Years & Movies: 1993

The best film of the world cinema of 1993 according to FilmGourmand was named Steven Spielberg's "Schindler's List".

Steven Spielberg's film is based on the book by Australian writer Thomas Keneally. In English-speaking countries, Keneally's book, written in 1982, was published under the title "Schindler's List", in other countries - "Schindler's Ark".

The idea to write a novel about a Nazi who saved more than a thousand Jews from death was suggested to the Australian writer by Leopold Pfefferberg. He also initiated Thomas Keneally into the details of the life of the so-called "Schindler Jews", since he himself was one of them.

In 1939, Leopold Pfefferberg, Master of Philosophy, was an officer in the Polish army and was wounded defending his country from the invading Nazis. After being cured in a hospital, secretly, as a civilian, he made his way to Kraków, where his mother lived. Pffeferberg's mother was an interior designer and Oskar Schindler, a Sudeten-German businessman, hired her to decorate his home. Thanks to this, Leopold Pfefferberg met Oskar Schindler.

However, soon Pfefferberg, his mother, wife, brother and many relatives were placed in the Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp, the head of which was Amon Göth, who terrified even his fellow party members with his sadism. Only Leopold and his wife managed to survive, and only because Schindler was able to include them on his list. All other relatives of Pfefferberg were destroyed.

After the war, in 1948, Pfefferberg and his wife were able to move to the United States, to Los Angeles, where Leopold tried to attract the attention of Hollywood figures to the personality of Oscar Schindler. For this purpose, he even wrote several versions of the script of a film about this man and achieved several interviews on local television. But it was all in vain. After the death of Oskar Schindler in 1974, Pfefferberg gave up his dream of ever seeing a film about this non-standard Nazi.

As always, chance intervened. In 1980, Thomas Keneally came into the store where Pfefferberg worked to buy a briefcase. After talking to a salesman who told him the story of Oskar Schindler, Keneally became interested in the personality of this man and decided to write a novel about him. Pfefferberg undertook to help him in this. Subsequently, when the novel was written, Keneally dedicated it to Pfefferberg, "who, with his zeal and perseverance, forced him to write this book." Pfefferberg himself explained his zeal and persistence as follows: "Schindler saved my life, I tried to preserve his immortality."

Thomas Keneally's novel "Schindler's Ark" was awarded the Booker Prize, and this returned Pfefferberg's dream to see a film about Schindler after all. For the sake of realizing this dream, as Steven Spielberg later admitted, Pfefferberg called the director at least once a week for 11 years, convincing him of the need to make such a film. And finally convinced. However, during these 11 years, Spielberg made attempts to delegate the shooting of the film about Schindler to other directors: Roman Polanski, Sidney Pollack, Martin Scorsese, Brian De Palma. Everyone refused for various reasons. But Billy Wilder volunteered to direct this film himself. However, by that time Steven Spielberg considered himself an experienced enough director to make a film on such a complex and difficult topic as the Holocaust. Not the least role in making this decision was played by a noticeable increase in anti-Semitism and neo-Nazism in the 1990s.

The budget for this film was allocated quite modest - $ 22 million (for comparison: the budget of the film "Jurassic Park", on the editing of which Spielberg worked in parallel with the filming of "Schindler's List", was $ 63 million - three times more). The producers doubted that a film about the Holocaust would interest the mass audience. Therefore, Spielberg was forced to save literally on everything. In particular, on his salary, i.e., he shot the film for free. The scarcity of the budget did not allow making authentic costumes for 20 thousand extras. Therefore, it was decided to appeal to the population of Poland with a request, if possible, to sell old clothes for symbolic money. The calculation turned out to be correct: the poor population of Poland, which had just finished with the "socialist planned economy", had enough clothes preserved from the 30s - 40s.

Filming, which was preceded by months of work on the script, began on March 1, 1993 and took place near the former Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau (Oświęcim). Filming lasted 72 days, 4 days less than planned. Much of the film was intentionally shot in black and white to emphasize the authenticity of what is happening. But in one episode, red is used - a girl in a red coat. Many critics and film critics offer their own versions of what this red coat symbolizes. In fact, everything is simple. Audrey Hepburn told Spielberg about a girl in a red coat being led to death by the Nazis. It Audrey Hepburn who witnessed a similar scene during the war. And this girl in a red coat stuck in her memory for the rest of her life. The sad news of Audrey Hepburn's death came shortly before filming began. And Spielberg inserted an episode with a girl in a red coat into the film, as a tribute to the memory of a great woman, a great Actress.

