REVIEWS

PROFILE GOES PAST NAZI-HUNTER TAG
by Paul Sherman 

The documentary The Art of Remembrance: Simon Wiesenthal goes beyond the dry earnestness you might expect from a profile of the so-called Nazi hunter.
Getting beyond that simplistic Nazi-hunter tag is one of the things Johanna Heer and Werner Schmiedel's film does well. The Art of Remembrance follows Wiesenthal through Austria, America and several other countries as he crusades to keep the fight for Holocaust justice alive. It not only mixes in details about Wiesenthal's background and World War II concentration-camp experiences, it also illustrates how his drive to track down Nazi war criminals is designed not only to right a past wrong, but also to send a message to those who might commit similar ethnic cleansing atrocities.
Heer, a cinematographer whose past credits include Percy Adlon's Sugarbaby, brings a rich palette of colors to the documentary. And avant-jazz musician John Zorn scored it, so Remembrance supplies more in style than mere talking heads.
It also turns out to be a potent condemnation of the Austrian government's indifference to bringing Nazi criminals to justice in the decades following the war, most dramatically in news clips from the 1970s feud between Wiesenthal and several highranking Austrian leaders who were hiding their pasts. The scandal resulted in the exposure of one war criminal and Wiesenthal's victory in a court case against the chancellor.
The relating of such events, as well as Wiesenthal's talking about tracking down Adolf Eichmann and, later, Anne Frank's arresting officer, are fascinating.

Order Video Cassette here (for private use only)