectors, desperate to escape the Third Reich’s clutches, sold many masterpieces for a fraction of their worth; others were stolen by Nazis from hastily abandoned homes. As Nazi troops storm through country after country, the film documents heroic efforts in Paris, Warsaw and Leningrad to hide and save priceless art. After the war, the “Monuments Men”—members of the Allied forces who had some knowledge of art—worked for years to restore damaged artworks and return stolen items to the rightful owners or their heirs. As gripping as a thriller or a detective story, The Rape of Europa is a sweeping chronicle of the battle over the very survival of centuries of Western culture.
—Margarita Landazuri
FACTOID #147
The Coppola clan (Francis, Eleanor, Sofia and Roman) is the family with the most filmmakers represented at the Festival. Films screened include Apocalypse Now (1990); One from the Heart (1990); Lick the Star (1998); The Virgin Suicides (2000); CQ (2002); and On the Set of CQ (2002). (And that’s not even counting onscreen appearances by cousins Nic Cage and Jason Schwartzman.)
