When director Ari Folman (“Waltz with Bashir”) was first approached about tackling an Anne Frank movie nearly a decade ago, he immediately refused. He thought everything had been done before, there was nothing left to explore. But the Anne Frank Fonds Basel, the Swiss non-profit that holds the copyright to her diary, wore down his resistance. And so did Folman’s mother, who was an Auschwitz Holocaust survivor.
“I realized that if something will not change in the way we teach young children about the past, it will fade. It will look to them like ancient history,” said Folman. “Eventually, I read the diary again. I was intrigued about the possibilities of using animation to tell this story. My demands were to animate it, to make it for children, and to portray the last seven months of Anne Frank’s life in the camps [Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen], which is a story that has never been told artistically.
“I realized that if something will not change in the way we teach young children about the past, it will fade. It will look to them like ancient history,” said Folman. “Eventually, I read the diary again. I was intrigued about the possibilities of using animation to tell this story. My demands were to animate it, to make it for children, and to portray the last seven months of Anne Frank’s life in the camps [Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen], which is a story that has never been told artistically.
- 9/24/2021
- by Bill Desowitz
- Indiewire
The Israeli director Ari Folman rose to international fame at Cannes, where his feted Waltz With Bashir was a rare animated film that competed for the Palme d’Or. Its daring use of rotoscope imagery to explore trauma in the Lebanon War might have led to assume something equally provocative in exploring the horrors of the Holocaust.
Where is Anne Frank, however, premieres out of competition and, although led with good intentions, it is a film laden with heavy-handed storytelling and a tendency to didacticism that would make Brecht blush. It may be a film for children, and one that tries to sincerely link the darkest moments of history with current political issues for a younger generation, but Folman, the child of Auschwitz survivors, makes some big missteps.
The opening frames show a rainy near future Amsterdam, with a line of tourists waiting for entry to the Anne Frank Museum...
Where is Anne Frank, however, premieres out of competition and, although led with good intentions, it is a film laden with heavy-handed storytelling and a tendency to didacticism that would make Brecht blush. It may be a film for children, and one that tries to sincerely link the darkest moments of history with current political issues for a younger generation, but Folman, the child of Auschwitz survivors, makes some big missteps.
The opening frames show a rainy near future Amsterdam, with a line of tourists waiting for entry to the Anne Frank Museum...
- 7/19/2021
- by Ed Frankl
- The Film Stage
Following his live-action/animation hybrid The Congress in 2013, Waltz with Bashir director Ari Folman is finally returning this year with his long-awaited project Where Is Anne Frank. Now set to premiere at Cannes Film Festival, the first trailer has arrived for the adaptation of Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl. Notably, the film features music from Karen O and Mgmt’s Ben Goldwasser, which can be heard in the trailer.
The film, which takes place in the near future follows Kitty, Anne Frank’s imaginary friend and the one that Anne devoted her entire diary to, who magically comes to life at the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam. She believes that if she’s alive, Anne must be alive as well. She sets out on a relentless quest to find Anne.
Watch the trailer below for the film featuring the voices of Emily Carey, Ruby Stokes, Sebastian Croft,...
The film, which takes place in the near future follows Kitty, Anne Frank’s imaginary friend and the one that Anne devoted her entire diary to, who magically comes to life at the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam. She believes that if she’s alive, Anne must be alive as well. She sets out on a relentless quest to find Anne.
Watch the trailer below for the film featuring the voices of Emily Carey, Ruby Stokes, Sebastian Croft,...
- 7/7/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
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