#DayRoving – West Yorkshire by bus and rail
Heather Whiston reviews Brian Percival’s The Book Thief after the regional premiere at Ilkley Film Festival ...
Films about the World Wars have always fascinated me. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t intentionally take pleasure from the accounting of horrific tales. Truth be told, I’m not sure what it is I like about them. Maybe it’s the way I find myself emotionally connected with the characters, and knowing that they are based on true events, it creates an inner turmoil where I root for these characters to survive. Perhaps because I have never personally been exposed to such horrendous times, I am curious to see what characters that I can relate to would do under certain circumstances. Either way, this particular film shows how despite the darkest of times, beautiful innocence, strong relationships and above all creativity can shine through.
The Book Thief uses colour astonishingly. One of the first few scenes includes a black train moving across snowy grounds followed shortly by a scene of a black car driving across a snow-covered path. The strong contrast in these scenes are juxtaposed later with scenes of soft warm and cool scenes. Although I cannot deny the striking effect these scenes have, it would have been great to see a progression in which these different tones and palettes related with the story.
What I did enjoy about the film was the contrast between the stunning cinematography and the unsettling story. There is one scene in particular where there is a close-up shot of the lead character Liesel (played by Sophie Nélisse). Liesel is singing in a school choir and as the camera zooms out, we see that all the school children are dressed in their school Nazi uniforms singing a National Nazi song. To me personally it struck me that the children were singing, ‘We hate Jews and Marxists’. I don’t understand German but there were subtitles and so I wonder whether it was the director’s intention to emphasise that the children don’t even know what they are singing about, and are being brainwashed into hating without reason.
Another interesting aspect is that the film is narrated by Death, voiced by Roger Allam. I enjoyed Death’s narration because it made me view the whole story in a perspective that was greater than any individual character’s emotions. The effect it had on me made me contemplate the shortness and preciousness of our lives as well as those around us. It also made me consider how a life can be taken away very abruptly for no reason other than cruel fate.
The film was overall very thought-provoking and for that I really enjoyed it. My only complaints were that the characters and the relationships between them felt as if they were only developing and never quite fulfilled. Maybe this is a portrayal again of the preciousness of friendships, however, I do feel as though the only real strong relationship was between Hans (Geoffrey Rush) and Liesel, which made it hard to feel empathetic towards other characters.
Having said that, I haven’t read Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief. The film director, Brian Percival, may have intended to play it safe in order to do justice to the loved novel.
I doubt that the film would have been quite as enjoyable had the venue, The King’s Hall in Ilkley not been as welcoming. The staff were very friendly, I managed to get myself a front row seat and the refreshments were reasonably priced (and that’s coming from a student!). I was delighted to discover that we, the audience, were the first in the North of England to view this film as part of the Ilkley Film Festival. And to leave the venue and immerse myself back into town was like a warm, cosy hug after leaving a world of disturbing cruelty.
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