The Monuments Men at the Berlinale
George Clooney’s film Monuments Men is one of the highlights at the 64th Berlinale.
Harry D. Grier, architect and archaeologist, was working at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York when he volunteered to serve in the US army in 1941. In Europe, Grier became one of more than 300 Monuments Men: the special Allied unit was designed to rescue art and cultural treasures from the National Socialists and return them to their rightful owners after the war. Hollywood star George Clooney made this rarely heeded and difficult mission the theme of his latest film. The screening of The Monuments Men is one of the highlights at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival – the 64th Berlinale.
“Extremely topical,” says Berlinale director
The film, a German-US co-production, is being awaited with special interest. In November 2013 the news broke that investigators had searched an apartment in Munich and had secured hundreds of paintings that were regarded as lost. They included works by Marc Chagall, Emil Nolde, Edvard Munch and other artists. The person living in the apartment is Cornelius Gurlitt, son of the art dealer Hildebrand Gurlitt who had collaborated with the Nazis. “More than five million objects of cultural value stolen by the Nazis were returned to the countries of origin in the post-war years. The art thefts of that time are extremely topical in view of the recent discovery in Munich,” says Dieter Kosslick, Director of the Berlinale.
The two-time Oscar winner Clooney has been a guest at the Berlinale on several occasions and often comes to Germany. The Monuments Men also included filming at the Studio Babelsberg and in Berlin, as well as in the region around Goslar, a small city on the edge of the Harz Mountains. The Monuments Men is not showing in the Berlinale Competition. Twenty international productions will be competing for the Golden and Silver Bears. The winners will be chosen by a jury headed by James Schamus, the producer of Brokeback Mountain. Further members are Barbara Broccoli, the producer of the James Bond films, and the Oscar winning actor Christoph Waltz.
Berlin International Film Festival from 6 to 16 February 2014
