I got this short movie under the premise "anything by Liv Ullmann," but I don't think this piece will serve as more than a footnote in her career, if that. The piece is based on a remarkable fact: Over forty years after his mother dies, a German-Jewish boy gets a farewell letter from her she wrote just before she went to the concentration camp. It is a lovely, heartfelt letter, but besides the late delivery, this is a routine piece of detritus washed up from that great horror of the last century.
Liv reads the letter, in English, and then Martin Sheen narrates the tale. At thirty minutes, this show has a lot of padding, including long bits of the grandchildren's reaction, their careers (doctor and lawyer) and the material success of the boy cum doctor who received the letter. In fact, with all the extraneous family bragging, I wondered if this was a commissioned piece by the family.
I love Liv's voice, her work, her being, and for some funny reason this piece is available through Netflix. One wonders why, when there are so many major works of hers that are not. Since I suppose it will be the letter-writing lady's family that reads this, I want to be clear: Because I find the movie inferior, (really, it's a boring little home movie), I do not for one moment want to appear to diminish the magnitude of the tragedy, nor the evil which made it, nor the suffering of those who died in or survived it. That this piece is a small marker for the cause of good, I value it that much.
Liv reads the letter, in English, and then Martin Sheen narrates the tale. At thirty minutes, this show has a lot of padding, including long bits of the grandchildren's reaction, their careers (doctor and lawyer) and the material success of the boy cum doctor who received the letter. In fact, with all the extraneous family bragging, I wondered if this was a commissioned piece by the family.
I love Liv's voice, her work, her being, and for some funny reason this piece is available through Netflix. One wonders why, when there are so many major works of hers that are not. Since I suppose it will be the letter-writing lady's family that reads this, I want to be clear: Because I find the movie inferior, (really, it's a boring little home movie), I do not for one moment want to appear to diminish the magnitude of the tragedy, nor the evil which made it, nor the suffering of those who died in or survived it. That this piece is a small marker for the cause of good, I value it that much.