One of the most spectacular and renowned conductors of the 1930s, Wilhelm Furtwangler's reputation rivaled that of Toscanini's. After the war, he was investigated as part of the Allies' de-Nazification programme. In the bombed-out Berlin of the immediate post-war period, the Allies slowly bring law and order to bear on an occupied Germany. An American major is given the Furtwangler file, and is told to find everything he can and to prosecute the man ruthlessly. Tough and hard-nosed, Major Steve Arnold sets out to investigate a world of which he knows nothing.
Acting
Keitel's bulldog tenacity vs. Skarsgård's wounded dignity.
Direction
Szabó turns rooms into psychological battlefields.
Writing
Ronald Harwood's dialogue weaponizes silence and interruption.
Director
István Szabó
Harvey Keitel
Steve Arnold
Stellan Skarsgård
Wilhelm Furtwängler
Moritz Bleibtreu
David Wills
R. Lee Ermey
General Wallace
Birgit Minichmayr
Emmi Straube
Ulrich Tukur
Helmut Rode
Oleg Tabakov
Colonel Dymshitz
Hanns Zischler
Rudolf Werner
Armin Rohde
Schlee
Daniel White
Sergeant Adams
August Zirner
Ed Martin
Thomas Thieme
Reichsminister
Jed Curtis
Colonel Green
Garrick Hagon
Major Richards
Robin Renucci
Captain Vernay
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Screenwriter Ronald Harwood also adapted his play 'The Dresser' and won an Oscar for 'The Pianist.'
The real Furtwängler case became a lightning rod for debates about 'inner emigration'—artists who claimed to resist Nazism while remaining in Germany.
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