HANNAH ARENDT

Barbara Sukowa as Hannah Arendt contemplating the controversy that her reporting of the Eichmann trials in the New York Times caused
Barbara Sukowa as Hannah Arendt contemplating the controversy that her reporting of the Eichmann trial held in Jerusalem in 1961 for the New York Times caused

Although it is not ideal it seems appropriate that, as I review a film whose subject and production polarised readers and viewers respectively, I am prompted to use two conflicting perspectives.

The subject whose name is also the film’s title was also conflicted by two perspectives of Adolf Eichmann when, at his trial in Jerusalem in 1961, she tries to reconcile the terrible crimes committed and the unexpected persona he presents. “Expecting to find a monster…she finds a nobody.” It’s a fascinating story about profoundly important ideas that are as thought provoking now as they were fifty years ago.

Margarette von Trotta’s production unfortunately, to this reviewer’s mind, does not always live up to the worthy subject. The script seemed  to swing between stark and edgy, when dealing directly with her husband Heinrich’s illness or the dark consequences of Hannah’s submission of her manuscript to the New Yorker editor and clumsy, even trite when showing us Hannah’s vulnerable, human side. Some of the dialogue in the ‘party’ scenes, for example, was distracting if not cringe worthy. (I’m sure Mary McCarthy never really said: “Them’s fightin’ words!” did she? And did they really play pub Pool like that?!)

The two main female characters, Hannah and Mary McCarthy were both in 1963 widely criticised and attacked for literary work and Mary stuck with Hannah through the dramas ahead. Unfortunately Janet McTeer’s (McCarthy) didn’t stick with Barbara Sukowa’s (Arendt) in the two pivotal roles. The male characters were more convincing in the main apart from a couple of scenes from the (University of Chicago?) faculty. Alex Milberg, Ulrich Noethen and Michael Degen were stand outs

In spite of the above weaknesses, HANNAH ARENDT held my interest because of the importance of its subject. This is definitely a must see.