The Book Thief (film)

Movie
German title	The Book Thief
Original title	The Book Thief
Country of production	Germany , ; USA
original language	English , ; German
Publishing year	2013
length	131 minutes
Age rating	FSK 6 ; JMK 12
Rod
Director	Brian Percival
script	Markus Zusak (novel), ; Michael Petroni (adaptation)
production	Ken Blancato , ; Karen Rosenfelt
music	John Williams
camera	Florian Ballhaus
cut	John Wilson
occupation
	Geoffrey Rush : Hans Hubermann; Emily Watson : Rosa Hubermann; Sophie Nélisse : Liesel Meminger; Ben Schnetzer : Max Vandenburg; Nico Liersch : Rudi Steiner; Oliver Stokowski : Alex Steiner; Rainer Bock : Mayor Hermann; Barbara Auer : Ilsa Hermann; Heike Makatsch : Liesel's mother; Roger Allam : narrator, death;

The Book Thief (original title: The Book Thief ) is a US-American - German film drama by director Brian Percival from the year 2013 with Sophie Nélisse in the lead role . It is a literary film adaptation of the novel The Book Thief by Markus Zusak .

action

As an off-voice, Death recounts how nine-year-old Liesel Meminger aroused his interest in April 1938. He dies on a train ride with her mother and younger brother. At the funeral, Liesel found a book next to the grave, a handbook for grave diggers. Liesel then comes to her foster parents Hans and Rosa Hubermann because their mother, a communist, is in danger.

In her new home she impressed the boy next door, Rudi Steiner. He accompanies her on her first day of school. When the teacher asks Liesel to write her name on the blackboard, she can only draw three Xs because she can neither write nor read. She is then teased with "fool" by her schoolmates. But Liesel defends himself. She and Rudi become friends. When her foster father, Hans, notices that Liesel cannot read, he teaches her to read with the help of the gravedigger book. From then on, Liesel goes crazy about books and reads everything she can get her hands on.

Liesel and Rudy get into the Hitler Youth and at a book-burning , forced the Nazis to throw books into the fire. When the people got lost, she took an unburned book and was watched by Ilsa Hermann, the mayor's wife. Hans learns that Liesel has taken a book with her and tells her not to tell anyone about it.

One day Liesel has to deliver the fresh laundry to the mayor. She recognizes the woman who saw her at the stake and is afraid of being betrayed. But Mrs. Hermann shows her the library of the house and tells her that she can come over at any time and read as much as she wants. She had lost her son in World War I, who was never found, and therefore seems to be developing a relationship with Liesel. One day the mayor discovers Liesel in the library. He not only forbids her any further visits, but also dismisses Rosa Hubermann as the laundress. But Liesel continues to "borrow" books from the mayor's library by climbing into the house through a window.

This is followed by the November pogroms with severe to fatal violence against Jews. Max Vandenburg and his mother are in danger and are told by a friend that only one of them can escape. The mother urges Max to leave. He finds shelter with the Hubermanns; Max's father saved Hans's life in the First World War. Initially, Max is allowed to stay in Liesel's room, where he can relax. The two become friends and both hate Hitler; Liesel accuses Hitler of having taken her mother.

The Second World War begins. Max moves to the basement, where he can move around more, but it is very cold there and Max becomes critically ill. Liesel helps him get well by reading to him every free minute.

When Liesel “borrows” a book from the mayor's house one day, Rudi follows her. He discovers the secret of the books and the secret of Max, whose name is on a diary that he gave Liesel for Christmas. Rudi suspects that the Hubermanns are hiding someone, and he swears Liesel not to tell anyone about it. His schoolmate Franz Deutscher overhears Rudi's last words and tries to coax the secret from Rudi. But Rudi throws the notebook into the river. When Franz is gone, Rudi jumps into the icy water and saves the book. Liesel realizes that she can trust Rudi.

Soon after, a man from the NSDAP local group asked to inspect the cellar in the Hubermanns' house. In a hurry, Max is hidden. The man looks around in the basement and then explains that they have checked whether the basement is suitable as an air raid shelter.

One day, Hans sees a Jewish neighbor and friend being picked up by the police. Hans tries to explain to the policeman that the man is a good German, and the man says that his son is fighting for Germany in the war. He is taken away anyway, and the policeman makes a note of Hans' personal details. Hans realizes his mistake; his family is now targeted by the Gestapo . He consults with the family, and Max realizes that he has to flee to protect the Hubermanns. Shortly afterwards, Hans receives a draft notice as an air raider and leaves the house.

On the way home from school one day Liesel sees a group of Jews marching through the city and thinks she has seen Max among them. She calls his name, runs through the ranks. An SS man threw her to the ground twice before she gave up and Rosa accompanied her home.

