Cornerhouse Pick of the Week: Hannah Arendt

‘The banality of evil’ is one of those phrases that has become more famous than the person who originally coined it, which is perhaps why the biopic of its creator, Hannah Arendt, is such an intriguing prospect. But as is obligatory with biopics, the balance between the professional exploits and personal struggles has to be struck to appeal to the widest audience.

Ardent’s professional life was a fascinating one, as a German Jew who emigrated to America during Hitler’s rise to power, she went on to become a respected political theorist and philosopher. But it was her work during the trial of Nazi war criminal, Adolf Eichmann, for which she perhaps best known and why the film naturally focuses on this period. But whereas the drama would, you might think, stem from the personal impact for Arendt of reporting on a key figure of the Holocaust, the film in fact explores the controversy which surrounded the publication of her articles for The New Yorker in 1961. Far from writing a basic account of the events of Eichmann’s trial, Ardent was vocal in her criticism of the conducting of the trial in Israel and, most controversially, argued that Eichmann and other Nazis like him were far from psychopathic murderers but in fact ‘normal’ people who chose to commit appalling acts of genocide.

It is from this ‘the banality of evil’ phrase came about and in which, in a scene from the trailer, Arendt (Barbara Sukowa) precedes by stating “the greatest evil in the world is the evil committed by nobodys”. And by the looks of things the film won’t shy away from portraying the vicious attacks Arendt received as a result of her work.

Directed by Margarethe von Trotta, one of the leaders of ‘New German Cinema’ in post war West Germany, we can hope Hannah Arendt pulls no punches when it comes to casting a critical eye on the social issues from the time. The film boasts an excellent international cast including Brits, Janet McTeer and Nicholas Woodeson. The film also makes the wise choice of trusting the audience to be able to enjoy a film with subtitles: rather than attempting to jarringly insist that every character speak the same language (usually English) but change their accent to reflect their true nationality, the filmmakers have decided to have characters speak in the language they would have actually spoken. As a result the large parts of the film’s dialogue are in both and German and English, which may not seem that novel a notion but hundreds of great European films have been denied mass distribution simply because the characters speak in their native language. So if you aren’t afraid of reading and have any passing interest in history or psychology, or just want to try something different, then go see Hannah Arendt which is now showing at The Cornerhouse.