The Diary of Anne Frank (1959)

 The Diary of Anne Frank (1959)

It’s been much too long since I’ve read the book, so, other than remembering its basics, I’m basically encountering details of the story anew.

I suppose because of its historical and cultural importance I will encounter much flak even if I’m slightly critical of the movie; I’ve already resigned myself to that.

While a story of a group of people living in hiding from Nazis, (or just generally besieged by monsters of whatever origin, Night of the Living Dead being another filmic classic example,) should provide plenty of drama and suspense, (and there is some of that here,) there’s also the danger of it not having much cinematic potential.

A theatrical play? Sure, that’s probably the perfect medium for a story of this sort, which is what this film is based on. But transferring that to a film carries with it some inherent dangers.

Many play-to-movie adaptations attempt to open the experience for the movie watcher by adding extraneous scenes, not always fully successfully integrating the outside world to its intimate, indoor drama. Here, the establishing exteriors shots are of the authentic, historical setting.

The Diary of Anne Frank attempts to fix this problem with an ingenious, multi-level set which allows the camera to follow action happening downstairs and vice versa; a feat which not only allows the viewer to become aware of the film’s geography, but also reveals menaces which its characters can only hear, but not identify, (a burglar, for example, is he one of the benefactors? Or is it the Nazis? We can identify him, but the protagonists can’t.)

Another visual aspect which seems meant merely to alleviate the reduced set is the use of Dutch angles. Maybe meant to induce discomfort or unease, their use also breaks the visual monotony.

And as to its content? Well, since its publication there have been other works which present a more rounded and complete view of the experiences Jewish refugees lived while escaping Nazi Germany (most notably Art Spiegelman’s popular but also highly controversial Maus, I suppose,) and so the limited perspective of an adolescent girl stuck living inside an attic suffers in comparison when its day-to-day domestic drama gets reduced to the simple frictions and squabbles of too many people living in a too small space with diminishing resources even when one considers the larger historical picture.

And this is precisely where my impressions and memories of the Diary work against the cinematic adaptation.

I read the book when I was just about Anne Frank’s age and found it easier to identify with her as an individual, and my impressions of her book, (even when it was edited to take some ‘objectionable’ content out; unwisely, since it would have simply presented her as an even more identifiable human being to a fellow adolescent,) have lasted a lifetime, which is more than I feel I can say will result of watching this movie.

While the film successfully illustrates this group’s dire situation, I hardly felt as if it captured Anne’s voice or her personality which is what impresses one most about her Diary.

The conclusion, while emotionally stirring, cannot escape its theatrical origins. The group's tragic fate is simply narrated, rather than seen. I imagine presenting it visually would have been devastating, but in a story of this sort, that's precisely what is called for. Maybe audiences of the time weren't getting credit for being able to handle it.

George Romero ended his film with still images. That might have also been the wisest solution here.

Anne Frank Remembered (1996) should have been narrated by a teenage girl, rather than by Glenn Close, for example. This film doesn’t make that mistake, but its cast is also a bit too old to capture what I was expecting and what I feel is an essential component of the diary; Millie Perkins was 23 at the time of film release, Anne Frank died at 15.

As we near the end of the living memory of these events I suppose it’s a well-produced, perfectly fine adaptation, and even when I feel it can’t possibly be the definitive adaptation it’s not going to detract from people’s impression that it deserves its classic status.

Also with Joseph Schildkraut, Richard Beymer, Shelley Winters, Diane Baker, Lou Jacobi, and Ed Wynn.

Check it out.