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B16
December 25 • 2008
Berlin from page B15
pefSLY3
iconographies — as well as the sheer,
overwhelming horror of it. And I felt
[Apt Pupil] was a movie about a kid
who shared this fascination and took
it to a very dark place'
Singer was adopted shortly after
birth by a largely secular Jewish family
and raised in New Jersey.
"My immediate family was not par-
ticularly religious; my extended family
was more so. We went to temple on the
holidays, but I was not a bar mitzvah. A
lot of my Jewish friends are surprised
by that, and I have an uncle who is 87
and keeps wanting me to do it."
Singer became aware of the atroci-
ties of the Holocaust when he was very
young. His family "spoke about it quite
often:' he said. "My mother's side of
the family was from Russia, and my
father's side was Polish. A lot of their
family was wiped out.
"In our family, there was an album,
a series of portraits of relatives, many
of whom I recognized. But there also
was a group of people — I have no
idea who they were. I asked my father
who these people are. He just said,
`These people are gone. They're the
people who are gone.' It was a visual
representation of how my relatives
were wiped out."
Talking about the photo album brings
to mind another anecdote. "Two of my
best friends growing up were German,
and we used to talk about Germany and
the Holocaust. We also used to play war,
and sometimes I'd be the American sol-
dier and sometimes I'd be the German.
When my mother found out about that,
she gave me a pretty stern lecture about
what the Six Million meant and how it
extended to our family"
But it was a high-school social stud-
ies teacher, a Ms. Fiscarelli, who taught
a unit on the Holocaust and really inter-
ested Singer in the subject. His other
interest was photography and film.
He attended film school, broke
through with The Usual Suspects and
has been given increasingly important
— and expensive — studio projects
ever since. (In fact, there are reports
that the fate of United Artists hinges
on Valkyrie's success.)
Singer laughs when it is mentioned.
"I don't think about that;' he says. But
certainly he's heard the stories. "I still
don't think about that. I don't pre-
tend to know on whose shoulders the
studio's future rests."
Whether he thinks about it or not, it
has affected perception about the film.
Cruise heads United Artists, which has
gone through an executive reshuffling
and badly needs a hit. In addition,
there are the problems associated with
being anywhere near Tom Cruise at
a time when the media (and anyone
with an Internet blog) seems to relish
piling on.
"The deal I made with United
Artists was unrelated to [Cruise] being
in the picture says Singer. "But in the
back of my mind, I was keenly aware
of his physical resemblance to von
Stauffenberg. Also, I knew he'd done
some unconventional roles and was
hoping he would do it."
Cruise, familiar with the project as
a UA executive, signed on. For Singer,
who has never directed a major film
star, this added a new dimension to
the project.
"I was aware [of the noise sur-
rounding Cruise], but I didn't obsess
over it. I don't surf the Internet gos-
sip sites. I don't read tabloids. I know
Tom's career, and I know the films he's
made and the filmmakers he's worked
with. I know him to be hardworking
and sincere."
Other members of the cast include
acclaimed actors Tom Wilkinson,
Kenneth Branagh and Bill Nighy.
The film's problems began early,
when the German Defense Ministry
threatened to refuse Singer access
to its building and sites if Cruise, a
Scientologist, was cast in the role of
von Stauffenberg. Germany has a long
history of run-ins with Scientology.
Singer maintains that once he
explained the seriousness with which
he and Cruise approached the film, the
government relented and even helped
finance the picture.
That wasn't enough for the "kick
'em when they're down" experts, who
went into a feeding frenzy. They didn't
like the early posters of Cruise in an
eye patch. They didn't like that he
didn't speak with a German accent (at
Singer's direction). One online poster
didn't even like the way he gave the
Nazi salute.
Yet his performance is more than
credible and the film more than sus-
penseful. Moreover, for many viewers,
it will be a revelation. The plot to kill
Hitler was more than just a briefcase
bomb; there were plans for a wide-
spread coup to take over the reins of
power.
"The events here were extraordi-
nary. I didn't want to make a languid
biopic," says Singer. And, despite the
sniping, he has succeeded.
❑
Valkyrie opens Thursday, Dec. 25.