Woman in Gold
starring Helen Mirren, Ryan Reynolds and Daniel Brühl
written by Alexi Kaye Campbell
directed by Simon Curtis
Rating: ♦♦♦♦◊
This film is about art restoration, specifically the restoration of art looted by the Nazis before and during WWII. In the world today there are still over 100,000 unaccounted art works from the Second World War alone. Some are destroyed, of course, but many others hang in museums or rest in private hands. I still periodically read about it in the newspaper. It is based on the true story of the late Maria Altmann, an elderly Jewish refugee living in Cheviot Hills, Los Angeles, who, together with her young lawyer, Randy Schoenberg, fought the government of Austria for almost a decade to reclaim Gustav Klimt's iconic 1907 painting of her aunt, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, which was stolen from her relatives by the Nazis in Vienna just prior to World War II. Altmann took her legal battle all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States, which ruled on the case Republic of Austria v. Altmann (2004) that the Austrian government was liable for a lawsuit within the United States despite its claim to immunity.
I felt the frustration of the Altmann character as she wrestled with the blatant, transparent obstructionism of the Austrian government. For Austria this particular Klimt painting was akin to the Mona Lisa in Paris, and the government had no intention at all of surrendering it no matter a lawsuit in America. However, the Austrians made a mistake when, losing a possession-and-return lawsuit in the U.S. it agreed to arbitration within Austria, thinking it a foregone conclusion that Austrian arbitrators would naturally side with their county’s - their government’s - position. They did not. Randy Schoenberg’s presentation was convincing and swayed even the conservative, traditionalist Austrians on the arbitration panel.
Just as conservative Japanese continue to lean towards thinking of themselves as the victims of foreign aggression during the Pacific War (especially in light of the atomic bombing of their cities), the Austrians likewise lean towards presenting themselves as victims of the Nazis. We know that’s not true. Austrians know it, too. The Nazis were welcomed at the Anschluss of 1938 and Austrian Nazis set about persecuting their own minorities, especially the Jewish community. Woman in Gold hints at that denial and at continuing anti-Semitism within the culture.
Today the Woman in Gold, or Lady in Gold painting hangs in the Neue Galerie in New York City after being sold in 2006 for $135 million.
I gave this film less than full marks because I was so annoyed by Ryan Reynold’s voice and demeanor. I wished for a different actor to play Maria Altmann’s attorney Randy Schoenberg. He sounds and looks like a pimply Boy Scout. I don’t think he stands up well next to Helen Mirren.