Movies
Taking Sides
The eminent German conductor Wilhelm Furtwangler ("as big as Toscanini, maybe even bigger") undergoes a postwar grilling by a hammerheaded American major about his alleged affiliation with the Nazis: "I'm going to get that fuckin' bandleader!" A stagy statement of complex issues (adapted, after all, from a play by Ronald Harwood), with a couple of own-worst-enemy performances by Harvey Keitel and Stellan Skarsgard as the philistine and the artiste. It's the viewer who will have trouble taking sides. Moritz Bleibtreu, Birgit Minichmayr, Ulrich Tukur; directed by Istvan Szabo. 2003.
Reader Rating:
MPAA Rating: NR