On November 30, 1993, the premiere of this film took place in the US capital - Washington. And from the middle of December 1993, the triumphal procession of this film began in cinemas in most countries of the world.

But in several Muslim countries, including Malaysia, Indonesia and Egypt, the film was banned. The argument of the Muslim authorities was that the Nazis were allegedly shown too cruel in the film and too much sympathy was expressed towards Jews. In the Philippines, an attempt was made to censor the picture, namely, to cut out some scenes of nudity and violence. When Steven Spielberg found out about this, he said that the film would either be shown as it is, or it would not be shown at all. The then President of the Philippines Fidel Ramos intervened in the situation, forbidding censors to mock the artwork, and the film was shown without any cuts.

In early 1994, Steven Spielberg's film "Schindler's List" received 6 Golden Globe Award nominations and won three of them, including the most important ones: Best Motion Picture - Drama, Best Director - Motion Picture and Best Screenplay - Motion Picture. Then the American Film Academy nominated the film for the Academy Award in 12 categories and awarded the victory in 7 of them. Again, including the most important nominations: Best Picture, Best Director. No less successful was Spielberg's film among the British film academics, who nominated the picture for the BAFTA Award in 13 categories. In 7 categories, the film was recognized as the winner, including as the Best film. Steven Spielberg was awarded the David Lean Award for directing this film.

In other European film academies, "Schindler's List" enjoyed slightly less success. Thus, the Italian Film Academy nominated Spielberg's film for the David di Donatello Award in the category of Best Foreign Film, but recognized the Irish film "In the Name of the Father" directed by Jim Sheridan as more worthy of this award. French film academics in 1995 also nominated "Schindler's List" for their César Award, but awarded it to the British romantic comedy "Four Weddings and One Funeral" directed by Mike Newell.

But the Japanese Film Academy awarded Spielberg's film its award as the Best foreign film, giving it preference over the films "Pulp Fiction" by Quentin Tarantino and "Piano" by Jane Campion.

Among professional film critics, Steven Spielberg's film "Schindler's List" aroused almost 100% admiration. Almost - because The Washington Post film reviewer Rita Kempley in her review of the film gave him this characteristic: ""Schindler's List" is a ruthlessly unsentimental portrait of a German war profiteer's epiphany that inspires neither sorrow nor pity, but a kind of emotional numbness. It's as if Steven Spielberg, so famous for emotional manipulation, here has let the material speak for itself. The result is less than heart-rending."

The most authoritative American film critic, Roger Ebert, devoted two reviews to Steven Spielberg's film "Schindler's List": in 1993 and in 2001. In both, he rated the film with a maximum of four stars and included this film in his list of "Great Movies". In the first review he wrote: "What happened to turn him (Oscar Schindler - FG) from a victimizer into a humanitarian? It is to the great credit of Steven Spielberg that his film "Schindler's List" does not even attempt to answer that question. Any possible answer would be too simple, an insult to the mystery of Schindler's life. The Holocaust was a vast evil engine set whirling by racism and madness. Schindler outsmarted it, in his own little corner of the war, but he seems to have had no plan, to have improvised out of impulses that remained unclear even to himself. In this movie, the best he has ever made, Spielberg treats the fact of the Holocaust and the miracle of Schindler's feat without the easy formulas of fiction."

In the second review, which is largely devoted not only and not so much to the film "Schindler's List" as to critical attacks on it, Roger Ebert wrote: "The film has been an easy target for those who find Spielberg's approach too upbeat or "commercial," or condemn him for converting Holocaust sources into a well-told story. But every artist must work in his medium, and the medium of film does not exist unless there is an audience between the projector and the screen....Spielberg's unique ability in his serious films has been to join artistry with popularity--to say what he wants to say in a way that millions of people want to hear....The power of Spielberg's film is not that it explains evil, but that it insists that men can be good in the face of it, and that good can prevail."

As for the evaluation of Spielberg's film by ordinary moviegoers, it is characterized by the following figures. With a budget of $22 million, the film grossed over $322 million. That is, the film paid off almost 15 times. 87% of IMDB and Kinopoisk users rated this film from 8 to 10, and 40% of users rated the film with the highest score - "ten".

Taking into account the above, the rating of Steven Spielberg's film "Schindler's List" according to FilmGourmand was 10.37, which makes it 27th in the Golden Thousand.

