''Woman in Gold'' is a 2015
biographical
A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or ...
drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...
directed by
Simon Curtis and written by
Alexi Kaye Campbell. The film stars
Helen Mirren
Dame Helen Mirren (born Helen Lydia Mironoff; born 26 July 1945) is an English actor. The recipient of numerous accolades, she is the only performer to have achieved the Triple Crown of Acting in both the United States and the United Kingdom. ...
,
Ryan Reynolds
Ryan Rodney Reynolds (born October 23, 1976) is a Canadian-American actor. He is one of the highest-grossing film actors of all time, with a worldwide box-office gross of over billion.
He began his career starring in the Canadian teen ...
,
Daniel Brühl
Daniel César Martín Brühl González Domingo (; born 16 June 1978) is a Spanish-German actor and filmmaker. He received his first German Film Award for Best Actor for his roles in '' Das Weisse Rauschen (The White Sound)'' (2001), ''Nichts ...
,
Katie Holmes
Kate Noelle Holmes (born December 18, 1978) is an American actress. She first achieved fame as Joey Potter on the television series ''Dawson's Creek'' (1998–2003).
Holmes made her feature film debut in 1997 with a supporting role in Ang Lee ...
,
Tatiana Maslany
Tatiana Gabriele Maslany ( ; born September 22, 1985) is a Canadian actress. She rose to prominence for playing multiple characters in the science fiction thriller television series ''Orphan Black'' (2013–2017), which won her a Primetime Emmy ...
,
Max Irons
Maximilian Paul Diarmuid Irons (born 17 October 1985) is an English-Irish actor and model. He is known for his roles in films such as ''Red Riding Hood'' (2011), '' The White Queen'' (2013), '' The Host'' (2013), '' Woman in Gold'' (2014), ''Th ...
,
Charles Dance
Walter Charles Dance (born 10 October 1946) is an English actor. He is known for playing strict, authoritarian characters and villains. His most notable film roles include Sardo Numspa in ''The Golden Child'' (1986), Dr. Jonathan Clemens in ''A ...
,
Elizabeth McGovern
Elizabeth Lee McGovern (born July 18, 1961) is an American actress and musician. She has received many awards, including a Screen Actors Guild Award, three Golden Globe Award nominations, and one Academy Award nomination.
Born in Evanston, Ill ...
, and
Jonathan Pryce
Sir Jonathan Pryce (born John Price; 1 June 1947) is a Welsh actor who is known for his performances on stage and in film and television. He has received numerous awards, including two Tony Awards and two Laurence Olivier Awards. In 2021 he wa ...
.
The film is based on the true story of
Maria Altmann
Maria Altmann (née Maria Victoria Bloch, later Bloch-Bauer; February 18, 1916 – February 7, 2011) was an Austrian-American Jewish refugee from Austria, who fled her home country after it was annexed to the Third Reich. She is noted for her ul ...
, an elderly Jewish refugee living in
Cheviot Hills, Los Angeles
Cheviot Hills is a neighborhood on the Westside of the city of Los Angeles, California.
Founded in 1924, the neighborhood has served as the filming location of movies and television shows due to its convenient location between Sony Studios a ...
, who, together with her young lawyer,
Randy Schoenberg, fought the government of Austria for almost a decade to reclaim
Gustav Klimt
Gustav Klimt (July 14, 1862 – February 6, 1918) was an Austrian symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement. Klimt is noted for his paintings, murals, sketches, and other objets d'art. Klimt's prim ...
's iconic painting of her aunt
Adele Bloch-Bauer
Adele Bloch-Bauer (née Bauer; August 9, 1881 – January 24, 1925) was Viennese socialite, salon hostess, and patron of the arts from Austria-Hungary. A Jewish woman, she is most well known for being the subject of two of artist Gustav Klimt's ...
