Playing for Time (1980)

Female prisoners in a Nazi concentration camp (Auschwitz) are spared from death in return for performing music for their captors.

Directors:

Daniel Mann, Joseph Sargent (uncredited)

Writers:

Arthur Miller, Fania Fénelon (autobiography: "The Musicians of Auschwitz")

Stars:

Vanessa Redgrave, Jane Alexander, Maud Adams

Nominated for 1 Golden Globe. Another 5 wins & 3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Vanessa Redgrave	...	Fania Fenelon
Jane Alexander	...	Alma Rose
Maud Adams	...	Mala
Christine Baranski	...	Olga
Robin Bartlett	...	Etalina
Marisa Berenson	...	Elzvieta
Verna Bloom	...	Paulette
Donna Haley	...	Katrina
Lenore Harris	...	Charlotte
Mady Kaplan	...	Varya
Will Lee	...	Shmuel
Anna Thomson	...	Michou (as Anna Levine)
Viveca Lindfors	...	Frau Schmidt
Melanie Mayron	...	Marianne
Marcell Rosenblatt	...	Giselle

Storyline

In World War II, the Jewish French musician and cabaret singer Fania Fenelon Goldstein is sent by the Nazis from Paris to the Auschwitz Concentration Camp. The guards take her clothing and luggage and they cut her hair very short. One day, when she is very weak, she hears someone asking whether any prisoner could sing Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly and she joins the group of musicians that have been spared from the gas chambers to entertain the Nazis performing music for them. She convinces the conductor Alma Rose to invite her friend Marianne, telling that she would be a talented singer. Along the years of abusive treatment, they survive but losing their dignity.

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Plot Keywords:

nazi concentration camp | nazi | singer | prisoner | musician | 

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Genres:

Drama | Music

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Did You Know?

Trivia

The real Fania Fenelon was upset over the casting of Vanessa Redgrave due to her support of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

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Goofs

Lagerfuhrerin Maria Mandel is wearing the famous 1930s-era black SS uniform. This is very common mistake in many WW2 films. The Black SS uniforms were discontinued at the start of the war in 1939 and replaced by the Green or Grey uniform. Only Waffen SS tank crews wore black uniforms in combat. This was not, however, the all black uniform worn by the pre-war SS, but rather a short, black waist-cut coat similar in style to that worn by tank crews in the Wehrmacht. She also is wearing the SS Runes patch on her uniform which was not worn in any Camps. SS guards,doctors,officers and personal wore a patch with the Deaths Head (Totenkopf) symbol.

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Quotes

Alma Rose: We must constantly raise the level of our playing, or I really don't know how long they will tolerate us.

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Connections

Referenced in Paradise Road (1997)

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Soundtracks

Trois jeunes tumbours
(uncredited)
Traditional
Arranged by Brad Fiedel

User Reviews

Multiple perspectives

The script pointedly shows many different perspectives of the victims of the German Nazi's holocaust: Communists, Zionists, homosexuals, artists, Germans, Poles, others - and how they perceive what is happening to them. Also the horror for these individuals to survive day after day while others are killed around them. And the struggle to retain a sense of being human. Wonderfully written. Hard to watch for sure. A must-see.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English German French

Release Date:

30 September 1980 (USA)

Also Known As:

Playing for Time

Filming Locations:

Fort Indiantown Gap, Annville, Pennsylvania, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Szygzy Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

150 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1