Hans is injured in an accident when the truck with the air raid fighters overturns at full speed due to a bursting tire. He returns home and for a short time the family is reunited. Hans learns of the courageous behavior of his foster daughter and is proud of her. One night the small town experiences an unexpected bomb attack and the air raid sirens fail. Hans, Rosa and Rudi's family perish in the hail of bombs; only Rudi's father, who had moved in, is spared. Liesel survived because she fell asleep writing a diary in the basement. The seriously injured Rudi is carried onto the street by neighbors. He wants to tell Liesel that he loves her, but he dies before he can finish the sentence. Liesel begs him not to die and gives him the kiss he always wanted her to give, but by then Rudi is already dead. In this scene you can hear the voice of death again, telling the story of the souls of the dead got. A helper picks up the unconscious Liesel and places her on a stretcher. When she comes to, she comes across a book in the rubble and takes it. Then she sees the mayor and Ilsa arrive in the car. Liesel runs up to Ilsa and hugs her.

Two years later, after the American invasion, Liesel is seen working in Rudi's father's tailoring shop, and Max walks in. When Liesel sees him, she is overjoyed that he survived and came back and hugs him.

In the final scene, Death speaks again about Liesel's life and her death as a 90-year-old, mentions her husband, children and grandchildren, while the camera pans through Liesel's modern apartment in New York and pauses on photos and a portrait of Liesel. The narrator doesn't say who Liesel was married to, but does suggest that she was a writer. Death also notes that he has seen many good and bad things over the years, but Liesel was one of the few people with whom he asked himself what it was like to live life. In the end there are no words, only peace. In conclusion, death emphasizes that there is only one truth for him, that he feels "persecuted by people".

background

It is an American-German co-production . The film production companies Fox 2000 Pictures and Studio Babelsberg were involved in the realization of the film .

The shooting of The Book Thief took place from February 28 to April 15, 2013 on the premises of Studio Babelsberg in Potsdam . Various interior sets and a historic train wagon were created there in the studio halls. In addition, the film was shot in the exterior of the studio, for example in “Berliner Straße” , which was given a whole parallel street - the entire Himmelsstraße including the building in which Liesel lives. A few additional scenes were created in Görlitz, Saxony .

The film was first shown to the public on October 3, 2013 at the Mill Valley Film Festival , USA. The launch in select cinemas in the United States was on November 8, 2013. As of November 27, 2013, The Book Thief was shown throughout the United States. The German premiere took place on January 23, 2014 in Berlin's Zoopalast , the nationwide cinema release in Germany took place on March 13, 2014.

While in the English version of the film Roger Allam gives his voice to the narrator, who is not visible in the story, but can only be heard from the off , Ben Becker does this in the German version .

reception

The film The Book Thief was rated differently. On the Rotten Tomatoes website , the film received a positive rating from 50 percent of the reviewers . On the Internet Movie Database pages , the film received 7.6 out of 10 possible points. The related reviews are mostly positive. (As of April 20, 2017)

In its film review, the Frankfurter Rundschau criticizes the "strangely bland street scenes and school situations". The streets would seem empty and pure, even if they were populated. The book burning is not only "historically set too late", but also appears "sterile and strange". Above all, the use of English in books and handwritten text - a concession to the international audience - irritates and creates distance. The product placement in the final scene is also uncomfortable; the film is tiring rather than touching in the long run. However, the filmically haunting encounters between the people in the house are positively emphasized.

In the film review of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung it is said that the pictures of the film are "carefully composed", the swastika flags give "red spots of color in an otherwise gray street" and that little Liesel, like her friend Rudi, is "angelic in beauty". In view of the exquisite pictures, however, one does not remove the dirt and rubble from the city and the scenery would therefore appear artificial. As a result of this stylization, an essential dimension of the original is lost, since this "flat glorification of reading a differentiated representation" is missing. The role of death is "marginalized so much that its sudden appearance at the end of the film suddenly seems completely out of place". It is also criticized that the film does not trust the audience and therefore ultimately does not speak to them.

In its review of the film, Der Spiegel criticizes the overly conciliatory tone of the film, which "with the cozy gold and brown tones of Florian Ballhaus' camera and the neat staging of bomb victims and transports of Jews" only muted the horror of war and fails because of it to translate Zusak's literary source appropriately. The horrors of the Second World War would "fall victim to a romantic imagery in Hollywood cinema". Brian Percival's film makes no effort to reproduce the “fine balance between distance and proximity” in Zusak's book; he is content with the comforting.

The Süddeutsche Zeitung writes in its film review that the director Brian Percival made a "solid, conventional film" out of the book thief ; however, the film adaptation would probably have been more thrilling if he had tried to get more out of the narrative perspective of death or of the village Nazis.

Hans Schifferle from epd Film awarded 3 out of 5 stars. There are “great crane trips”, “bombastic music”, “a soundscape of emotions” and “an elaborate production design”. And yet "this international cinema craft that aims at strong emotions" seems "suddenly powerless and in vain and even wrong: as if a cinematic icing had settled on the memory of the Nazi era and the Holocaust."