Film: The Book Thief

Ah now! the eagle-eyed amongst you will say. Wasn't I supposed to be going to Non-Stop tonight? Well, the fact of the matter is, its IMDB rating has plummeted - about 0.1 per day. Which effectively rules it out for this entire week, although it's still rated highly - but how far will it fall before it stabilises? Top of the ratings, then, was The Book Thief. Which is holding its rating. Well, actually, it's tying with Nymphomaniac: Volume I, whose rating has risen. Now, I'm familiar with the films of Lars von Trier. Some I really liked - one (Antichrist) is one of the worst I've ever seen. Either way, the man's films are depressing. The trailer for Nymphomaniac looks depressing. (The reviews say it's the most non-erotic film about sex ever made.) Not that that would stop me, but if I have a decent choice..

So off I popped to the local cinema, again, for The Book Thief. Used my voucher, the one I got here last time - the one without a date printed on it, that they said didn't matter. Turns out.. it doesn't! He happily accepted the voucher, and gave me another. Without a date. Fair enough. Also, I think he might have given me too much of a discount.. I think I might've got the senior discount.. but who's complaining? ;-) He also mentioned that, although he was allocating me a seat, the place was empty and I could really sit wherever I liked. Duh.. In fact, it was several minutes before anyone else arrived at all, and I thought I'd have a private screening. No, there were about six of us in the end. But it was such a large screen that we hardly noticed each other.

Right then. The Book Thief is based, appropriately enough, on a book, and concerns a little girl growing up in Nazi Germany. Her mother is a Communist, and, as such, considers it safer for her little girl to be adopted out to a middle-aged, childless couple with no such smirches on their character (Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson). The child has never learned to read, but when she does, she takes to it with abandon, resorting to stealing a book from a Nazi bonfire. She befriends the Burgermeister's wife, whose son was killed in the war, and who lets her read from their library. When the Burgermeister discovers what's going on, he puts a stop to it, but she manages to find a way to break in, and - not "steals", as she explains to her friend, she "borrows" books. Hence, the book thief. There's also a hidden Jew in her basement, for added drama. The film is mostly in English, with various words and phrases of German thrown in - which really gives a sense of authenticity to, in particular, the book-burning scene, where the speech is delivered entirely in German, in a square draped with swastikas. Truly chilling, and chilling to see people, particularly children, forced to play along.

Which brings me to what I found surprising about this film. You see, I went into this expecting something maybe a little bit schmaltzy. What I got was not what I expected. It's hard to describe. The film I saw tonight was.. sweet. The scenery is gorgeous - snowy landscapes and a picturesque, medieval village. The score was Oscar-nominated. Yes, I know, you can trivialise it and say, well, we have a little blond, blue-eyed girl that everyone's mad about, and nothing bad ever really happens to her, and it's a sanitised version of what the reality was. I've read reviews that have said that. But you know what? I don't think it is. I thought it was an interesting take on a story that's been told many times. I don't think I've ever seen Nazi Germany described by a child living there.

And, honestly, I'm still crying as I write this. The ending is a real tearjerker. It creeps up on you. I see why this is consistently highly rated. But it's more personal than that. Because my daddy would do anything for me, just like Liesel's, and he played the accordion too.. Go see the film, it's a lot better than you'd expect.

Phew. Anyway. Guess what? I'm heading to plays the next two nights! Fancy.. tomorrow night, I could have gone to see The One, at the Soho Theatre, but there was standing room only. Instead, I'm going to.. A Taste of Honey! Yes, this is the one I baulked at when I could only get £50 tickets. Well, I discovered there were all of two cheaper tickets left for tomorrow night. So I'm going, at last. And heading to The One the night after, when I can get a seat!