ANNE FRANK REMEMBERED with Kenneth Branagh and Glenn Close (Video/DVD)($24.95)
21.95
This ground-breaking British documentary offers the most complete biographical account ever compiled of the young Jewish girl whose simple diary entries and observations brought the grim realities of the Holocaust to millions of readers the world over. It includes interviews from survivors who knew her including Peter Pepper, who hid with the Franks, Hanneli Goslar, who befriended Anne and her sister at camp and depicts the Frank girls' last days, and Miep Gies, Otto's employee, who risked her life to help the Franks. It also looks into never before seen family letters, new photographs and even archival footage. Director Jon Blair does a phenomenal job with this carefully detailed, thoughtful, emotional film (his previous documentary on Oskar Schindler so captivated Steven Spielberg that he was inspired to make Schindler's List). Blair unearths a 1980 interview with the only surviving member of the Frank family, Anne's father, Otto, who offers an unpublished portion of her diary. Blair also discovers previously unseen footage of her watching a 1941 wedding, the only known film of Anne to exist; it's a brief, but breathtaking image of a girl who inspired the world. This is all combined with historically accurate recreations of the attic where the refugee Frank family spent two years hiding from the Nazis. Together it all provides a fascinating look into Anna's daily life. At the end, the filmmakers then examine Otto Frank's efforts to preserve his daughter's memory and to keep alive her message of peace. Kenneth Branagh narrates and Glenn Close reads Anne's diary excerpts.
