Movie distributor cancels plan to
show watercolor by Hitler
Thursday, February 5, 2004 at 04:15
JST
TOKYO A Japanese film distributor said Wednesday it has decided
not to display a watercolor by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in Tokyo as
announced a day earlier, after it was flooded with inquiries from the
media both in and outside Japan.
Toshiba Entertainment Inc, distributor of the
film "Max" which is about Hitler's artistic ambitions, had
planned to display the painting at a Tokyo theater from Feb 7-15 to
coincide with the screening of the film.
"The exhibition was planned for people who might be interested in
Hitler's paintings after seeing the movie," Toshiba said.
"But the media reaction was greater than we had expected and it
is possible that the painting exhibition alone would become the
focus."
The distributor had said Tuesday that even though it is taboo in
Europe to display art by Hitler, the painting is something that would
enable people to have a "level-headed view of the human side of
Hitler."
The undated painting that was to be put on display at Theater Times
Square in Shibuya Ward features the Karlskirche in Vienna. The work is
to be auctioned in Germany in May, the event's organizers said
Tuesday.
"Max" was criticized when it opened in the United States in
December 2002 by some who worried it would humanize one of history's
most reviled figures. The Jewish Defense League issued a statement
asking American distributor Lions Gate to shelve it.
Toshiba spokesman Yasuhisa Indo said the Japanese distributor received
no protests about the film or accompanying exhibit. The movie will
open as scheduled and run for at least one month, Indo said.
Directed by Menno Meyjes, "Max" imagines a post-World War I
friendship between a young Hitler and a Jewish art dealer. The film is
a joint Hungarian, Canadian and British production.
Hitler, who early in life had wanted to study fine arts, is believed
to have produced thousands of drawings and paintings, many of them
streetscapes and village scenes. Though his application to the Vienna
Academy of Fine Arts was rejected, records indicate he spent several
years in the early 1910s trying to eke out a living from painting
postcards and watercolors.
Meyjes has said "Max" is meant to alert people to the
possibility that another Hitler could arise.
(Wire reports)