, ''
Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I
''Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I'' (also called ''The Lady in Gold'' or ''The Woman in Gold'') is a painting by Gustav Klimt, completed between 1903 and 1907. The portrait was commissioned by the sitter's husband, , a Jewish banker and sugar ...
'', which was stolen from her relatives by the Nazis in
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
just prior to
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. Altmann took her legal battle all the way to the
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
, which ruled on the case ''
Republic of Austria v. Altmann
''Republic of Austria v. Altmann'', 541 U.S. 677 (2004), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, or FSIA, applies retroactively. It is one of the most recent cases that deals wi ...
'' (2004).
The film was screened in the Berlinale Special Galas section of the
65th Berlin International Film Festival
The 65th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 5 to 15 February 2015, with American film director Darren Aronofsky as the President of the Jury. German film director Wim Wenders was presented with the Honorary Golden Bear. The ...
on 9 February 2015, and was released in the United Kingdom on 10 April 2015 and in the United States on 1 April.
Plot
In a series of flashbacks,
Maria Altmann
Maria Altmann (née Maria Victoria Bloch, later Bloch-Bauer; February 18, 1916 – February 7, 2011) was an Austrian-American Jewish refugee from Austria, who fled her home country after it was annexed to the Third Reich. She is noted for her ul ...
recalls the
Anschluss
The (, or , ), also known as the (, en, Annexation of Austria), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into the German Reich on 13 March 1938.
The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a " Greater Germany ...
, the arrival of Nazi forces in Vienna, the persecution of
the Jewish community and the
looting and pillaging by the Nazis of Jewish families. Maria Altmann and members of her family attempt to flee to the United States. While Altmann and her husband are successful, she is forced to abandon her parents in Vienna.
In the present, living in Los Angeles, an elderly and widowed Altmann attends the funeral for her sister. She discovers letters in her sister's possession dating to the late 1940s, which reveal an attempt to recover artwork owned by the Bloch-Bauer family that was left behind during the family's flight for freedom and stolen by the
Nazis
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...
. Of particular note is a painting of Altmann's aunt, Adele Bloch-Bauer, now known in Austria as the "Woman in Gold".
Altmann enlists the help of
E. Randol Schoenberg (the son of her close friend, Barbara), a lawyer with little experience, to make a claim to the
art restitution board in Austria. Reluctantly returning to her homeland, Altmann discovers that the country's minister and art director are unwilling to part with the painting, which they feel has become part of the national identity. Altmann is told that the painting was legitimately bequeathed to the gallery by her aunt. Upon further investigation by her lawyer and Austrian journalist
Hubertus Czernin
Hubertus Czernin (born Hubertus Alexander Felix Franz Maria Czernin von und zu Chudenitz; 17 January 1956 – 10 June 2006) was an Austrian investigative journalist.
Born in Vienna on 17 January 1956 to Felix Theobald Paul Anton Maria Reichsgra ...
, this claim proves to be wrong as the alleged will is invalid due to the fact that her aunt did not own the painting, the artist's fee having been paid by Altmann's uncle. Adele Bloch-Bauer wanted the painting to go to the museum at her husband's death but it was taken from him by the Nazis and placed in the museum by a Nazi-collaborating curator, well before his death. Schoenberg files a challenge with the art restitution board, but it is denied and Altmann does not have the money needed to challenge the ruling. Defeated, she and Schoenberg return to the United States.
Months later, happening upon an art book with "Woman in Gold" on the cover, Schoenberg has an epiphany. Using a narrow rule of law and precedents in which an art restitution law was retroactively applied, Schoenberg files a claim in US court against the Austrian government contesting their claim to the painting. An appeal goes to the
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
, where in the matter of ''
Republic of Austria v. Altmann
''Republic of Austria v. Altmann'', 541 U.S. 677 (2004), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, or FSIA, applies retroactively. It is one of the most recent cases that deals wi ...
