Hannah Arendt (2012)

History is one of my favourite subjects at school and as I am studying Germany in this era, I thought that I would really enjoy the controversy of this dark film. For those who don’t know, Hannah Arendt was a philosopher who wrote an analytical piece in a New York Magazine which many people found offensive and she was highly criticized and still is. She was analysing the trail of a man called Eichmann, who was involved in organising the transport, among other things, to and from concentration camps during the Second World War.

The plot of the film mainly focuses on the repercussions of the article she writes and one particular passage where she blames the Jews for turning a blind eye. The other underlying focus I found of the film was the way in which people can turn upon you if you are against hard times, and what evils can be uncovered when the world turns against you. This I found incredibly interesting as I haven’t read the collection of articles myself and was oblivious to personal life of such an infamous yet still acclaimed philosopher. She is presented as almost a woman who takes in almost everything but yet says nothing. Her relationship with her husband (or I think It was her husband) was insightful into her attitudes because it was not was you would call a normal relationship; however that is a side note to the character of Hannah Arendt herself.

I took my brother to see this film with my Dad and sadly he didn’t seem to have the same interest into the matter as I did, or in other words, he fell asleep. He was complaining of a slow start, middle and end, slow throughout basically. Truthfully, he isn’t entirely wrong- the film takes over an hour to take Hannah to Israel of the trial of Eichmann when the film is only just under two hours long. It is a film of talking throughout, in a very naturalistic manner. The filming is very naturalistic, with many long dialogue scenes just enrapturing the faces of those talking and little else. Also, the film features a lot of German speech with subtitles. This again was another reason my brother didn’t like it (he is eleven though), he found it hard in his semiconscious state to follow the foreign language. Personally, I had no problems with the subtitles, but then again I wasn’t falling asleep.

The pace and the talking of the film are the only two points which I can criticize; the content of both of those was fascinating and gives one a lot to think about. I recommend this film to anybody who doesn’t mind the task of unravelling the words spoken to find the meaning of many of them and to people who are simply interested in the life of this incredible woman who will be remembered by many for conflicting reasons at a time in her life where she became that way for her though provoking articles.