Anne Frank: The Whole Story

Anne Frank: The Whole Story
Distributed by	American Broadcasting Company
Directed by	Robert Dornhelm
Produced by	David R. Kappes Kirk Ellis Hans Proppe
Starring	Ben Kingsley Brenda Blethyn Lili Taylor Hannah Taylor-Gordon Tatjana Blacher Jessica Manley
Music by	Graeme Revell
Cinematography	Elemér Ragályi
Editing by	Christopher Rouse Mark Fitzgerald (uncredited)
Country	UK / Czech / USA
Language	English/ German/ French/ Spanish/ Italian/ Dutch
Release date	May 20, 2001
Running time	190 minutes

Anne Frank: The Whole Story (also known as Anne Frank) is a mini-series based on the book Anne Frank: The Biography by Melissa Müller. The mini-series aired on ABC on May 20 and 21, 2001. The series starred Ben Kingsley, Brenda Blethyn, Hannah Taylor-Gordon, and Lili Taylor. Controversially, but in keeping with the claim made by Melissa Müller, the series asserts that the anonymous betrayer of the Frank family was the office cleaner, when in fact the betrayer's identity has never been established. A disagreement between the producers of the mini-series and the Anne Frank Foundation about validity of this and other details led to the withdrawal of their endorsement of the dramatization, which prevented the use of any quotations from the writings of Anne Frank appearing within the production. Hannah Taylor-Gordon received both Golden Globe and Emmy Award nominations for her performance as Anne Frank, while Ben Kingsley won a Screen Actor's Guild Award for his performance as Otto Frank, Anne's father.

Cast

• Ben Kingsley ... Otto Frank
• Brenda Blethyn ... Auguste van Pels
• Lili Taylor ... Miep Gies
• Hannah Taylor-Gordon ... Anne Frank
• Tatjana Blacher ... Edith Frank
• Jessica Manley ... Margot Frank
• Joachim Król ... Hermann van Pels
• Nicholas Audsley ... Peter van Pels
• Jan Niklas ... Fritz Pfeffer
• Rob Das ... Jan Gies
• Johannes Silberschneider ... Johannes Kleiman
• Peter Bolhuis ... Victor Kugler
• Ela Lehotska ... Bep Voskuijl
• Jade Williams ... Hannah "Hanneli" Goslar
• Victoria Anne Brown ... Jacqueline van Maarsen
• Jeff Caster ... Lammert Hartog
• Cees Geel ... Wilhelm van Maaren
• Branka Katic ... Charlotte Kaletta
• Dominique Horwitz ... Hans Goslar
• Klára Issová ... Janny Brandes-Brilleslijper
• Robert Russell ... Mr. Keesing
• Michaela Horakova ... Susanne ''Sanne'' Ledermann
• Suzanne Friedline... Bep Voskuijl (voice)

Plot overview

The year is 1939 the year she realizes her world is beginning to change around her. Eventually, the Nazis invade the Netherlands. Anne (Hannah Taylor-Gordon) gets increasingly distressed as her rights are taken away, as well as her family ominously being forced to register as Jews with the government and to wear yellow stars. She is then forced to leave her school and attend a Jewish Lyceum, where she meets her new best friend, Jacqueline van Maarsen (Victoria Anne Brown), who is only half-Jewish. She also meets Hello Silberberg (Nicky Cantor), on whom she develops a crush (it is implied Hello likes her too). On her 13th birthday, she receives the famous checkered-patterned diary and she immediately goes to her room to write her first entry.

A few weeks later, on a normal Sunday in July 1942, Margot (Jessica Manley), Anne's sister, receives a call-up from the Germans to be deported to a "labor camp" in the East. Otto Frank (Ben Kingsley) moves his family into the now-renowned "Secret Annex", followed soon by Hermann and Auguste van Pels (Joachim Krol and Brenda Blethyn) and their son Peter (Nicholas Audsley) , and Fritz Pfeffer (Jan Niklas), the Frank family's dentist. During their stay in the annex, the Van Pels family members are noted for their constant bickering, Fritz becomes Anne's antagonist, and Anne has her first serious relationship with Peter, and receives her first kiss from him. All the while she wishes for an end to the war. Anne also gets her first period while in the annex - an occasion for which she'd been anxiously waiting . One night a thief breaks into the building below the annex, leaving the eight refugees in terror.

Eventually, on August 4, 1944, the Franks are betrayed by the cleaning lady, Lena Hartog (Veronica Nowag-Jones), of the business in which the annex resides. The eight people in hiding are arrested and Anne's diary is dumped onto the floor while the Germans search for money. Two of the helpers (of those in the Secret Annex) are also arrested. Otto reveals his history as a German veteran of World War I.

Afterwards, the Franks are sent on a train to Westerbork, a transit camp, where Anne and her family and friends are held in the criminal "S Barracks". There, Anne meets a man named Farabi Musahan(chert) (Klara Issova) and her sister Lientje (Zdenka Volencova), who are later seen with Anne in Bergen-Belsen. Anne also befriends the camp's schoolteacher (Jaroslava Siktancova), who often invites Anne to the camp school to tell the students stories (One of them is Mrs. Quackerbush from when Anne was a child).

Anne and her family are soon transported to Auschwitz, where the women are stripped of their clothing and their hair is shorn. She is sadly separated from her father and the other men. During a selection for women in the camp to go to a safer place to work in a munitions factory, Anne's mother and sister are chosen, but Anne is not. Therefore, Edith and Margot choose to remain behind. Anne and Margot are sent to a scabies barracks and later deported to Bergen-Belsen, which is no more than many large tents on a muddy ground surrounded by an electric fence. Mrs. van Pels eventually arrives at the camp to find Anne very thin and Margot sick with typhus. One night Anne sees her old friend, Hannah (Jade Williams), through the fence. Hannah is a privileged prisoner and tells Anne that her father is dying but her sister is alive. She throws a package with bread and socks over to Anne.

In the last scene with Anne, Margot and Anne talk about past times, but Margot then falls out of bed and dies of shock. Anne, whose will to live is finally gone, looks up to the sky, defeated.

After the war in 1945, it is revealed that Otto is, in fact, alive. He looks for information about his daughters, but has no luck in doing so until he is directed to find Janny Brandes who survived the camp. Otto is told that Anne died a few days after Margot. Miep (Lili Taylor), who helped the Franks to hide, gives Anne's preserved diary to Otto. Otto reads it all. He then goes up to the now empty annex and collapses in a crying heap in front of "Anne's wall", still plastered with movie star photos. The film ends as it tells what happened to everyone mentioned in the story.

Home video release

Anne Frank: The Whole Story was released on VHS and DVD on August 28, 2001 by Buena Vista Home Entertainment. There is not much difference between the DVD and VHS version of this movie since the only special feature on the DVD is a trailer of South Pacific.

Reception

Anne Frank: The Whole Story earned critical acclaim from critics and viewers. The New York Post called the mini-series "Undeniably powerful" whereas others claimed it "a stunning tribute." This adaption has been named as "the best Anne Frank movie or mini-series yet." It was nominated for three Golden Globes, and won the Emmy Award for the Best Miniseries.

TV rating

The production was rated TV-14 for concentration camp depictions including brief nudity. The brief nudity takes place where Anne, Margot, Edith, and Mrs. Van Pels get their heads shaven at Auschwitz and are disinfected. There are also some disturbing images including dead bodies.

See also

• List of Holocaust films
• List of films about Anne Frank

External links

• Anne Frank: The Whole Story at the Internet Movie Database