Chris Knipp Writing: Movies, Politics, Art


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PostPosted: Tue Apr 21, 2015 6:36 am 
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ROBERT SHEEHAN AND ELINE POWELL IN ANITA B.

A girl who survived the Holocaust

She's a Nazi death camp survivor in her early teens, running away from a Hungarian orphanage to join her aunt, Monika (Andrea Osvárt). Eli (Irish up-and-comer Robert Sheehan), Monika's young brother-in-law, meets Anita (Eline Powell, of Dustin Hoffman's Quartet) at the border to accompany her on a train trip through Czechoslovakia to her Silesian town of Tiszabercel. Anita B. was adapted by Italian director Roberto Faenza from a 2009 semi-autobiographical novel by Edith Steinschreiber Bruck. Bruck's tale provides a new angle on the Holocaust, showing its aftermath through the eyes of a girl who, for those around her, is alternately a reminder of events they're eager to forget, or someone to be exploited. Whatever the flaws of Anita B., a curiously saccharine tale set in Hungary but shot in Italy in English, it could serve as an accessible lesson on the Holocaust for young adults, and reportedly has been seen by thousands of Italian schoolchildren (dubbed in Italian, of course).

Eline Powell, a round-faced, high-cheekboned RADA graduate, is a total charmer. So is the handsome young Irish actor Robert Sheehan. Eli is eager to foist his sexual charms upon Anita, and he succeeds, after she has grown stronger. No one wants to hear about Anita's experiences in the camps; she can only tell them to her baby nephew . She can't go out till she gets her papers, and Monika, coldest to her, puts he to work as a servant and nanny in the house. Eventually, she's sent to a sewing factory, where she meets sweet and soulful fellow Jewish survivor David (charmer Nico Mirallegro, Johnny Proude in the Upstairs Downstairs revival). He too has lost his parents, intellectuals who committed suicide to avoid the camps.

Eli is an irresistible predator; he and Anita sleep in the same room. In time he gets her pregnant, and he insists on an abortion, slapping her hard in the street when she refuses -- though his character is softened from the book, as everyone is. There are very nice men in this movie. Aron (Antonio Cupo), Monika's husband, protects Anita from his wife's cruelty. David is adorable. The benevolent rabbi Zio Jacob (Moni Ovadia) is a bubbly, benevolent protector. Even Eli is likeable. His wooing includes trips to feed a pretty horse carrots (this movie is irresistible!) and a box of chocolates brought to Anita in bed. Best of all is the abortion doctor in Prague (Clive Riche), a real angel. And Anita goes off to the promised land.

Edith Bruck, who settled in Italy in 1954 and has written many books in Italian, indeed lived a complex fairytale life, as her Italian Wikipedia biography will tell you. But she wrote the book Faenza has adapted over sixty years after the events. They have turned into a YA novel. I can understand the IMDb comment-writers who rave about how wonderful this movie is. It is sweet, sad, and hopeful and would make a great musical. But I have to agree with the Italian writer who said this illustrates the sadly all-too-prevalent blandness of Italian cinema today. Nonetheless the notion that a Holocaust survivor could be seen as a very poor relation to be exploited and an undesirable reminder is an original one for most of us.

Anita B., 88 mins., is adapted from Bruck's Quanta stella c'è nel cielo ("How Many Star Is There in the Sky," (the title is a line from a poem by Hungarian writer Sandor Petofi). The film entered theaters in Israel and Italy in January 2014. It opens in New York 24-30 April at Quad Cinema.

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©Chris Knipp. Blog: http://chrisknipp.blogspot.com/.


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