Boxoffice-November.2001

THE GREY ZONE
—
TORONTO REVIEWS
••••1/2
Starring David Arquette, Steve Buscemi,
Harvey Keilel and Daniel Renzali. Directed
and written by Tim Make Nelson. Produced
hy Pamela Koflier, Christine Vachon, Tim
Blake Nelson, Avi Lerner and Danny
Lerner. A Lions Gate release. Drama. Not
yet rated. Running time: 108 min.
One of the little noted about but most
disturbing —and controversial —realities of
the Holocaust was the presence in the concentration
camps of the Sonderkommando
units, squads of Jews who were designated
by the Nazis to help exterminate their coreligionists.
They were the ones who convinced
their fellow Jews that they were
going to be taking showers when they were
really going to be gassed. And they were
then utilized as the clean-up crew who
shoved the bodies into the crematoria and
swept up the ashes afterwards. In return for
doing the Nazis' dirty work, they were
rewarded with special privileges of food.
drink and cigarettes. Actor-director Tim
Blake Nelson has chosen to
focus on the
1 2lh Sonderkommando. which staged a
heroic revolt in Auschwitz in late 1944 and
destroyed half of the camp's ovens. "The
Grey Zone." which is a brutally tough—and
difficult to watch- film, was first written as
a stage play b\ Nelson and is based in part
on the diaries of Miklos Nyiszli. a Jewish
ments for the infamous Na/i Josef Mengele,
The movie concentrates on several
Hungarian Jews, including Hoffman (David
Arquette). Schlermer (Daniel Benzali) and
Abramowiez (Steve Buscemi), who are
planning the uprising. Knowing they will
soon be liquidated themselves, they feel
they have nothing to lose. Nelson emphasizes
the horrible actuality of the camps.
David Arquette ponders his fate in "The Grey Zone "
such as the constantly humming machinery
of death and the billowing smoke from
the crematoria, but also movingly probes
the difficulty of retaining one's humanity
amidst such horror.
There are stylistic touches that don't
work, such as the distraction of having one
officer speak with an accent while everyone
else converses in unaccented 1 nghsh. but
these are minor Haws. Overall, the claustrophobicalh
effective "(ire> /one" is one of the
finest, most humane and important I lolocausl
mo\ ies ever made Shlomo Sckwortzberg
THE DIARIES OF VASLAV NIJINSKY
• •*
Starring Sir Derek Jaeohi. Directed and
written by Paul Cox. Produced by William
Mars/tall and Kevin Lucas. A Winstar release.
Biography. I mated. Running time: V5 nun.
Returning to his experimental film roots
in "The Diaries o\' Vaslav Nijinsky," Paul
Cox presents his most audacious film to
date: an impressionistic portrait ol Russian
dancer Vaslav Nijinsky,
( 'ox mined the
depths of Nijinsky s diaries to reveal the
passionate and often tortured soul of this
consummate artist. Sir Derek Jacobi expertly
reads these excerpts the closest portraj -
al of the artist the film provides displaying
a skill with inflection matched only by
Cox's fulsome imager) poetic and
abstract— which underscore Nijinsky's
points. The film becomes a rich interplay of
Jacobi's reading. Cox's visual associations,
and the various recreations of Nijinsky's
ballet performances. This is a comprehensive
and provocative film- one that pushes
the boundaries of biography, and challenges
its audience. Barbara Goslawski