planktonrules Review of The Diary of Anne Frank

The Diary of Anne Frank (1959)

a film not just about the Holocaust but about REAL people

[9/10 · 20 February 2006]

I admire this movie quite a bit because it refused to give in to an over-idealized version of events in order to portray the families as somehow noble or transcendent. While this IS true of some of them, some others are truly annoying and difficult to like--in particular, the lady played by Shelley Winters. She was so annoying and realistic (as many of us are far from being angels), that Miss Winters won the Oscar for her performance. The movie COULD have chosen the easier way out by portraying everyone hiding in the movie as saint-like, but its deliberate choice for realism provides a much more believable and universal story. Excellent performances all around and an incredibly heart-wrenching conclusion. A must-see film.