Life? or Theatre? / Charlotte - 2-DVD Set ( Leven? Of Theater )

Life? or Theatre? / Charlotte - 2-DVD Set (DVD) (*)

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Original Title: Leven? Of Theater
Screened, competed or awarded at:
Other Film Festival Awards

Language Selections:
Dutch ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
Dutch ( Dolby Digital 5.1 )
Dutch ( Subtitles )
English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
English ( Dolby Digital 5.1 )
French ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
French ( Dolby Digital 5.1 )
French ( Subtitles )

Product Origin/Format:
Netherlands ( PAL/Region 2 )

Running Time:
191 min

Aspect Ratio:
Anamorphic Widescreen (1.78:1)

Special Features:
2-DVD Set
Anamorphic Widescreen
Interactive Menu
Scene Access

Movie filmed in 1981 - 2012 and produced in:
France ( France, Benelux )
Germany ( Germany, Central Europe )
Netherlands ( France, Benelux )
United States ( USA, Canada )

Directed By:
Frans Weisz

Written By:
Judith Herzberg
Frans Weisz

Actors:
Birgit Doll ..... Charlotte Salomon
Elisabeth Trissenaar ..... Paulinka
Brigitte Horney ..... Grandma
Max Croiset ..... Albert
Peter Capell ..... Grandfather
Derek Jacobi ..... Daberlohn
Buddy Elias ..... Herr Schwartz
Peter Faber ..... Frits Blech
Eric Vaessen ..... Herr Deutscher
Maria Machado ..... Frau Schwartz
Shireen Strooker ..... Mukki
Lous Hensen ..... Frau Deutscher
Yoka Berretty ..... Frau Morgan
Patricia Hodge ..... Teacher
Irene Jarosch ..... Magda
Leonard Frank ..... Alexander Loebler
Shaun Lawton ..... Reporter
Ton Lensink ..... Dr. Moridini
Johanna Sophia ..... Gisela
Harke de Roos ..... Dirigent

Synopsis:

Life? or Theatre? (2012)
Life? or Theatre? That is the name Charlotte Salomon (Berlin 1917 - Auschwitz 1943) gave to her autobiography, which comprised more than 700 paintings. Just before she was deported she gave it to a friend and said: 'Keep this safe, it is my whole life!' While the feature film 'Charlotte' (1980) was being made, Charlotte's stepmother Paula Salomon-Lindberg handed the makers a letter that had never been published, but she asked them not to use the content of the letter in the film. In this letter, written to her one great love, Charlotte describes the circumstances in which 'Life? or Theatre? came about and provides us with an insight into the 'real' Charlotte and into the meaning of the question marks in Life? or Theatre?

Charlotte (1981)
In 1939, Charlotte Salomon leaves Berlin to seek refuge at her grandparents' villa in the south of France. A little later, war breaks out, and Charlotte must, besides forgetting all she left behind, deal with her grandmother's depression, and her mother's suicide. To fight despair, Charlotte starts to paint, producing over 1,000 images. 'Is my life real, or is it theater?' This is the title she gives her body of work, which highlights her former life in Berlin. She finds herself through her art, but in 1943 is deported to Germany and Auschwitz.

Life? or Theatre? (2012)
In this documentary, Dutch filmmaker Frans Weisz traces the life of Charlotte Salomon, a German Jewish painter who defied the Nazi regime as a teenager by staying in Berlin and attending art school until 1938, when she was sent to live with her grandparents in southern France. In exile, torn by fear and depression but driven by fiercely creative energy, she produced over 700 pages of drawings and writing, including a lyrical drama from which the film title draws its name. In a mosaic-style account, Weisz, born just over a decade after Salomon, pieces together a life cut tragically short in Auschwitz. Thirty years after the release of his original film about the artist, this work explores her legacy from a new perspective with a previously unpublished letter written in exile.

Charlotte (1981)
Weisz learned that Salomon's opus had been carefully protected during the Occupation and eventually delivered to her parents, who had survived the war in Holland. They, in turn, bequeathed the work to the Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam. At an early stage of his research process, Charlotte's stepmother gave Weisz a letter the artist had written to her lover 35 years earlier.

This product was added to our catalog on Tuesday 02 October, 2012.

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