Woman in Gold
18/04/15 Filed in: Cinema
We saw Woman in Gold this week. A true story of how Maria Altmann, a Jewish refugee, took on the Austrian government to try to reclaim art work that was stolen by the Nazis during the war. She was helped by Randol Schoenberg, a young American lawyer who was himself of Austrian lineage, a fact that led him to an emotional realisation that this was not just another legal case, but something that mattered to him greatly on a personal level.
Reviews have been somewhat mixed but I was interested in seeing the film based on the trailer, and I wasn't disappointed.
It was yet another reminder of atrocities suffered by the Jewish people at the hands of the Nazis, with flashbacks showing us how the Woman in Gold, a painting of Maria's aunt by Gustav Klimt, came to be appropriated from the family home. Maria and her husband escaped the Nazis but she suffered the pain of leaving her parents behind, something that haunted her throughout her life, as revealed towards the end of the film.
Reviews have been somewhat mixed but I was interested in seeing the film based on the trailer, and I wasn't disappointed.
It was yet another reminder of atrocities suffered by the Jewish people at the hands of the Nazis, with flashbacks showing us how the Woman in Gold, a painting of Maria's aunt by Gustav Klimt, came to be appropriated from the family home. Maria and her husband escaped the Nazis but she suffered the pain of leaving her parents behind, something that haunted her throughout her life, as revealed towards the end of the film.
It is a classic David and Goliath story, with the young Schoenberg needing to mature very quickly as the case goes to the American Supreme Court. The court scene is in fact quite amusing, with the senior judge clearly sympathising with the underdogs. Winning in court wasn't, however, the victory that it might have seemed, as it was still possible for the Austrian government to drag out the case for years, and Maria wasn't getting any younger.
In what was a gamble Schoenberg opted to go for arbitration in Austria, a move that was thought to be foolish, as it was felt that no Austrian arbitration panel would agree to release the painting. But in the end it all hinged on morality, and the moral case was very clear.
In what was a gamble Schoenberg opted to go for arbitration in Austria, a move that was thought to be foolish, as it was felt that no Austrian arbitration panel would agree to release the painting. But in the end it all hinged on morality, and the moral case was very clear.