Anne Frank Remembered

As good as Schindler's List was, I found this movie much more powerful as it is a documentary and based on real life. It details the story of the Frank family, and Anne in particular. Although it is a bit slow moving at first (detailing their family life before the war); it becomes very powerful.

Due to some of the footage and photos of the camps, I would not recommend it for children but for adults, it illustrates the horror of the Holocaust through one young girl. Highly recommended.

Through the years I've been very much interested in the life of this teenager who left such a profound, indelible mark on the world. My fascination has also been born of fear, as in, could this happen again.

And throughout the ensuing years, yes, I fear 'it' continues to happen around us and of course 'it' was happening long before Anne. The 'it' of course is can a so-called civilized society turn on its own or on an innocent country/race/continent and murder citizens in cold blood on the flimsiest of excuses? I leave that question out there.

At the beginning of the documentary there is a statement about the leader Adolf Hitler in that the one profound fact about Hitler that is never mentioned was that he was elected democratically and all of the atrocities committed were done as the result of a compliant poodle-press and fear-mongering propaganda played over and over again for a docile population.

One of the atrocities was Anne Frank, who put a face to the death camps by the miracle of her diary's survival.

Kenneth Brannagh does a wonderful job on the commentary and interviewing, he has that rare gift of minimizing his own persona thus allowing the subjects to speak for themselves.

Many new facts and people never before interviewed are brought to life in the meticulous research, which I will not go into here as they add immeasurably to the reality and gut wrenching sorrow of the film.

Glenn Close reads selections from the diary and her voice is perfect for the part, she brings a naiveté and freshness to the role.

Old childhood friends of Anne's are interviewed at length and her last days before death are well recorded and witnessed along with her vibrant and mischievous personality.

This is not to be missed. A wonderful and respectful film about the seldom seen Anne.

10 out of 10.

Your comment is completely false, her diary has been proved to be authentic. Don't know why there are people like you who lie and want to say otherwise. Suppose every site has it's trolls and idiots.

Anyway this is a brilliant and moving documentary that should be seen by all. Includes interviews of people that knew Anne Frank and members of her family.

Also try and see the BBC's Diary of Anne Frank which is a brilliant 5 part mini series that follows her time in hiding.

The film Anne Frank: The whole story is quite good too and deals with her life before hiding, during hiding and after capture.

This is a film that every child should see before they grow and get distorted often passed down ideas from generation to generation of family. I grew up in two different places although only 20 miles apart. I went to school & had friends of every color creed & religion for the first 8 years of my life. Then I moved to hillbilly country (although not anymore) where it was very unusual to even have one African-American kid in your class. My graduating class in high school had 2 or 3 African-Amercians (god why can't I just say Black? You can call me a honky or whitey or whatever! all of this political correctness peeves me as it does most others!) Anyway back to the film give this a try to see what happens when people get a distorted view or just what ignorance or a lack of understanding does to a culture or a country! This is an excellent film everyone should see especially children.

The first half, that deals with the Frank family hiding in the upper floors of Mr. Frank's business, is very well done but does not really add anything to what we already know, especially if we have seen George Stevens' film or read Anne Frank's diary. It is when this very sobering documentary follows the Franks to the death camps of Auschwitz and Bergen Belsen (just to type the names induces chills) that the film becomes terrifyingly riveting and, for me, eye opening. There is a protective temptation with this particular family to freeze them at that moment when their hiding place is discovered so that they can somehow go from discovery to immortality, without having to undergo the intervening horror. Well, director John Blair will have none of that as he slowly guides us through various Nazi hellscapes to see what befell not only the Franks but millions of Jews, accompanied by stark images of barracks, guard towers and corpses and the calm, somber, and at times devastated voices of the death camp survivors. A quite shattering experience. A minus.

PS...Almost forgot to mention Kenneth Branagh's very good narration, which is serious without being stagey. Only time I've ever liked Branagh.