Transatlantic

This is a fascinating story based on real people and real events circa Marseille, France in 1940.

I always thought it was only Oscar Schindler, the German industrialist and member of the Nazi Party, who saved 1,200 Jews from the German concentration camps.

But American journalist Varian Fry and his colleagues succeeded in facilitating the escape of Europe's virtual brain trust, including famous Jewish artists, from the advancing Wehrmacht in 1940-October 1941.

The limited series narrates remarkably how Fry, Mary Jayne Gold, Albert Hirschmann, Lisa Fittko and Hiram Bigham accomplished a difficult task relying mainly on the financial heft of heiress Ms. Gold.

What is particularly interesting and entertaining is the fact that the famous refugees are given parts to play. Personalities like German surrealist painter Max Ernst, Jewish economist Albert Hirschmann, Jewish painter Marc Chagall, Jewish philosopher Walter Benjamin, Russian anti-Stalinist Victor Serge, political scientist Hannah Arendt (who's considered one of the most influential political theorists in the 20th century and who was married to Benjamin's cousin Gunther Anders), and German satirist and writer Walter Mehring. Throw American art collector par excellence Peggy Guggenheim into the mix and you have a totally whimsical brew. (By the way, Peggy married Ernst later.)

Such an assemblage of individuals, at wartime, is awesome.

This makes the movie the refugees' story. There are unforgettable scenes involving the 2 Walters (Benjamin and Mehring) but it would be tantamount to spoilers.

Storytelling is straightforward but engaging without a hint of the past which forces the inquisitive to dig deeper and consult Google for additional information. Somehow, this enriches the viewing experience. But action is consistent and there are tense moments to be sure. It ebbs and flows but the viewer isn't distracted.

As mentioned in the beginning, this is a story based on real people and events. But creators Anna Winger and Daniel Hendler took the liberty of adding plot elements that don't have basis in fact but intended to embellish the story arc. It's up to the viewer to find out what these are in the spirit of fun

Gillian Jacobs, Cory Michael Smith, Lucas Englander and Cory Stoll nail their parts.

Overall, it's a watchable, informative film with great entertainment value.

I am glad to finally see the tale told of the sad loss of the brilliant Walter Benjamin as WWII escalated, but yet somehow the story of his brilliance and then the brilliance of all the other famous artists in the tale, does not do them justice. These figures are lost to some other intent in the construction of this story...this history needs to be told, but somehow this telling is missing authenticity, it sacrifices this for the sake of finding 2020 in 1940.

It is never the less help ful to see the enactments, the tale of these brave efforts does need to be told, especially of the almost misses, the ways in which the US came too close to not helping the struggle.

I really wanted to like this limited series. The historical characters-artists, writer-thinkers, philosophers-are familiar and deserve far better. A telling indicator of the empty-calories production: Despite the compelling, emotional historical narrative, the characters are too often one-dimensional. One of the most pivotal and horrific events in modern history and all we get is superficial treatment of those events and characters who engage only minimally with those events.

If I didn't know anything about this historical period and relied on this series to learn about it, I'd think these characters, targeted by Nazis and fascists, did little more than party, drink, smoke, and engage in lots of self-promotion driven by a self-absorbed lack of awareness about the monumental events unfolding around them. There are few, if any, genuinely sympathetic characters in what should have been a production filled with such. I'll stick with Casablanca's fictional take. But the series' photography is *gorgeous* and reflects the artistry that defines some of the principal characters' work.

The Netflix series is based on real life events in Marseilles, France during the early days of WW II. Dark times, indeed, from an historical view. But, somehow, "Transatlantic" comes across more like a collection of ingénues and eccentrics on a madcap adventure, rather than as a literal life and death struggle against fascism. The tone of this series is set by a soundtrack that hit me every which way but right; the overall effect was like watching a strange, inappropriate homage to a Woody Allen period piece comedy. Kudos to the cast, though, which manages at times to rise above it all with some excellent performances; and the on-location cinematography adds authenticity to the historical weight of the storyline. "Transatlantic" may be the only series you should watch with the audio muted and the captions on, because what happened is worth knowing so that it is not forgotten, or repeated.

This series started very strong, sympathetic lead characters, beautiful cinematography, great set design and an interesting mixture of authentic historical events and fictional elements.

I really appreciated they created a series about the idealism and deep humanity of personalities like Varian Fry and Lisa Fittko, who risked their own lifes to save so many others. They were true heroes, lights in the darkness of their time and should serve as Role Models for our days, which are tumbling into darker times once again.

It made me think about the refugee crisis of our times.

With the difference that now refugees aren't trying to escape from Europe but try to get there desperately to find a better living.

I just couldn't give it a higher rating because script got thinner in the later episodes, being watered down by too many annoying and flat melodramatic cliches.