Anne Frank Remembered

Anne Frank Remembered
DVD cover
Written by	Jon Blair
Directed by	Jon Blair
Starring	Glenn Close
Narrated by	Kenneth Branagh
Music by	Carl Davis
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
Production
Producer	Jon Blair
Cinematography	Barry Ackroyd
Editor	Karen Steininger
Running time	117 minutes
Production company	Jon Blair Film Company
Original release
Release	6 May 1995 (1995-05-06) (Television) 23 February 1996 (1996-02-23) (Theatres)

Anne Frank Remembered is a 1995 British documentary film produced and directed by Jon Blair about the life and posthumously published diary of the German-Jewish diarist, Anne Frank, who spent most of her life in the Netherlands. The film was produced in association with the Anne Frank House, Disney Channel, and the BBC, and features narration by Kenneth Branagh and extracts from Frank's diary read by Glenn Close. It originally aired on television in April 1995 before it was screened theatrically by Sony Pictures Classics in February 1996.

Miep Gies, the woman who had helped shelter the family, and who had saved the diary after the group was betrayed, collaborated with Blair and is interviewed about her memories of hiding the Frank family. Blair also uses interviews with Hannah Pick-Goslar ("Hanneli") and Jaqueline van Maarsen, two of Anne Frank's friends, and notably uses archive interviews of Otto Frank to retell Anne's story.

The film also records the first meeting between Miep Gies and Werner Peter Pfeffer, the son of Fritz Pfeffer ("Albert Dussel" in the Diary), who died two months after filming. In a moving scene, filmed as it happened, a tearful Pfeffer offers "Vielen Dank" ("many thanks") to Gies for her efforts to save his father.

Blair filmed in the real locations of Frank's life; including the neighbourhood Anne grew up in, the "Achterhuis" of Prinsengracht 263 (where she and her family lived in hiding) in Amsterdam, and the Westerbork and Auschwitz Concentration Camps. Blair commented that Auschwitz had been filmed a number of times, for many reasons; however, he wanted to suggest something of the "ghosts" of the people who had passed through there, and so he determined that the only way to do this would be to film at night. He was also able to obtain a train similar to those used during World War II to recreate the scenes of people being transported to Auschwitz.

As the film was made in association with Anne Frank House, it was able to include the only known film footage taken of Anne Frank. The short film was made in 1941 of a wedding in the Amsterdam suburb where the Frank family lived. The camera cuts for just seven seconds to a balcony, where Anne Frank stands watching the bride and groom on the footpath below.

The film won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 1996. The award was jointly collected by Jon Blair and Miep Gies, who received a standing ovation during the award ceremony.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 97% based on 29 reviews, and an average rating of 8/10.

See also

• The Diary of Anne Frank (1959 film)
• The Attic: The Hiding of Anne Frank (1988 TV film)
• Anne Frank: The Whole Story (2001 mini series)
• List of Holocaust films

External links

• Official website
• Anne Frank Remembered at Sony Pictures Classics
• Anne Frank Remembered at BBC
• Anne Frank Remembered at IMDb
• Sony classics interview with Jon Blair about the making of Anne Frank Remembered
• Anne Frank House link to film image of Anne Frank (requires QuickTime Player)
• Anne Frank Remembered at Box Office Mojo