T
ile Garden of the Finzi-Con-
tinis is rooted in producer
Right:
Preparing
to leave the
"garden."
Arthur Cohn's own need to
help counter anti-Semitism.
First released 25 years ago, the clas-
Below:
sic film about an aristocratic Jewish fam-
Helmut
ily in Ferrara, Italy, originally found
Berger and
itself a second-class citizen in the film
Fabio
Testi.
world.
"I had trouble with distributors," re-
calls Swiss-born Cohn, "who thought it
was a 'Jewish film,' that it would not ap-
peal to a wide audience."
What opened the naysayers' eyes —
wide — was the wonderful reception ac-
corded Garden in Jerusalem, Hong Kong
and Berlin. But it was winning the 1971
Oscar for Best Foreign Film that plant-
ed the seed for success.
"After that ..." and Mr. Cohn's voice
fades out triumphantly.
Garden — based on a novel by George
Bassani — is re-appearing 25 years af-
ter its initial run, restored to a classically
clean look. "The film looks brand new,"
says Arthur Cohn.
"What's more, it looks even better than
when it first came out. And today, we
have given it stereo sound."
The sound of applause greeting the
film's re-release is not all that surpris-
ing: "Film critics all over the world re-
cently voted this one of the top 10 best
films ever made," says Mr. Cohn proud-
ly.
It has made a happy man out of
Arthur Cohn, but Garden is no late
bloomer.
Indeed, it was valued considerably in
1971 for its on-target look at how Fas-
cism and anti-Semitism encroached on
the quiet life of the Finzi-Continis: The
family gradually was forced to realize
that the walls of their beautiful gardens
couldn't protect them from the weeds of
the world's evil.
"I am doing this again for a new gen-
eration," says Mr. Cohn, whose many cin-
ematic contributions have included The •
Sky Above, the Mud Below (1963) and
Woman Times Seven (1967). "This film
is timely and timeless."
"It is a poetic film, a film without sex,
violence, special effects," says Arthur
Cohn.
"But people will go to see it."
Box offices are backing him up. Wher-
ever the film is being shown now, lines
are forming; interest in the era is revived.
They are the revisionists at whom
Arthur Cohn is targeting the re-release. portant to try. "We felt it was important
"The denial of the Holocaust," he cites to bring the Holocaust [to the screen] and
as one reason for the re-release, "and the show history in a poetic way," he says,
ignorance of many people about what citing the work of pre-eminent director
Vittorio De Sica (The Bicycle Thief),
happened during the war."
But what happens now — can art whose career was revived by Garden, and
actually change society? Will a reel actress Dominique Sanda, who plays one
masterpiece about one of history's of the family members.
With all the movie's success as a re-
most surreal and savage periods
vival
— "Its second week now showing
have a real effect on the way people be-
in New York was bigger than its first" —
have?
"No," says Mr. Cohn, admitting that the '90s would not provide fertile ground
Garden goes against today's movie for such a film if Garden were made to-
trends. Film's ability to impact on life is day.
Even with its success in re-release,
negligible, he notes.
don't
expect a rash of projects to make
But, he adds, it is nevertheless im-
Hollywood itch for an era of relevance.
Michael Elkin is entertainment editor of
"Garden," says its producer, "is an ex-
the Jewish Exponent in Philadelphia.
ception to the rule."
Shrum Wiesenthal is the subject of a new
documentary, The Art of Remembrance:
Simon Wiesenlhal.
Paving The Future
With Lessons
of The Past
LYNNE KONSTANTIN
SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
Dedication to Jewish life ruled in
Arthur Cohn's Swiss upbringing, the film-
maker's grandfather, Arthur, rabbi of
Basil for more than 40 years, was in-
strumental in the establishment of Agu-
dat Israel some 85 years ago.
The producer's father, Marcus, was a
Zionist whose many prominent positions
included president of the Swiss Zionist
Federation (1931 to 1936), and an exec-
utive role in the Federation of Jewish
Communities in Switzerland (1938-1950).
From 1950 to 1953, Marcus Cohn
served Israel as assistant attorney gen-
eral.
"My father had an enormous impact
on my life," says Mr. Cohn.
Now, despite his denials of film's abil-
ity to change the world, the producer is
making his own voice heard. "There is a
reward for patience."
"Besides," he says, "I don't take no for
an answer."
❑
TRfrop4wmprog
The restored anniversary version of The
Garden of the Finzi-Continis, as well
as The Art of Remembrance: Simon 1
Wiesenthal, will be shown one week- i
end only at the Detroit Institute of Arts'i
Detroit Film Theatre. Garden: 7 and :4
9:30 p.m. Friday; 4, 7 and 9:30 p.m. Sat- •
urday; 4 and 7 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 10-
12. Remembrcazce: 7 p.m. Monday, Jan.
13 only. $5.50; $4.50/students/seniors.
The an' is located at 5200 Woodward,
Detroit. (313) 833-2323.
"I am a survivor ... It should be for us a
lesson, a lesson not only for us, but for
our children and grandchildren: Infor
mation is defense."
These the words of Simon Wiesenthal
have paved the path which his life has
taken following the Holocaust. Known
as a "hunter" of'war criminals, Wiesen-
thal is shown to be much more in The
Art of&rnembrance: Simon Wiesentha l,
a 1995 collaboration documenting this
life.
Austrian filmmakers Johanna Heer
and Werner Schmiedel have together
directed and produced films of contem-
porary history since the mid-'80s,
including The Other Eye, an award-win-
ning portrait of silen.t film director G.W.
Pabst. This most recent effort by the two
was PartiallY borne of a desire to exPreee
the Austrian repression of its own re-
sponsibility for its participation in the
crimes of the Third Reich, even con-
demning the government's indifference
to bringing Nazi criminals to justice.
Even more so, though, the film traces
Wiesenthars life, utilizing interviews
with colleagues and friends, documents
and rare archival photographs of his
c.hildhood in Galicia and his experiences
in Nazi ghettos and concentration
camps. It continues to paint a picture of
Wiesenthal the humanitarian, a per-
spective not often so sensitively seen.
As Heer puts it: "We believe that, had
people listened to Simon Wiesenthal's
basic message, namely, to bring more
Nazi criminals to justice as well as to in-
troduce timely and comprehensive edu-
cational measures, contemporary
right-wing extremism could perhaps
have been avoided. Wiesenthal found a
way to address the most profound prob-
lem in a concrete way."