Tynan's Anger

If you're as sick as Holocaust films as I am (I was raised to regard Schindler's List as Disney Does the Holocaust), you owe it to yourself to see the Counterfeiters. It's the only Holocaust film I can think of that completely inverts the traditional structure, with a tough, no-bullshit Russian Jew subtly manipulating the S.S. to keep him and his fellow prisoners alive. There are so many ways this could have been fucked up, but director Stefan Ruzowitzky helms the film brilliantly. Who would have thought that arguably the most mature Holocaust film ever made would come from Austria? Ruzowitzky has an excellent article in The Guardian addressing the larger political implications of the film in his native Austria, as well as how he expects it to be received in the U.S. and U.K. So far the reception has generally been good, but not good enough in my mind.

Labels: schindler's list, stefan ruzowitzky, the counterfeiters, the guardian