Playing for Time
Playing for Time

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- 73/100 based on 2,840 votes

In World War II, the Jewish French musician and cabaret singer Fania Fenelon Goldstein is sent by the Nazis from Paris to the Auschwitz Concentration Camp. The guards take her clothing and luggage and they cut her hair very short. One day, when she is very weak, she hears someone asking whether any prisoner could sing Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly and she joins the group of musicians that have been spared from the gas chambers to entertain the Nazis performing music for ... (Full plot summary below)

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Actors in Playing for Time:

Vanessa Redgrave
Jane Alexander
Maud Adams
Christine Baranski
Robin Bartlett
Marisa Berenson

Full Plot Details

In World War II, the Jewish French musician and cabaret singer Fania Fenelon Goldstein is sent by the Nazis from Paris to the Auschwitz Concentration Camp. The guards take her clothing and luggage and they cut her hair very short. One day, when she is very weak, she hears someone asking whether any prisoner could sing Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly and she joins the group of musicians that have been spared from the gas chambers to entertain the Nazis performing music for them. She convinces the conductor Alma Rose to invite her friend Marianne, telling that she would be a talented singer. Along the years of abusive treatment, they survive but losing their dignity.

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Movie Reviews

User Review - 10/10 by Zarinah HI have watched dozens of Holocaust-themed dramas over the years and am quite surprised that I've missed this superior quality production starring Vanessa Redgrave. Set during the Holocaust, Redgrave portrays sophisticated French cabaret singer Fania Fenelon who finds herself on a train to notorious Nazi extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. Her talent for singing and playing the piano attracts the attention of the Nazis and she gets selected to play with the female Jewish orchestra at the camp, headed by Alma Rose (played superbly by Jane Alexander). The story focuses not so much on the horrors at the camp, but on the emotional and psychological toll on the inmates at the camp. Fania tries to maintain her dignity as a human being, despite witnessing the depravity around her. A young woman who latches onto Fania goes through a horrible transformation - from a sweet young woman to a needy leech to a wanton woman who would do anything (sleep with Jews, Poles, and Nazis) in order to stay alive. Fania is horrified by this transformation, but tries her best to advise her young friend, to no avail. Then there's Alma, the strict conductor who demands excellence from her starving musicians. Fania and Alma frequently clash over their approach to the Nazis - Fania feels they should not work so hard to please the Nazis, but Alma feels that pleasing the Nazis is essential in order to stay alive. I like how this drama explores not just the difficulties experienced by the female Jewish inmates, but also other themes. The animosity between the Poles and Jews is well-explored, and we come to understand that some of this animosity is due more to a lack of understanding of the other's culture. The Nazis, even the infamous Dr. Josef Mengele (played by Max Wright, though rather unconvincingly I felt - somehow his portrayal failed in conveying the cold and calculated demeanor associated with Mengele), the doctor of death is portrayed as having some human feelings - when one of the women dies tragically, Mengele expresses his grief through a funeral unheard of for a Jew during those dark times. Not only does the deceased Jew get a coffin, but also Nazi honors (not that this makes any sense, but it is to show the respect and grief Mengele felt for a Jew). Even the notorious female warden Maria Mandel (Shirley Knight) is shown as harboring some compassion. Nothing is black and white here and the movie strikes a chord with the viewer because of this credible and balanced portrayal. The horror of the camp is not shown through the brutalization and extermination of the innocent, but through the emotional and psychological transformation that each character experiences. This is definitely a classic in the genre of Holocaust movies and is a must-watch for anyone interested in the period. The story is based on Fania Fenelon's true life experiences during the Holocaust which is available as a memoir: Playing for Time
User Review - 10/10 by Jonny PTV MOVIE. True story of Fania Fenelon, a singer who is forced to sing in the Nazi concentration camps. Brilliant screenplay by Arthur Miller and top notch acting and directing. Redgrave is brilliant, but Jane Alexander is mesmerizing as the uncompromising orchestra leader. Winner of multiple Emmy's. CBS 9/30/1980
User Review - 8/10 by Andy FA quite amazing film and probably one of the best and most moving films set during World War II. A dazzling script from Arthur Miller and an incredible cast performance (especially from Vanessa Redgrave) puts this often overlooked film in the same standing as the likes of Schindler's List and The Pianist.
User Review - 8/10 by Yannis AVery atmospheric, with Redgrave at her best!
User Review - 6/10 by Facebook UWe follow a group of female death camp prisoners making it through in a rag tag musical band. This is not quite realistic except for some details. We see them a bit diseased but still too well off and not half as worried as should be. The film is a bit of cinema about it. Maybe a bit of moquery with a lesbian temptation. The germans do not look very dangerous but they had bit of footage of the time to help us imagine the way it was.
User Review - 6/10 by Colby CI saw this movie for the first time when I was 9 years old. My mother explained to me the hard truth that this wasn't a scary fiction movie but a true story. I re-watched this the other night and it still has the same emotional punch in the gut 30 years later.
User Review - 6/10 by jay nIntense, visceral performances by all but of course the story is so awful that it is a film that can only be appreciated not enjoyed.
User Review - 6/10 by Serge LWe follow a group of female death camp prisoners making it through in a rag tag musical band. This is not quite realistic except for some details. We see them a bit diseased but still too well off and not half as worried as should be. The film is a bit of cinema about it. Maybe a bit of moquery with a lesbian temptation. The germans do not look very dangerous but they had bit of footage of the time to help us imagine the way it was.
User Review - 6/10 by Johnnie WWe follow a group of female death camp prisoners making it through in a rag tag musical band. This is not quite realistic except for some details. We see them a bit diseased but still too well off and not half as worried as should be. The film is a bit of cinema about it. Maybe a bit of moquery with a lesbian temptation. The germans do not look very dangerous but they had bit of footage of the time to help us imagine the way it was.
User Review - 2/10 by Billy BHeavy movie. The director took on difficult subject of the dark time of WWII and the holocaust. An ambitious project for sure. The story itself is quite captivating but unfortunately the movie smells of cheap production and some aspects are not historically accurate. The Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated by Russians, so where the British Army came from in the final scene, I wonder. They never made it to this part of Europe during the war. And it was end of January, not even one snowflake on the ground in the movie.

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