Anne Frank: The Whole Story 

The life of Anne Frank and her family from 1939 to 1945: pre-war fears, invasion of Netherlands by German troops, hiding in Amsterdam, deportation to the camps, return of Anne's father.

Stars:

Ben Kingsley, Hannah Taylor Gordon, Tatjana Blacher

Nominated for 3 Golden Globes. Another 15 wins & 28 nominations.

Cast

Series cast summary:
Ben Kingsley	...	Otto Frank 2 episodes, 2001
Hannah Taylor Gordon	...	Anne Frank 2 episodes, 2001
Tatjana Blacher	...	Edith Hollander-Frank 2 episodes, 2001
Brenda Blethyn	...	Auguste Rottgen-van Pels 2 episodes, 2001
Jean-Luc Julien	...	Various Characters 2 episodes, 2001
Jessica Manley	...	Margot Frank 2 episodes, 2001
Lili Taylor	...	Miep Gies 2 episodes, 2001

Storyline

The life of Anne Frank and her family from 1939 to 1945: pre-war fears, invasion of Netherlands by German troops, hiding in Amsterdam, deportation to the camps, return of Anne's father.

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Plot Keywords:

holocaust | starved to death | starving child | thinness | starvation | 

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Taglines:

There's more to her story than you ever imagined.

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Genres:

Biography | Drama | War

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Certificate:

TV-14

Details

Country:

Czech Republic USA

Language:

English German Dutch French Hebrew

Release Date:

20 May 2001 (USA)

Also Known As:

Anne Frank: The Whole Story

Filming Locations:

Czech Republic

Company Credits

Production Co:

Milk & Honey Pictures, Dorothy Pictures, Touchstone Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

180 min (DVD) 190 min (copyright length)

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Black and White Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This mini-series was not sanctioned by Bernd Elias, Anne Frank's cousin and chairman of the Anne Frank Fonds (which owns the copyright of Anne's Dairy), as a result, this mini-series could not directly quote "Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl".

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Goofs

The German guards in the camp watchtower are equipped with post-war Russian DHSK machine-guns.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Anne Frank: I want to be a champion skater, and a writer. I want my picture in all the magazines. Maybe I'll be a movie star. I want to be different from all the other girls. I want to be a modern woman, I want to travel. I want to study languages - languages and history. I want to to everything. I want to...

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Connections

Version of The Diary of Anne Frank (1959)

User Reviews

The whole story, a realistic story

This movie is so much more realistic than every other Anne Frank film. For starters it does not show Anne as a saint-like person and although she was a great, great person, she was just like every other girl (excuse me) young lady, she had her faults, and beyond Anne there were the others who had their problems.

Anne was magnificently played by Hannah Taylor Gordon. She is one of the best Annex that I have seen yet. She was perfect in her characterization and really made you love her. You looked at her on screen and you were caught in love with instantly, she was like magic on screen. She as well as Ben Kingsley and Brenda Blethyn both deserve Emmy nominations for their work.

Otto and Auguste van Pels were spot on. Ben playing Otto Frank not as a regal saintly savior of the Annex members (although in many respects he really was) but as a guiding light, the leader, and the most intelligent. Brenda Blethyn turns in another great performance as the spoiled and unadaptable Mrs. van Pels. Great in all her scenes you learn to give sympathy to this woman in a way you don't give anyone else, especially when you see her in the end.

The rest on the Annex members were also nice. Edith Frank was shown as she might really have been in real life. A woman going through a mid-life crises of sorts. Looking back and perhaps not being quite satisfied with her marriage and life. Peter van Pels was as I've never seen him before. The actor was excellent and gave life to Peter which is something I've always wanted to see from the Peter van Pels actors. Mr. van Pels and Mr. Pfeffer are wonderful too. And all of the Secret annex occupants really made a great relationship with the workers.

Lili Taylor pulled of a nice performance as Miep, very selfless and hard working. The rest were great too, including the warehouse worker. However, my main complaint was that Bep Voskuijl was shown to be an utter ditz. Maybe she was written this way because Miep said that that was the way she was, however, I did find it somewhat sad to see her portrayed that way.

The crew also pulled of excellent work. The costuming was nice. Barbara Lane was able to show with good quality how that Franks, van Pels, and Mr. Pfeffer were not poor. Never were they poor, they were very well off. I feel many costumers in the past have assumed that because they were all Jews being persecuted and in hiding that they were poor. Although the quality of clothing would have gone down with time (as shown) she still was able to put forth wonderful work. As did the art department going into nice detail to recreate the annex and the Frank house. Brilliantly filmed all around, power to the writer and producers for going outside the annex.