Hannah Arendt (2012)

A look at the life of philosopher and political theorist Hannah Arendt, who reported for The New Yorker on the war crimes trial of the Nazi Adolf Eichmann.

Director:

Margarethe von Trotta

Writers:

Pam Katz (screenplay), Margarethe von Trotta (screenplay),

Stars:

Barbara Sukowa, Axel Milberg, Janet McTeer

4 wins & 7 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Barbara Sukowa	...	Hannah Arendt
Axel Milberg	...	Heinrich Blücher
Janet McTeer	...	Mary McCarthy
Julia Jentsch	...	Lotte Köhler
Ulrich Noethen	...	Hans Jonas
Michael Degen	...	Kurt Blumenfeld
Nicholas Woodeson	...	William Shawn
Victoria Trauttmansdorff	...	Charlotte Beradt
Klaus Pohl	...	Martin Heidegger
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Friederike Becht	...	Young Hannah Arendt
Harvey Friedman	...	Thomas Miller
Megan Gay	...	Francis Wells
Claire Johnston	...	Ms Serkin
Gilbert Johnston	...	Professor Kahn
Tom Leick	...	Jonathan Schell

Storyline

A look at the life of philosopher and political theorist Hannah Arendt, who reported for The New Yorker on the war crimes trial of the Nazi Adolf Eichmann.

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Plot Keywords:

trial | nazi | philosopher | magazine | jewish | 

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Genres:

Biography | Drama

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

Germany Luxembourg France

Language:

German French English Hebrew Latin

Release Date:

10 January 2013 (Germany)

Filming Locations:

Israel

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$31,270 (USA) (31 May 2013)

Gross:

$153,333 (USA) (14 June 2013)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Heimatfilm, Amour Fou Luxembourg, MACT Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

113 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Black and White Color

User Reviews

brave film with intellectual challenges

Margarethe von Trotta's Hannah Arendt is a film about thinking. Moreover, it's in favour of it. It so values thinking that it offers some elegant speeches and debate, sans computer generated spectaculars.

Barbara Sukowa portrays the German Jewish philosopher during the period she covered the Adolf Eichmann trial in Israel for The New Yorker. The film confronts the controversy Arendt raised when (i) she redefined Eichmann not as a monster but as an ordinary nobody, exemplifying "the banality of evil," (ii) she reported that some Jews collaborated with the Nazis, resulting in more deaths than chaos would have caused, and (iii) she said she loves her friends but not any "people," in this case, the Jews. On all three counts she was condemned for abandoning her people. Today, at a remove from the heat of that moment, she was clearly correct on all counts. For more see www.yacowar.blogspot.com.

Not loving the Jews was not being anti-Semitic but refusing to emotionalize her consideration of the issues. Arendt was opposed to the blanket love of any group of people, not based on personal engagement, because such nationalist or other group identification precluded the thoughtful consideration of any issues around them. She most valued a rational, thoughtful approach that was not prejudged or proscribed by any -ism or convention. As for some Jews' collaboration, she simply reported facts that arose at the trial. (Indeed, Rudolf van den Berg's new film Suskind details precisely that collaboration.) Nor was that observation anti-Semitic, for the possibly well-intentioned collaboration in the face of horrid danger is a plausible response among any people. Arendt was pilloried for facing the facts and for rejecting myths. That's what historians are required to do and apparently what philosophers periodically have to remind them to do.