In addition to Steven Spielberg's film "Schindler's List", the following films were included in the "top ten" of the best films of world cinema in 1993 according to FilmGourmand:

- In the Name of the Father. Director Jim Sheridan, Ireland. Movie's Rating - 9,870; 52nd Rank in the Golden Thousand.
- The Piano. Director Jane Campion, Australia. Movie's Rating - 9,849; 54th Rank in the Golden Thousand.
- Trois couleurs: Bleu (Three Colors: Blue). Director Krzysztof Kieslowski, France. Movie's Rating - 8,849; 201st Rank in the Golden Thousand.
- Naked. Director Mike Leigh, UK. Movie's Rating - 8,385; 371st Rank in the Golden Thousand.
- Jurassic Park. Director Steven Spielberg, USA. Movie's Rating - 8,321; 395th Rank in the Golden Thousand.
- Trois couleurs: Blanc (Three Colors: White). Director Krzysztof Kieslowski, France. Movie's Rating - 8,199; 468th Rank in the Golden Thousand.
- Groundhog Day. Director Harold Ramis, USA. Movie's Rating - 8,055; 642nd Rank in the Golden Thousand.
- The Fugitive. Director Andrew Davis, USA. Movie's Rating - 7,923; 832nd Rank in the Golden Thousand.
- Carlito's Way. Director Brian De Palma, USA. Movie's Rating - 7,918; 841st Rank in the Golden Thousand.

10 most "cinegenic"*, in our opinion, events of 1993:

- The shooting of the Russian parliament. The constitutional crisis that broke out in Russia ended with the shooting of the Supreme Soviet building and the adoption of the new Constitution of Russia. Some political scientists classify these events as a military coup.

- The massacre in Mumbai. In India, mass armed clashes between Muslims and Hindus took place in Mumbai, during which 575 Muslims and at least 275 Hindus were killed. The reason is the destruction in 1992 by Hindu nationalists of the abandoned and unused for a long time Babri Mosque. The final point of the clashes was a series of car explosions, which resulted in the death of 257 people. The bombings were organized by a criminal group headed by the criminal authority and drug dealer Dawood Ibrahim. Dawood Ibrahim, one of the ten most wanted criminals on the planet, still lives quietly in Dubai.

- The death of the Seohae ferry. The Seohae ferry sank in the Yellow Sea off the coast of South Korea. The cause of the ferry's death was a combination of three factors: overloading of the vessel, adverse weather conditions and a rope wound on both propellers. Of the 362 passengers on board, only 70 people were rescued.

- The background of Srebrenica. During the Bosnian War, Muslim militants based in Srebrenica staged a massacre in Kravica (Bosnia and Herzegovina), killing 49 civilians aged from 4 to 84, injuring 82 people. 690 houses were burned, a church was destroyed, and the village of Mandichi was completely destroyed. There was not a word about these events in the Western media.

- The accident at the Siberian Chemical Plant. In Russia, a chemical plant in Tomsk released radioactive substances into the atmosphere, as a result of which 1946 people were exposed to radiation.

- Washington LGBT March. In the United States, according to various estimates, from 300 thousand to one million representatives of the LGBT community took part in the march on Washington.

- The death of Gamsakhurdia. Former President Zviad Gamsakhurdia was found shot in the back of the head in Georgia. The Georgian authorities named suicide as the cause of death. But how else: in Georgia, they commit suicide only with a shot in the back of the head.

- The siege of Mount Carmel. Armed units of the FBI and the US National Guard besieged a ranch on the outskirts of Waco, Texas. The reason for the siege was the suspicion of violation of weapons legislation by members of the religious sect "Branch of David" who lived on the ranch. The siege ended with an assault using tanks, during which 82 members of the sect, including 20 young children, and four FBI agents were killed.

- Velvet divorce. After the so-called "velvet revolution" during which Czechoslovakia ended the socialist regime, there was a peaceful disintegration of one state into two: the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

- Prologue of the 9/11 terrorist attack. More than 8 years before the attack on the "Twin Towers" in New York, an attempt was made to destroy them. A truck bomb filled with 606 kg of urea nitrate and several hydrogen cylinders was detonated in the underground garage of the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York. According to the terrorists' plan, the undermined Northern Tower was supposed to fall on the Southern One, as a result of which thousands of people would have died. The tower survived, but 6 people died and more than 1,000 were injured, including in a stampede at the exit during the evacuation.

In addition, in 1993 Audrey Hepburn, Federico Fellini, Leonid Gaidai, Joseph Leo Mankevich died.

* -With "cinematic" in the present context, we mean events that either have already found their reflection in world cinema, or deserve to become the basis of the plot of a future film.

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