Film Forum

The luminous Barbara Sukowa stars as the brilliant German-Jewish emigree Hannah Arendt (1906 - 1975) – sent to cover Adolf Eichmann’s trial in Jerusalem by legendary New Yorker editor William Shawn. Arendt’s writings become one of the most important and controversial books ever produced on the Holocaust: Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (published in 1963). A veritable hornet’s nest of ugly accusations, recriminations, and counter-charges greets Arendt’s proposition that ordinary people are capable of the vile acts for which Eichmann stands justly accused. Janet McTeer plays novelist Mary McCarthy, Arendt’s loyal friend who comes to her defense. Von Trotta’s movie manages to be both a deeply serious and wildly entertaining look at the lives and loves of a bevy of New York’s most famed intellectuals during the 1950s and ‘60s. Working with longtime co-screenwriter Pamela Katz, she brings a practiced eye, a compassionate mind, and, appropriately, fearless independence, to this riveting portrait of a woman of both ideas and heart. HANNAH ARENDT originally premiered at Film Forum to critical and box office success in 2013, and won two prestigious LOLA Awards from the German Film Academy that year: the silver medal for Best Feature Film & Best Actress, Barbara Sukowa.

Presented with support from the Joan S. Constantiner Fund for Jewish and Holocaust Films, Donated by Leon Constantiner and Family

2012     113 MINS.     GERMANY     IN ENGLISH AND GERMAN WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES     ZEITGEIST FILMS

Virtual Cinema program supported by the Robert Gore Rifkind Foundation.

Reviews

“ARDENT AND INTELLIGENT.... TURNS IDEAS INTO THE BEST KIND OF ENTERTAINMENT.... It’s probably too much to hope that Ms. von Trotta and her star, Barbara Sukowa, will do for Arendt what Nora Ephron and Meryl Streep did for Julia Child, but surely a fellow can dream.... Contemplating one of the great lives of the 20th century.... There is an undeniable nostalgic thrill in stepping into an era in New York when philosophers lived in apartments with Hudson River views.... I would not hesitate to describe Hannah Arendt as an action movie, though of a more than usually dialectical type. Its climax, in which Arendt defends herself against critics, MATCHES SOME OF THE GREAT COURTROOM SCENES IN CINEMA.”
– A.O. Scott, The New York Times

“THE BEST MOVIE THIS CRITIC HAS EVER SEEN ABOUT THE LIFE AND TIMES OF A WRITER... German titan Margarethe Von Trotta’s magnificent meditation on the German-Jewish political theorist. Starring Barbara Sukowa as the title character, who lived a life few if any can match, it is major work, spartan, highly dramatic, and incredibly timely.”
– Brandon Harris, Filmmaker Magazine

“Even viewers who have never read a word of her books will be stirred by her intellectual and emotional courage in Barbara Sokuwa’s award-worthy performance.”
– Deborah Young, The Hollywood Reporter

Links