Taking Sides 2001

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ژانر: درام، آهنگ، جنگی

In Berlin at the end of World War II, Wilhelm Furtwängler (Stellan Skarsgård) is conducting Ludwig van Beethovens 5th Symphony when yet another Allied air raid stops the performance. A minister in the Nazi government comes to Furtwänglers dressing room to advise him that he should go abroad, and escape the war. The film then jumps to some time after the Allied victory. U.S. Army General Wallace (R. Lee Ermey) tells Major Steve Arnold (Harvey Keitel) to get Furtwängler at his denazification hearing: Find Wilhelm Furtwängler guilty. He represents everything that was rotten in Germany. Arnold gets an office with Lt. David Wills (Moritz Bleibtreu), a German-American Jew, and Emmaline Straube (Birgit Minichmayr), daughter of an executed member of the German resistance. Arnold questions several musicians, many of whom know Emmalines father and say that Furtwängler refused to give Adolf Hitler the Nazi salute. Arnold begins interrogating Furtwängler, asking why he didnt leave Germany in 1933 like so many other musicians. Why he had played for Hitlers birthday? Why he had played at a Nazi rally? Why his recording of Anton Bruckners 7th Symphony was used on the radio after Hitlers death? Arnold gets a second violinist to tell him about Furtwänglers womanizing and the conductors professional jealousy of Herbert von Karajan. In a subplot, Arnold is assisted by a young Jewish U.S. Army lieutenant. The young officer begins to have sympathy for the conductor, as does the young German woman who works as a clerk in their office. This causes friction between Arnold and his subordinates. In a voice-over, Arnold explains that Furtwängler was exonerated at the later hearings but boasts that his questioning winged him. Footage of the real Furtwängler shows him shaking hands with Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels after a concert. The conductor surreptitiously wipes his hands with a cloth after touching the Nazi.