KlausBarbie Tagged Articles at Cinematical
TIFF Review: My Enemy's Enemy
Filed under: Documentary », Theatrical Reviews », Toronto International Film Festival », Cinematical Indie », War »
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Filmmaker Kevin Macdonald, who won the Oscar for his 1999 documentary One Day in September and also directed The Last King of Scotland and is helming the upcoming Brad Pitt, Edward Norton film State of Play, has unveiled a new documentary here in Toronto, My Enemy's Enemy. The film concerns the post-war activities of Klaus Barbie, the infamous Nazi who was tagged as The Butcher of Lyon due to his penchant for going to any lengths to root out resistance fighters in occupied France during the war. Barbie's most notable crimes, documented during his trial in in the 1980s, included the arrest of 44 Jewish children in an orphanage in 1944, and their subsequent deportation to
It's not Barbie's wartime crimes that Macdonald is chiefly interested in, however. This is not a documentary that seeks to unveil the hideousness of Nazism -- at this point, that subject has pretty much been exhausted -- it instead focuses on Barbie's post-war shenanigans, which were wide-ranging and spanned another forty years or so until his eventual arrest and trial in his twilight years. Proving to be a useful Nazi to the intelligence services in the immediate post-war period, he was actually protected and assisted when he attempted to relocate to
Weinsteins Acquire My Enemy's Enemy
Filed under: Documentary », Independent », Deals », Distribution », The Weinstein Co. », Cinematical Indie »
For anyone familiar with Marcel Ophuls' Oscar-winning documentary Hôtel Terminus, it might seem strange that another filmmaker is taking a stab at the life of Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie, aka the "Butcher of Lyon." Kevin Macdonald, who also won a doc Oscar for One Day in September and who just recently released his non-doc debut, The Last King of Scotland, has made My Enemy's Enemy, which reportedly concentrates more on Barbie's employment by the CIA than with any other part of his life. He says the film, "is a version of history where, in contrast to what we were all told, fascist ideology prevailed." It is also more than likely meant to parallel other times in history when the U.S. collaborated with past or future enemies. Just how bad was this guy, that the U.S. shouldn't have been working with him and aiding him? Barbie was called the "Butcher of Lyon" because while head of the Gestapo in the French city, he was responsible for 4,000 deaths. After World War II was over, he began working for British intelligence and the U.S. Army Counter Intelligence Corp. When his service for our government was over, he was able to flee, with help from the American government, to Bolivia, where he lived another thirty years until he was captured, brought to trial and sentenced to life in prison.
The Weinstein Co., which is always happy to release a controversial doc, picked up the film this past weekend at the American Film Market, but haven't made any announcements for time of release. The Weinsteins know a little about collaborating with the enemy, as they recently threw a gala for Wal-Mart.
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