'', the court rules in Altmann's favor, which results in the Austrian government attempting to persuade Altmann to retain the painting for the gallery, which she refuses. After a falling out over the issue of returning to Austria for a second time to argue the case, Altmann agrees for Schoenberg to go and argue the case in front of a panel of three arbiters in Vienna.
In Austria, the panel hears the case, during which Schoenberg reminds them of the Nazi regime's crimes. He implores the arbitration panel to think of the meaning of the word "restitution" and to look past the artwork hanging in art galleries to see the injustice to the families who once owned such great paintings and were forcibly separated from them by the Nazis. Unexpectedly, Altmann arrives during the session, indicating to Czernin that she came to support her lawyer. After considering both sides of the dispute, the arbitration panel rules in favour of Altmann, returning her paintings. The Austrian government representative makes a last-minute proposal begging Altmann to keep the paintings in the Belvedere against a generous compensation. Altmann refuses and elects to have the painting moved to the United States with her ("They will now travel to America like I once had to as well") and takes up an offer made earlier by
Ronald Lauder
Ronald (Ron) Steven Lauder (born February 26, 1944) is an American businessman, billionaire, philanthropist, art collector, and political activist. He is the president of the World Jewish Congress since 2007. He and his brother, Leonard Lauder, ...
to acquire them for his New York gallery to display the painting on condition that it be a permanent exhibit.
Cast
Production
On 15 May 2014
Tatiana Maslany
Tatiana Gabriele Maslany ( ; born September 22, 1985) is a Canadian actress. She rose to prominence for playing multiple characters in the science fiction thriller television series ''Orphan Black'' (2013–2017), which won her a Primetime Emmy ...
was cast in a principal role as the younger version of
Helen Mirren
Dame Helen Mirren (born Helen Lydia Mironoff; born 26 July 1945) is an English actor. The recipient of numerous accolades, she is the only performer to have achieved the Triple Crown of Acting in both the United States and the United Kingdom. ...
's character, appearing in the Second World War flashbacks.
On 29 May
Katie Holmes
Kate Noelle Holmes (born December 18, 1978) is an American actress. She first achieved fame as Joey Potter on the television series ''Dawson's Creek'' (1998–2003).
Holmes made her feature film debut in 1997 with a supporting role in Ang Lee ...
joined the cast of the film.
On 30 May
Max Irons
Maximilian Paul Diarmuid Irons (born 17 October 1985) is an English-Irish actor and model. He is known for his roles in films such as ''Red Riding Hood'' (2011), '' The White Queen'' (2013), '' The Host'' (2013), '' Woman in Gold'' (2014), ''Th ...
,
Charles Dance
Walter Charles Dance (born 10 October 1946) is an English actor. He is known for playing strict, authoritarian characters and villains. His most notable film roles include Sardo Numspa in ''The Golden Child'' (1986), Dr. Jonathan Clemens in ''A ...
,
Elizabeth McGovern
Elizabeth Lee McGovern (born July 18, 1961) is an American actress and musician. She has received many awards, including a Screen Actors Guild Award, three Golden Globe Award nominations, and one Academy Award nomination.
Born in Evanston, Ill ...
,
Jonathan Pryce
Sir Jonathan Pryce (born John Price; 1 June 1947) is a Welsh actor who is known for his performances on stage and in film and television. He has received numerous awards, including two Tony Awards and two Laurence Olivier Awards. In 2021 he wa ...
,
Moritz Bleibtreu
Moritz Johann Bleibtreu (; was born in Munich, Germany on August 13, 1971. He has worked over the years as a film actor, voice actor, and film director. Bleibtreu has been a successful actor in many movies such as '' Run Lola Run, Das Experimen ...
and
Antje Traue
Antje Traue (; born 18 January 1981) is a German actress. She appeared in her first English-language role for the film ''Pandorum''. Internationally, she is best known for her portrayal of the villain Faora in the 2013 Superman movie '' Man of S ...
joined the cast of the film.
