Results tagged “nazi”

Leave it to Norwegian director Tommy Wirkola to resuscitate (sorry) the sub-genre with Dead Snow, and leave it to the Seattle International Film Festival to bring it to local audiences twice in the next two weeks (once on May 23 for an Egyptian Theater midnight screening, and once at 9:30 p.m. on May 27 at Pacific Place).

We had a server snafu earlier this morning, which kiboshed our Neighborhood News roundup. Here's a summary version: that student who was shot to death while wearing a Nazi uniform was a UW German Studies major, even in this real estate market, someone still wants to kick the B&O out in favor of a 75-unit apartment complex, and Cliff Mass says probably no snow today, but watch out for tomorrow. Has your Zune started working again? Meanwhile, most of our secondary pages are still offline, and we're still experiencing some "server optimization" issues with commenting login times. If you have particular difficulties with anything, shoot us an email at tips (at) seattlest dot com. And Happy 2009!

We're sure you've seen the non-stop TV ads and heard all the terrible buzz on Valkyrie. The film, based on a true story about one of several assassination attempts on Hitler by German officers, was pushed back from a summer 2008 release date to the February 2009 dumping ground before getting moved to a Christmas debut. But it's not as bad as what you've heard. The script (written by Usual Suspects Oscar winner Christopher McQuarrie) is fine, Bryan Singer's direction is capable, and the cast features a bevy of talented British actors (including Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson, and pretty much everyone in Black Book). In fact, there's really only one problem with the film, but it's a big 'un:

There was a woman, born in Germany, who thought Hitler was about the best thing to happen to Germany since, well, ever. Though she never joined the Nazi party, she became a "close personal friend" of Hitler. He supported her work: the documentaries Triumph of the Will (about the 1934 Nazi rallies at Nuremberg) and Olympia (about the 1936 Oympics). She shot a lot of film during the war. Sometimes the extras were trucked in from a concentration camp. When she got married in 1944, she introduced her husband to Adolf. She was a woman who both didn't know about the camps, and only cooperated with the Nazis because she didn't want to be sent to one.

It's week something-or-other of SIFF, and the hits just keep on coming! So, here are this week's picks. For all SIFF screenings, the general/member ticket prices are $11/$9 (and matinees $8/$7), except for gala screenings and other special events, which cost more.