Cinema
Schindler's List
Steven Spielberg · 1993
Synopsis
Kraków, after the invasion of Poland in September 1939. Oskar Schindler, a German industrialist and member of the Nazi party, arrives in the occupied city to make his fortune. He wins over the officers with receptions, gifts and bribes, takes over an enamelware factory financed by Jews confined in the ghetto, and employs Jewish workers there. His accountant, Itzhak Stern, runs the factory and has men under threat classed as essential. Amon Göth then arrives to build the Plaszow camp and orders the liquidation of the ghetto.
Context
The survivor Poldek Pfefferberg wanted all his life to have the industrialist's story told, attempted a film with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1963, then in 1980 persuaded the Australian writer Thomas Keneally, who made a book of it that appeared in 1982. Sid Sheinberg, president of Universal's parent company, sent the New York Times review of it to Spielberg, who told Pfefferberg in 1983 that shooting would begin in ten years. The film was offered to Polański, who refused, and Martin Scorsese was for a time attached; Spielberg said he made up his mind when faced with the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia. Pfefferberg appears in the credits as an adviser.
Who it is for
A film of three hours and fifteen minutes, in black and white with a few touches of colour, opened and closed by scenes in colour.
Prizes and reception
Seven Oscars in 1994, including best picture and best director, Spielberg's first in competition.
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