The Palace Cinemas in Norton Street Leichhardt have reopened and to celebrate the cinema ran a preview screening of one of the big films that will premiere in the New Year.
A steam train travelling across a snow covered landscape opens THE BOOK THIEF, a luscious, beautiful and inspiring film. The suffering and harrowing injustices endured by many in Germany prior and during the Second World War is contrasted against the inimitable spirit of Liesel Meminger, played with delicacy and maturity by young Sophie Nélisse, last seen as Alice in MONSIEUR LAZHAR.
This film is worth seeing for Liesel’s character and Sophie’s performance but there is so much more that is enjoyable and enriching about THE BOOK THIEF. Florian Ballhaus’ cinematography is wonderful. It is a joy to watch. The details of a small German town are intricately captured. The camera lingers on Liesel’s mesmerising face. The scans across the houses, rooms, fields and many other scenes are both intimate and breathtaking.
Geoffrey Rush gives yet another impeccable performance as Hans Hubermann. He nurtures Liesel Meminger through what could have been a miserable existence that is made bearable by his quirkiness, his cheeky sense of humour and his encouragement of Liesel’s reading.
Max Vandenburg (Ben Schnetzer) is a young Jew hiding in the basement of the Hubermann household and for Liesel and Max the power of words and imagination become the only escape from their precarious existence.
Liesel’s charming friendship with a classmate, Rudy (Nico Liersch), gives her further respite from the tumultuous events of the times. Ilsa Hermann (Barbara Auer) is the wife of the town’s evil but banal Mayor. She befriends Liesel and their mutual love of books provides essential relief for Liesel from her situation.
Emily Watson as the harsh foster mother Rosa Hubermann gives an excellent performance, haranguing Geoffrey Rush’s Hans and despairing with Liesel but occasionally shows signs of compassion and concern.
Director Brian Percival’s realisation of Markus Zusak’s superb novel understandably struggles to include all the complexity of the novel and cannot delve into all the horrors of Nazi Germany. A slightly sentimental tone and the beautiful cinematography seem a little out of touch with the bleak and miserable aspects of the life surrounding Liesel, but overall THE BOOK THIEF is a wonderful film and I thoroughly recommend it.
THE BOOK THIEF opens in Sydney on Thursday January 9.