Anne Frank - Dear Kitty DVD > Reviews > A Frank Look At Anne

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Loved it
Story	Outstanding

Advantages:	A new look at Anne's world, fascinating footage
Disadvantages:	The second documentary has faults

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I have been fascinated by the life of Anne Frank since I was young and I read her diary. My Mum had been interested too and it was her copy of the book that I read. As an adult, my interest has extended and I have not only read many books on the Frank family but also biographies and autobiographies of other victims of concentration camps and survivors.

So when I saw this DVD on Ebay for £12.99, I found it easy to click on ‘Buy it now’. (I usually do!) Having watched it in its entirety, I thought it was worth a review. Anne’s story is one that everyone should be aware of and this DVD provides a slightly different angle to the books or the films.

Dear Kitty contains two documentaries – Remembering Anne Frank (51 minutes, 1999) and The Short Life Of Anne Frank (28 minutes, 2002). There are no extras on the DVD, only scene access, so don’t buy this if you are looking for something more. I was happy with my purchase, as both documentaries were good and both offered something I had never seen before.

ANNE FRANK REMEMBERED

This documentary is the main feature of the DVD and follows Miep Gies as she visits some of the places featured in the Frank family’s life and reminisces about her years knowing them. To Anne Frank aficionados, Miep is a legend. The only surviving person from the four who helped those hiding in the Secret Annexe and the one who found Anne’s diary and kept it safely until after the War.

The initial narrator’s voice is rather irritating, but thankfully short-lived. This is replaced by a female voiceover, which is bearable, although personally, I would have liked to hear more of Miep’s voice and would have preferred subtitles. (But that could be the linguist in me!)

The documentary shows how Amsterdam was then and now and includes both vintage film and photographic stills of the city and the Franks. Miep explores the area of the city where the ‘story’ mainly takes place, showing us round the Frank family home, the Opekta office where she worked and the Annexe hidden away in the top of the building.

Each place invokes memories and anecdotes which she shares calmly, but with obvious deep emotion. Nothing is over-dramatized, just stated as it is, but this is an often moving documentary and a fascinating one.

Miep recalls how she first began working in Otto Frank’s business and her first meeting with Anne. I found it endearing that she still refers to Otto as “Mr. Frank” even now.

Despite already knowing a lot about the subject, I learnt many new things from the documentary and Miep put a definite ‘human face’ on something that is so much a part of history, that it seems somehow surreal for one of the Diary’s characters to still be alive. (She was a fairly sprightly 90 year old at the time of the documentary and is 96 now.)

I found the tour of the Secret Annexe strangely haunting. I can’t imagine how I would feel, if I ever visited it in person (and I do hope to someday). Miep points out the magazine cuttings that Anne stuck on the walls of her makeshift bedroom – Greta Garbo, Deanna Durbin, Norma Shearer and others still smiling clearly.

The Annexe looks very small, even with only Miep there, so you can picture how crowded it would have been with eight people in hiding! Extracts from Anne’s Diary are used to illustrate points that Miep makes or the part of history being described, which help both come alive.

Miep explains that those hiding felt it was a temporary solution and that they wouldn’t have to stay there for long. This seems cruelly ironic with the benefit of hindsight.

She shows us how the bookcase hid the entrance to the Annexe and explains how her job was to provide the meat and vegetables for those in there. Her memories helped me to “put the flesh on the bones” of a familiar story and she provides an amazing insight into the lives of those at the time and especially how Anne was affected by her forced confinement.

I think one of the reasons Anne Frank is still so appealing is that she is never described as flawless. We know she could be angry, impolite and cheeky. Miep also shares a couple of anecdotes which back this up, but they just make Anne more rounded, more real and we still love her anyway!

I enjoyed seeing photos of the Franks that I hadn’t seen before, but my favourite part of the documentary was the last section, where Miep recounts her meeting with Otto, when he returned from the concentration camp – the only survivor of the eight who hid in the Annexe. He arrives at the office and reads his mail, where he discovers a letter from a nurse who was in Bergen-Belsen with his daughters. She states that Margot and Anne both died there.

He passed the letter over to Miep, who then gets Anne’s diaries (There are several books, not just one.) out of her desk drawer and hands it over to him as “the legacy of your daughter”. As we know, Otto got them published but Miep couldn’t bring herself to read them for quite a while.

However, when she finally did, she found it therapeutic and a positive experience, as she felt it brought her friends back to life. This documentary helps to do something similar and is essential viewing for those intrigued by Anne’s life and premature death.

THE SHORT LIFE OF ANNE FRANK

This is a shorter documentary and is narrated by Jeremy Irons, who keeps a very flat, emotionless tone throughout, which makes it sound as if he was extremely bored while reading the lines! This matches the whole feel of this section, which is more straight-forward and historical, less personal or emotional.

The film is very much aimed at young secondary school children and the history of the Nazis invading Holland is described in irritatingly simplistic terms. While it is an ideal talking point to share with your children, adults will probably find it lacking in many respects. For me, it was especially missing the ‘human touch’ which is so evident in the previous documentary featuring Miep Gies.

The film does have some value though. There are some real gems amongst the vintage film and stills dotted throughout, including some cute baby photos of Anne, which I hadn’t seen before. There is also the only surviving moving film of Anne, which shows her looking out of a window at a wedding!

The documentary is worth persevering with, even though I found my attention wandering – which it hadn’t done in Remembering Anne Frank. At the end of The Short Life Of Anne Frank is an amazing find – Otto speaking in English about Anne and her diary. This bit alone was worth the money I paid for it.

Otto Frank died in 1980 aged 91.

POSTSCRIPT

There’s an interesting online interview with Miep Gies here
http://teacher.scholastic.com/frank/tscripts/miep.htm