Friday, April 19, 2024
Miles from the Mainstream
D. R. ZUKERMAN, proprietor
LPR At The Movies

MARCH 13, 2007 --

Thanks to Google," LPR found a TIME magazine article,"Comrade Scarpia," about a modern dress version of Puccini's "Tosca," staged in Cleveland in 1957, with
the action taking place in an unnamed country behind the Iron Curtain.

In this version, Scarpia was the head of the secret police--Tosca (whose first name is Floria) was played by Beverly Sills.

Now, the German writer/director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, with his award-winning "The Lives of Others" has given us an expanded modern version of the Puccini opera (based, in turn, on the 1887 play, "La Tosca" by Victorien Sardou, with Sarah Bernhardt in
the title role.) Scarpia is now the East German culture minister, Cavarodossi-- the playwright George Dreyman, Tosca -- the actress Christa-Maria Sieland -- and Stasi captain Gerd Wiesler in the much expanded role of Spoletta.

Victor Grossman, in the online Political Affairs, which calls itself "Marxist." dismissed the film as a politically-correct vehicle in today's world and defended East Germany as a place where there was full
employment, free child care and health coverage for all. Most reviewers, however, have praised this movie.

"The Lives of Others" got the Oscar, last month, for best foreign language film and LPR wonders if Hollywood meant to signal that its liberal bias does not go so far as to support state restrictions on art.

LPR has seen reports, online, that Jenny Grollmann, an East German actress (d. 2006) informed to the Stasi (security police) on Ulrich Muhe (Capt. Wiesler), her husband of six years.

In "The Lives of Others." Muhe plays a Stasi captain who persuades actress Sieland (Martina Gedeck) to inform on Dreyman (Sebastian Koch).

LPR expects that this film will increase interest in German movies and German actors. LPR does not expect, however, that the film will prompt inquiry in the media how freedom activists, behind the Iron Curtain, regarded the protesting left in the west.

(BTW -- March 11 is a key date in the movie; LPR happened to see the film on… March 11 -- as LPR saw "Breach," on February 18, the day (in 2001) when
Robert Hanssen was arrested (same day as Dale Earnhardt was killed at Daytona).