Review of Anne Frank Remembered (1995) by Khetzie G — 14 Jan 2010
Keeps up a steady flow of rich, moving anecdotes that either back up or correct the youthful imbalances in Anne's writing... Blair can't avoid caged-bird imagery, but it's clear from his film that even during the early, "friendly" days of German occupation, the steady drip of rules and regulations had the desired effect on the city's inhabitants: "Everything I did, I thought it was forbidden," confesses one.
It's here that "Anne Frank Remembered" finds the key to the diary's continued teaching in schools today, and why it remains one of those rare set texts pupils are keen to engage with.
More than a symbol or martyr, or an eyewitness or tragic heroine (though she would become all these), Anne was a teenager, and one more immediately concerned with developments personal (the size of her breasts, the crush she developed on a fellow hider) than political.
As one of her closest friends recalls here, "She was just very naughty". Blair's film - traditional, sober, deeply edifying - invites us to reassess Anne Frank's diary writing as a form of resistance, her own way of holding out as an individual before the occupying forces could arrive to reduce her to a statistic, or footnote.
This review of Anne Frank Remembered (1995) was written by Khetzie G on 14 Jan 2010.
Anne Frank Remembered has generally received very positive reviews.
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