Anne Frank: The Whole Story

All you want to know about Anne Frank: The Whole Story

Anne Frank:
The Whole Story

DVD cover
Directed by Robert Dornhelm
Produced by David R. Kappes
Kirk Ellis
Written by Kirk Ellis
Starring Brenda Blethyn
Lili Taylor
Hannah Taylor-Gordon
Music by Graeme Revell
Cinematography Elemér Ragályi
Editing by Christopher Rouse
Distributed by American Broadcasting Company
Release date(s) May 20, 2001
Running time 189 minutes
Country United States
Language English, Dutch, German, French, Hebrew, Spanish

Anne Frank: The Whole Story (also known as Anne Frank) is a mini-series based on the book Anne Frank: The Biography by Melissa Müller. The mini series was shown on ABC on May 20th, 2001.

Controversially, but in keeping with the claim made by Melissa Müller, the series asserts that the anonymous betrayer of the Frank family was the office cleaner, when in fact the betrayer's identity has never been established. A disagreement between the producers of the mini-series and the Anne Frank Foundation about validity of this and other details led to the withdrawal of their endorsement of the dramatization, which prevented the use of any quotations from the writings of Anne Frank appearing within the production. Hannah Taylor-Gordon received both Golden Globe and Emmy Award nominations for her performance as Anne Frank, while Ben Kingsley won a Screen Actor's Guild Award for his performance as Otto Frank, Anne's father.

Contents

Cast

Plot

Soon, Anne realizes her world begins changing around her, and eventually the Nazis invade The Netherlands. Anne gets increasingly distressed as her rights are taken away, as well as ominously being forced to register as Jews with the government and to wear yellow stars. She is then forced to leave her school and attend a Jewish Lyceum, where she meets her new best friend, Jacqueline van Maarsen, who is only half-Jewish. She also meets Hello Silberberg, whom she develops a crush on (it is implied Hello likes her too). On her 13th birthday, she receives the famous checkered-patterned diary and she immediately goes to her room to write her first entry.

A few weeks later, on a normal Sunday in July 1942, Margot receives a call-up from the Germans to be deported to a "labor camp" in the East. Otto Frank moves his family into the now-renowned "Secret Annex", followed soon by the van Pels and their son Peter, and Fritz Pfeffer, the Frank family's dentist. During their stay in the annex, the Van Pels family are seen for their constant bickering, Fritz is seen as an antagonist of Anne's, and Anne gets into her first serious relationship with Peter, all while wishing for an end to the war. Anne also gets her first period while in the annex - an occasion she'd been waiting anxiously for. A thief, one night breaks into the building below the annex, leaving the eight refugees in terror.

Eventually, on August 4, 1944, the Franks are betrayed by the cleaning lady Lena Hartog, in the business in which the annex resides. The eight people in hiding are arrested. Anne's diary is dumped onto the floor while the Germans search for money. Otto reveals his history as a German veteran during World War I. Two of the helpers are also arrested.

Afterwards, the Franks are sent on a passenger train to Westerbork, a transit camp, where Anne and her family and friends are held in the criminal "S Barracks". There, Anne meets a woman named Janny Brandes and her sister Lientje, who are later seen with Anne in Bergen-Belsen. Anne and her family are soon transported to Auschwitz, where the women are stripped of their clothing and their hair is shorn, she is separated from her father and the other men. During a selection for women in the camp to go to a safer place to a munitions factory, Anne's mother and sister are chosen, but Anne is not, and therefore, Edith and Margot choose to remain behind. Anne and Margot are sent to a scabies barracks and later deported to Bergen-Belsen, which is no more than many large tents on a muddy ground surrounded by an electric fence. Mrs. van Pels eventually arrives at the camp to find Anne very thin and Margot sick with typhus. Anne, one night, sees her old friend, Hannah, through the fence. Hannah is a privileged prisoner, and she tells Anne that her father is dying but her sister is alive. She throws a package with bread and socks over to Anne.

In the last scene with Anne, Margot and Anne talk about times past, but Margot then falls out of bed and dies of shock. Anne, whose will to live is finally gone, looks up into the sky, defeated.

After the war in 1945, it is revealed that Otto is, in fact, alive. He looks for information about his daughters, but has no luck in doing so until referenced to find Janny Brandes who survived the camp. Otto is told that Anne died a few days after Margot. Miep, who helped the Franks, gave Otto Anne's preserved diary. Otto reads the entire thing, then goes up to the now empty annex and collapses in a crying heap in front of Anne's wall, still plastered with movie star photos. Then, the film tells what happened to everyone mentioned in the film and the film ends.

Historical Inaccuracies

  • Otto tells Miep and Edith that his sister asked him to go see their cousin to live in London with her. It was actually his cousin Milly who asked for Margot and Anne to be sent to London, not his sister, Leni, who lived in Switzerland.
  • When the Gestapo enters Miep's office, she is standing up and is searched. In reality, she was sitting in her chair and was told to stay seated, and that was why she never saw Anne and her family leave the building.
  • Janny and Lientje's last name is Brandes. Brandes was Janny's married last name, while Lientje's married last name was Rebling. If the film had them using the same last name, they should have been called Janny and Lientje Brilleslijper.
  • Anne's concentration camp number in this film is A-25063. Actually, her number is unknown, since the camp records including Anne's number have been either lost or destroyed. The other women in the transport from Westerbork with Anne were tattooed with numbers between A-25060 and A-25271, so it is possible that the number given in the film could have been Anne Frank's real number.
  • When the families from the Secret Annexe are boarding the truck after being discovered, Miep is seen peering from the office window. She stated in an later interview that she was still seated at her desk at the time.

Home video release

Anne Frank: The Whole Story was released on VHS and DVD on August 28, 2001 by Buena Vista Home Entertainment. There is not much difference from the DVD and VHS version of this movie since the only special feature on the DVD is a trailer of South Pacific.

Reviews

Anne Frank: The Whole Story earned critical acclaim from critics and viewers. The New York Post called the mini-series "Undeniably powerful" whereas others claimed it "a stunning tribute." This adaption has been named as "the best Anne Frank movie or mini-series yet."

MPAA Rating

The production was rated TV-14 for concentration camp depictions including brief nudity. The brief nudity takes place where Anne, Margot, Edith, and Mrs.van Pels get their heads shaven at Auschwitz. There is also some disturbing images including dead bodies.

See also

External links

v • d • e
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Miniseries

Anne Frank: The Whole Story (2001) · Band of Brothers (2002) · Taken (2003) · Angels in America (2004) · The Lost Prince (2005) · Elizabeth I (2006) · Broken Trail (2007) · John Adams (2008)
Complete list: (1976–2000) · (2001–present)
v • d • e
Anne Frank in other forms
In film
In television
Anne Frank: The Whole Story  • The Diary of Anne Frank (BBC TV serial)
In literature
Stage adaptations
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Frank:_The_Whole_Story"

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