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Among
the many films that have been made
about the Holocaust, some of the
most powerful have concerned the
survivors—their grief at
having survived when so many
millions did not, and the ongoing
mental damage they suffered. Schindler's
List, Sophie's Choice, The
Pawnbroker, Fateless, Europa Europa and Remember are
among those that cover different
aspects of the Holocaust and those
who survived it. The latest
such film, Barry Levinson's The Survivor on
HBO Max, is the story of a boxer who
literally fought for survival in
Auschwitz.
With a screenplay by Justine Juel
Gillmer based on a book by Alan
Scott Haft, The Survivor covers
the life of Haft's father, Hertzko
"Harry" Haft (Ben Foster), who as
the film opens is a boxer in 1949
New York. Harry's record as a
fighter is less than stellar, yet he
seeks a bout with the unbeatable
Rocky Marciano. As it turns
out, Haft has no expectation of
beating Marciano. Years ago in
Poland, before the Nazis hauled them
both away to the camps, Harry loved
a girl named Leah (Dar
Zuzovsky). He feels in his
heart that Leah is still alive and
believes that if she hears about a
Marciano-Haft fight, she will
contact him. In his campaign to
get publicity, Harry gives an
interview to a sleazy reporter
(Peter Sarsgaard) who turns out
eventually to know more than he lets
on.
Harry gets his bout with Marciano, but if you think that's the crux of the
story, think again. The Survivor has nearly an hour to go after the fight
occurs, and that portion is the true heart of the movie—the story of a
decent but brutalized man trying to get something back after losing
everything, and who must learn to let go of his rage to take his place in the
world as a husband and father. After years in the camps, that is much
easier said than done. Harry deals constantly with otherwise ordinary
situations that bring back unbearable memories for him. One of the
saddest scenes in the film is set in Harry's honeymoon suite after he
marries Miriam (Vicky Krieps). I will not describe it; you must see it for
yourselves.
Much of Harry's brutalization comes at the hands of Nazi officer Dietrich
Schneider (Billy Magnussen), who establishes himself as Harry's protector
-manager in Auschwitz. Schneider fancies himself an Ubermensch,above
the usual run of anti-Semitic brutes who guard the camp. He likes to
remind Harry that he owes his life to him; he stopped the guards from
shooting Harry after he decked one of them. In time, we see what
Schneider's philanthropy truly consists of, and Harry's "gratitude" in
response.
Levinson shoots the Auschwitz scenes in black and white, which effectively
differentiates them from the scenes in America but feels slightly cliched
after Schindler's List. Nevertheless, The Survivor is a powerful film.
Levinson benefits from Gillmer's screenplay; from the photography of
George Steel and the production design of Miljen Kreka Kljakovic; and,
above all, from his excellent cast. Sarsgaard, John Leguizamo and Levinson
regular Danny DeVito make sharp impressions in their small roles.
Magnussen is appropriately, smugly hateful as Schneider, and Vicky Krieps
is lovely as Miriam, a character totally opposite from her death-giving
persona in The Phantom Thread.
But The Survivor ultimately stands or falls on the casting of Harry, and
with Ben Foster the film stands very tall indeed. Throughout his career
Foster has specialized in playing damaged characters, in such films and TV
programs as 3:10 to Yuma, Leave No Trace, Hell or High Water, Six Feet
Under, and an extraordinary broadcast from the Young Vic in which he
played Stanley Kowalski to Gillian Anderson's Blanche du Bois. His Harry
Haft is of a piece with these roles, except that Harry is a vastly better man
than most of them and has a much happier fate. Foster's defining scenes
come at the beginning and end of The Survivor, when Levinson has Harry
walking alone down a Florida beach. The look in Foster's eyes is
unforgettable; it's the look of a man who has been attacked all his life, who
has learned to distrust everyone and everything, but who has finally
realized that life is better than he was taught to believe. At the very end,
the newly wise Harry tells Miriam a quiet joke that sums up the emotional
content not only of the film, but of human existence.
Tragedy and grief can engulf millions or a single family. Babyteeth, the
feature film debut of Australian TV director Shannon Murphy available for
rent on Amazon Prime, is the story of a private grief, made all the more
powerful by the way Murphy and screenwriter Rita Kalnejais choose to tell
it.
Babyteeth refers to Milla (Eliza Scanlen), the 16-year-old protagonist, who
still has one of hers. (This becomes a powerful metaphor toward the end.)
At the beginning we see her with her school friends at a train station.
Milla's friends are talking about the upcoming prom, but we notice that
Milla isn't listening to them. Instead, she is staring intently at the tracks,
and immediately we fear the worst.
Milla is jolted back to reality by a young man who jumps, for no apparent
reason, between her and an incoming train. The young man is Moses (Toby
Wallace), a 23-year-old drug addict who has been kicked out of his
mother's house. Seeing that Milla's nose is bleeding, Moses whips off his
T-shirt and holds it against her nose to stanch the blood. He then asks her
for money.
The next scene is between Henry (Ben Mendelsohn), a psychiatrist, and
Anna (Essie Davis), his patient, in Henry's office. At first it seems like
Henry and Anna are indulging in illicit drugs and sex, but a phone call
alerts us to the context: Henry and Anna are (a) married and (b) Milla's
parents. A little later, when Anna takes Milla to her violin lesson with old
family friend Gidon (Eugene Gilfedder), the audience learns almost
accidentally that Milla is dying from an unspecified type of cancer.
Proceeding in short chapters with laconic or ironic titles, Babyteeth is less
the story of Milla's last days than of (to borrow a phrase from E.M. Forster)
the difficulty of living in the universe. As Milla—wearing a series of wigs to
not so much cover as flout her baldness—tries to crowd as much life as she
can into her last few months, Anna and Henry try to do everything they can
to make her happy. Moses is the wild card. Anna and Henry do not like or
trust him; it's hard to trust anyone who breaks into your house to steal
prescription drugs, or deserts your underage daughter at an all-night rave.
But Moses makes Milla happy, so Anna and Henry grit their teeth and
entice him into her life.
Murphy and Kalnejais keep viewers slightly off kilter throughout the film,
mirroring the grief and incomprehension they would feel at the pending
loss of a loved one dying far too young. They are aided by the
extraordinary performances of the four lead actors. As Milla struggles to
come to terms with her mortality, Anna, Henry, and Moses struggle to
become better people for her sake. Scanlen—who played Beth March, a
very different type of dying girl, in Greta Gerwig's Little Women—moves us
to the quick, but Davis, Mendelsohn, and especially Wallace have the most
interesting roles. Wallace won the David di Donatello Award at the Venice
Film Festival, and he deserved it. Wallace makes Toby a magnetic presence,
and in his performance we see the transformation of a wastrel, almost
against his will, into the beginnings of a decent human being. James Dean
couldn't have done better.
Babyteeth won awards around the world, but I never heard of it until a
friend recommended it to me. I thank him for his recommendation. Babyteeth employs many cinematic devices, but not the ones we're used to
seeing in a film like this. Murphy and Kalnejais hold off the tears until
near the end, making them feel merited and real. The final image of a calm
seashore might seem cliched in other hands than Murphy's. Here, it
represents our common destiny and the peace we all hope to achieve.
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