On 9 July
Frances Fisher
Frances Louise Fisher (born May 11, 1952) is a British-born American actress. She began her career in theatre and later starred as record executive Suzette 'Red' Saxon in the CBS daytime soap opera ''The Guiding Light'' (1985). In film, she is ...
joined the film to play Reynolds' character's mother.
This marks the second time both Mirren and Holmes have starred in film together, the previous being the
Kevin Williamson film
Teaching Mrs. Tingle
''Teaching Mrs. Tingle'' is a 1999 American teen black comedy thriller film written and directed by Kevin Williamson, in his directorial debut, and starring Helen Mirren, Katie Holmes, Marisa Coughlan, Barry Watson, and Jeffrey Tambor. It fol ...
, in 1999.
The reproduction of the key painting, ''Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I'', was painted by scenic artist Steve Mitchell, who spent five weeks making the re-creation. He also made a partly finished version as well as a partial version for a close-up.
Filming
Principal photography
Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production.
Personnel
Besides the main film personnel, such as actor ...
began on 23 May 2014 and lasted for eight weeks in the United Kingdom, Austria, and the United States.
On 16 June the filming was under way in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
. On 9 July the filming was reportedly under way in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
.
The Vienna airport scenes were filmed in the UK at
Shoreham Airport
Brighton City Airport , also commonly known as Shoreham Airport, is located in the parish of Lancing in West Sussex, England. It has a CAA Public Use Aerodrome Licence that allows flights for the public transport of passengers or for flying i ...
in West Sussex.
Reception
Box office
''Woman in Gold'' grossed $33.3 million in North America and $28.3 million in other territories for a total gross of $61.6 million, against a budget of $11 million.
In the film's limited release weekend, 3–5 April, it grossed $2.1 million from 258 cinemas. In its wide release weekend, expanding to 1,504 cinemas on 10 April it grossed $5.5 million, finishing 7th at the box office.
Critical response
On
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, the film had a rating of 57% based on 152 reviews, with an average rating of 6/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "''Woman in Gold'' benefits from its talented leads, but strong work from Helen Mirren and Ryan Reynolds isn't enough to overpower a disappointingly dull treatment of a fascinating true story." On
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, the film has a weighted average score of 51 out of 100, based on 31 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by
CinemaScore
CinemaScore is a market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts based on the data.
Background
Ed Mintz founded Ci ...
gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.
Accolades
Helen Mirren received a nomination for the
.
Historical accuracy
Altmann's efforts actually addressed five Klimt paintings owned by her family, including ''Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I'' and ''
Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II'', as well as three landscapes. The decisions by the US Supreme Court and the Austrian arbitrators covered all five paintings.
Film critics in Austria and Germany noted various deviations of the film from historical reality. Olga Kronsteiner from the Austrian daily ''
Der Standard
''Der Standard'' is an Austrian daily newspaper published in Vienna.
History and profile
''Der Standard'' was founded by Oscar Bronner as a financial newspaper and published its first edition on 19 October 1988. German media company Axel Springe ...
'' wrote that it was not Maria Altmann's lawyer, Randol Schönberg, who researched and initiated the restitution case, but Austrian journalist
Hubertus Czernin
Hubertus Czernin (born Hubertus Alexander Felix Franz Maria Czernin von und zu Chudenitz; 17 January 1956 – 10 June 2006) was an Austrian investigative journalist.
Born in Vienna on 17 January 1956 to Felix Theobald Paul Anton Maria Reichsgra ...
, who had worked on a number of restitution files at the time, who found the decisive documents and subsequently informed Maria Altmann.
Hubertus Czernin, who is depicted in the movie, is suggested to have been motivated by the fact that his father had been a member of the
Nazi Party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...
, but Stefan Grissemann from Austrian weekly ''
Profil
Profil may refer to:
*La Mouette Profil, a French hang glider design
*Profil (band), a French musical group
*''Profil (literary magazine)'', a Norwegian literary magazine
*''profil (magazine)'', an Austrian news magazine
* ''Profil (Russian magaz ...
