‘Remember us’

Considered the “Mona Lisa of Austria,” Gustav Klimt’s famous painting Woman In Gold has become a national treasure. But for one woman, it was simply a portrait of her beloved aunt Adele.

Directed by Simon Curtis, Woman In Gold is the remarkable true story of Jewish immigrant Maria Altmann, starring Helen Mirren as a young woman who was forced to flee her home with her husband Fritz during World War II under the Nazi occupation of Vienna. Now 60 years later, after creating a whole new life in California, she begins a journey to recover her family possessions that were looted by the Nazis, including Klimt’s famous painting of her aunt, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, which had hung prominently in her childhood home.

Aiding Altmann in her quest to right the wrongs of the past is lawyer Randy Schoenberg, portrayed by Ryan Reynolds. Together, they sue the Austrian government for the return of artwork stolen from her family by the Nazis. Their journey and subsequent battle with the Austrian government takes them from Austria all the way to the hallowed halls of the U.S. Supreme Court. And along the way, Altmann is forced to confront the painful truths about her past.

Curtis, who first heard about Maria Altmann and her family’s history after seeing the 2007 documentary Stealing Klimt, was inspired to bring the story to a wider audience for many reasons, including “the fact that it takes the events of 1938 and links them to contemporary suburban Los Angeles,” says the director in a recent interview with the Banner.

“There’s a theme. [The character] Maria says, ‘People forget, especially the young’ and the father at the end says ‘Remember us.’ I think … that’s the main theme of the film … it’s a tiny reminder of the perils of anti-Semitism and much more than we would have even known and, not just the perils of picking on the Jewish community but picking on anybody because of their race or religion. It’s so distressing that we have to keep saying that.”

Losing everything

Under the guidance of Curtis, the film subtly and masterfully shows the devastation and destruction the Nazis imposed upon Austria’s Jewish community. After Austria was annexed by Hitler’s Germany into the Third Reich in 1938, Vienna’s Jewish community, which was rich in art and culture, abruptly came to an end. Jewish businesses and residences were invaded and taken over, and Altmann’s family lost everything.

“I was terribly moved by the idea of this community in Vienna, which is a flourishing, loving, cultural community. It was destroyed and shattered overnight,” says the director. “This family and painting were emblematic of that whole world that was destroyed and Maria was the last one living from that community. I think there’s a lot of nuance in the conversation about the right of art. In this case, her uncle paid Gustav Klimt to paint her aunt and that painting ended on the wall of their family home.”

Curtis, who has long directed television in London, made his directorial film debut in 2011 with My Week with Marilyn starring Michelle Williams as Marilyn, Monroe for BBC Films and The Weinstein Company. The film also starred Judi Dench, Eddie Redmayne, Kenneth Branagh and Emma Watson.

Accolades

Williams won a Golden Globe for Best Actress for her portrayal of Monroe and also earned two Best Actress nominations: one from the Academy Awards and the second from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Curtis remarks how the film was scary “an actress being brave enough to take on Marilyn is a huge thing and I was lucky that Michelle was brave enough to do it.”

For the role of Altmann, Helen Mirren was at the top of the list for Curtis. “She is a brilliant actress and it was brilliant to work with her,” says the director of his leading lady.

In taking on the role of director for Woman In Gold, Curtis was interested because the film had substance.

“A lot of movies out at the moment are about nothing. A lot of films are comic book movies and all that,” he said. “Then there’s a film like 12 Years A Slave or the Stephen Hawking film that’s about something. I’m much more interested in that. And, I think this film is about something and that’s what draws me to it.”