10.1.09

Anne Frank


Really enjoyed the BBC adaption of this. Tried to watch it a few times with the eldest dotter but the adult themes proved a bit too much for me so I let her watch it alone.

The kids were out last night playing with the traffic so I watched it with my wife. It was very moving and I'm not ashamed to say I shed some manly tears. Not for the first time in this fledgling year. J was positively blubbing however and I was obliged to give her a small cuddle. At 7:30 in the evening. What next?

Utterly failing to comprehend the dire circumstances her people find themselves in, Anne asked, "Why does everyone hate us?".

It was a very hard question to answer 60 odd years ago but perhaps less so these days.

5 comments:

mcgenius said...

For clarity, are you anti-German or anti-Dutch?

musters said...

I dunno, what've you got?

mcgenius said...

Well... the Cloggies put us out of the Would Cup in 1994... but that was the same day that I saw the short lived Electrafixion in concert, and that was a great neet oot.

Whereas the night Eng-ger-lunnd were defeated by Das Deutsches in 1990 is one of my favourit evenings ever.

So I have a fondness for both nations.

I have a great NYC concierge anti-israeli story, but now's not the tmne (for your tears0.

musters said...

WhatI meant was,

The comparison between the Franks, forced into hiding, and the Palestinians, proscribed, trapped and hopeless in this sliver of land that is the Middle East's attic, was inescapable.

But AA Gill stole the idea from me and, to make it even more convincing, he published it in the Sunday Times Culture section.

Normally I'd be angry but his shoehorning of the phrase "Middle East's attic" allows me to see the funny side of things.

ageing hipster said...

I watched it all week and wept hot tears on Friday night. I'd known they were coming from sometime around Tuesday evening 7.10. Brilliant performances all round but the girl who played Anne was exceptional.

Watched the Branagh-narrated doc afterwards and shed a few more tears. Particularly at the point where it was revealed that, when she died, in March 1945, she thought that the rest of her family was already dead. The speculation that if she'd known her father was still alive she might have hung on was persuasive. 'Daddy o my daddy' indeed...

Talked to my Mum over the weekend. She'd also been impressed but was puzzled at how 'they' had changed. 'Who?', I asked. 'The Jews', she replied. 'All that Gaza business. They used to be so meek but they're much more aggressive now'. I spent an hour or so explaining the difference between Jews and the State of Israel, concluding with the observation that we hadn't moved on very far in our understanding if the likes of her could look at Gaza and only conclude 'look what the Jews are up to now'.