Taking Sides

Wilhelm Furtwängler was among the greatest conductors of the 1930s, a name spoken alongside Toscanini's. He stayed in Germany under the Nazis and went on working. After the war he is taken into the Allies' denazification investigation. The file goes to an American major, Steve Arnold, who knows nothing about music and has clear orders: press the man to the end. The interrogations begin in the ruins of Berlin. The film sets the two against each other and leaves the answer to the viewer. István Szabó directs, with Harvey Keitel as Arnold and Stellan Skarsgård as Furtwängler. It is adapted from Ronald Harwood's play. What it asks is what it meant for an artist to stay in that country and keep working.