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Reviews
Conspiracy (2001)
A first-class film about the evils of Nazism
When the Nazi bureaucrats, race lawyers and SS thugs sat down in 1942 to precipitate the "Final Solution of the Jewish question" in the fairytale lakeside setting of the Wannsee villa, outside Berlin, organiser Adolf Eichmann was under strict instructions that no permanent record of their terrible debate ever survive. Yet a set of minutes was preserved and this TV movie is able to recreate the dark machinations that ultimately led to the Holocaust. It is a meeting chilling for its lack of any practical emotion, for its officious prose and stark euphemism - an SS officer back from the Eastern Front asks whether, in executing some thousands of Jews in the Ukraine, he had in fact "evacuated" them. They discuss the merits of gas chambers while stuffing their faces with beer, wine and fine food. Kenneth Branagh plays Reinhard Heidrich, Himmler's far more evil number two, with great aplomb: a cultured and educated man, he is quick to revert to his sinister "Hangman of Prague" persona, threatening David Threlfall's dissenting Dr Wilhelm Kritzinger with a "meathook" should he fail to support him. Even the generals tremble at his pronouncements. Stanley Tucci, a wildly under-appreciated actor, gives an unnerving performance as the by-turns toadying and bullying Eichmann. He is a cold, desk-bound murderer, reading out extermination camp statistics in the deadpan of an accountant. Colin Firth as Wilhelm Stuckart, the creator of the Nazi race laws, also shines as the other main opposing voice: he sees the Jews as a "wily clever" race the others would dismiss as subhuman. But none is in any way sympathetic to their plight; friction is created only through departmental rivalry. Ultimately all will pound the table in agreement that European Jewry be obliterated. Expect no flashy sets or camera trickery. The action is kept squarely inside the proscenium arch allowing the lively script to make its maximum impact. It is said the evil of Nazism was in its very banality. "Conspiracy" is poignant proof of that idea. The one feel-good moment is the epilogue scene when the ultimate fate of each character is captioned on screen.
The Ghost of Sierra de Cobre (1964)
An incredibly frightening experience
I caught this on late-night Sydney television in the '60s as a young boy who had been allowed to stay up late. Really bad move. I was unable to sleep for days I was so terrified. The memory still occasionally haunts me: the idea of things happening in sealed crypts is something of a staple of the horror genre (it always reminds me of the infamous Chase family vault in Barbados, something someone should make a movie about!) but The Ghost of Sierra Cobre was also incredibly moody and suspenseful and the denouement shocking. I'm not surprised the TV execs "soiled their garments" when Stefano and Martin Landau screened it for them. I've been chasing this one for 40 years without success. I hope these comments put the heat on some Hollywood archivist to track it down and get it out there.