'' pointed out that his father's party membership was not known to Czernin until 2006, long after he had started to work on this and other restitution cases. In addition, Czernin's father was imprisoned by the Nazis late in the war for high treason.
Thomas Trenkler from the Viennese daily ''
Kurier
''Kurier'' is a German-language daily newspaper based in Vienna, Austria.
History and profile
''Kurier'' was founded as ''Wiener Kurier'' by the United States Forces in Austria (USFA) in 1945, during the Allied occupation after World War II. ...
'' criticized the film's reference to a time limit for restitution claims in Austria, writing that there has never been such a time limit. He also wrote that his least favorite scene in the film was when Maria Altmann leaves her ailing father in Vienna in 1938. Despite the imminent danger, Maria Altmann stayed in Vienna, having said, "I would never have left my father! He died of natural causes in July 1938". Only then did she and her husband escape from Vienna.
In June 2006, based on an earlier agreement between Altmann and
Ronald Lauder
Ronald (Ron) Steven Lauder (born February 26, 1944) is an American businessman, billionaire, philanthropist, art collector, and political activist. He is the president of the World Jewish Congress since 2007. He and his brother, Leonard Lauder, ...
(which was shown in the film), Altmann sold ''Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I'' to Lauder's
Neue Galerie New York
The Neue Galerie New York (German language, German for "New Gallery") is a museum of early twentieth-century German and Austrian art and design located in the William Starr Miller House at 86th Street (Manhattan), 86th Street and Fifth Avenue i ...
for $135 million ($ million today), setting a new mark for
most expensive painting (since surpassed). Five months later, Altmann sold the companion ''Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II'' at auction (bought by
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Gail Winfrey (; born Orpah Gail Winfrey; January 29, 1954), or simply Oprah, is an American talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and philanthropist. She is best known for her talk show, ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', br ...
) for almost $88 million ($ million today), then the third-highest priced painting.
Gustav Bloch-Bauer had been loaned the famous "Gore Booth Baron Rothschild" Stradivarius cello (see
List of Stradivarius instruments
This is a list of Stradivarius string instruments made by members of the house of Antonio Stradivari.
Stradivarius instruments
Violins
This list has 282 entries.
Early period: 1666–1699
Golden period: 1700–1725
Late period: 1726–17 ...
) by the Rothschild family, which was looted by the Nazis in 1938 and retained by the German authorities until 1956.
See also
*
Art repatriation
Repatriation is the return of the cultural property, often referring to ancient or looted art, to their country of origin or former owners (or their heirs). The disputed cultural property items are physical artifacts of a group or society taken b ...
*
"Provenance" (''Numbers'')
* ''
The Rape of Europa'', a 1994 book and 2006 film about the
Nazi plunder of art
* ''
Stealing Klimt'', a documentary film that was the inspiration for ''Woman in Gold''
References
External links
*
''Adele's Wish'' a documentary film that details
Maria Altmann
Maria Altmann (née Maria Victoria Bloch, later Bloch-Bauer; February 18, 1916 – February 7, 2011) was an Austrian-American Jewish refugee from Austria, who fled her home country after it was annexed to the Third Reich. She is noted for her ul ...
's struggle to recover her family's Klimt paintings
*
''Stealing Klimt'' the documentary which inspired Simon Curtis to direct ''Woman in Gold''
''Stolen Beauty'' a 2017 historical fiction novel by Laurie Lico Albanese that tells the tales of
Adele Bloch-Bauer
Adele Bloch-Bauer (née Bauer; August 9, 1881 – January 24, 1925) was Viennese socialite, salon hostess, and patron of the arts from Austria-Hungary. A Jewish woman, she is most well known for being the subject of two of artist Gustav Klimt's ...
and her niece Maria Altmann
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