“The book thief”
By Adriana, Cris, Sara & Marta.
Table of contents: 1. Introduction .................................................................pag 3 2. Summary group ..........................................................pag 3 - 4 3. Characters ...................................................................pag 4 - 7 a. Liesel b. Max Vandenburg c. Rose Huberman d. Hans Huberman 4. Conversation ...............................................................pag 7-8 5. Cover page analysis ……………………………….…….pag 8 6. Trailer………………………………………………...…....pag 8-9 7. Conclusion ………………………………………………..pag 9 8. Bibliography………………………………………………..pag 10 - 11
1. Introduction We are going to talk about a film that we have chosen in groups. First we analyzed the film individually and then we put in common each information. At the end of the project we tell our conclusion. We made this project to learn to analyse films and (to) try to see it from other point of view. We chose this film because we think it would be very interesting. We waver between 4 films but we decided to analyze ‘The book Thief’ because it has an ample variety of characters.
2. Summary group: The story proceded chronologically. It’s a drama in the nazi Germany during the 20th century. The film is narrated by the Death who is an omniscient narrator. The protagonist is Liessel who goes with her mother in a train but in this journey, her brother died, because that was a difficult time but a poor couple adopted Liessel. Rose, who is her new mom, is hard with Liesel, and Hans, who is her new father, is kind with her and she grows fond of him very fast. Hans teaches her to read. She has a neighbour called Rudy who took her to school and since that day they became very close friends. A boy appeared in Liesel’s house, he was called Max and was jewish, for that reason Hans and Rosa must hide him. Liesel’s new family ironed mayor’s family clothes in return of money. Mayor’s wife asks her if she wanted to read with her and Liesel accepts, but the mayor had prohibited Liesel to go there to read. One day when Liesel went to the mayor’s house, she robbed a book, when she left the house she came across Rudy, he asked her why she did that. This scene of the film is when Liesel told the famous phrase: “I’m not stealing, I’m borrowing”, for this reason the film is called “The book thief”. Max must escape because the nazi army was looking for all the jewish. The climax of the story is when Hans was drafted to go to the war. The death tells about the bombing in Liesel's street where Rose, Hans and Rudy died.
Years later, when Liesel grew up, she ran into Max. They were really thrilled and glad because they’d seen each other again We think that the film has a closed end, and the conflict is man vs. society.
3. Characters: a. Liesel: The character that I’m going to talk about is Sophie Nélisse (Liesel). She was born in Windsor (Ontario), Canadá, 27 March 2000. She moved out with her family to Montreal when she was 4. The first movie she made was when she was 10 in the 2012 French-Canadian film “Monsieur Lazhar”. For her performance in the film, she won a Genie and a Jutra prize for Best Supporting Actress. Sophie then played a role in Luc Picard's 2012 feature “Esimésac” before being asked to audition for the lead role of a German girl in “The book thief”. She starred alongside Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson. Then she made many more films. The last one she made was the thriller “Mean dreams” with Bill Paxton. In 2016, she also worked in “1:54” , “The history of love” and “Wait till Helen comes”. When she isn’t working, Sophie enjoys gymnastic classes. Her younger sister, Isabelle, is also an actress, who, played the protagonist role in the 2013 horror movie “Mama”.
b. Max Vandenburg: Max Vandenburg is a Jewish boy who escaped from the Nazy genoccide. He loves to read and he thinks that the words are the ones that define us. One friend of the family helped him to escape but something went wrong and he was wounded. He went to Hand’s house because he saved her dad in the war and they helped him. At the beginning he distrusted Liesel but with the time he grew fond of him After a while, he realizes that he is a problem for them so Max decides to leave them in order not to cause more problems and he gives her a book that she wants. When the war is over he goes to visit Liesel in Rudy’s family shop. Max Vandenburg is interpreted by Ben Schnetzer who is an American actor. He is 26 years old and he is the son of actors Stephen Schnetzer and Nancy Snyder. Schnetzer participated in an episode of “Law & Order” and he voc interpreted Mark Ashton in the movie “Pride”. I choose this character because I had to choose between Rudy or Max and I think that it's more important Max because he is a jewish boy that he lives in the Nazi epoch.
c. Rose Hubermann I chose the character of Rose Hubermann because I think she is a very dear character. She is a important character because she is the adoptive mother of Lisel. She is very responsible and serious but she isn’t as strong as she appears, she really loves her family. She has a very good relation with her husband, Hans
Hubermann, and with Lisel but, with her, she didn’t have a good relation on the beginning. She didn’t show her. She is performed by Emily Watson, she was born on 14 January 1967 (she is 50 years old) in Islington, London, UK. Emily Watson is a renowned actress in films, drama and in TV. She was nominated twice for the Oscars for the best actress, in 1996 for “Breaking the Waves” and in 1998 for “Hilary and Jackie”, as well as she was nominated for the Golden Globe Award, for the same films and in 2004 for “The Life and Death of Peter Sellers”.
d. Hans Hubermann “The book thief” is a drama in the nazi Germany. The protagonist (of it) is Liessel, she is a girl who loves reading but her life is controlled by the nazis. At the beginning of the film, Liesel goes with his mother in a train but in this journey, his brother died, because that was a difficult time but a poor couple adopted Liessel and in that moment she met a boy, called Rudi, who is his best friend along the film. Liesel's stepfather is called Hans, and his stepmother Rosa, they live oppressed below the nazi army.One day when the Liesel went to the mayor’s house, she robbed a book, for this reason the film is called “The book thief”. A boy appeared in Liesel’s house, he was called Max and was jewish, for that reason Hans and Rosa must hide him. When Liesel told Rudi that Max was in his house and that he was a jewish, Rudi said that he would keep the secret. Finally, Max must escape because the nazi army was looking for all jewish, and there was a bombing where the Liesel’s family died.
4. Conversation Liesel’s famous phrase appears in the film at the minute 65. As we explained before, when Liesel went to the mayor’s house, she robbed a book, when she left the house she came across Rudy, he asked her why she had done that. This scene of the film is when Liesel told the famous phrase: “I’m not stealing, I’m borrowing”. The scene that we created, is set (in the film) when Max was sleeping and Liesel caught his book. In the conversation we added a new character which doesn’t appear in the scene, “the nazis”.
Max was sleeping when suddenly Liesel went to his bed and caught his book. He became aware and he said:
-Max: Ohhh! Liesel, what are you doing?! -Liesel: Sorry Max! I’m not stealing, I’m borrowing… sorry. Hans hears a noise and he goes into Liesel’s bedroom holding a knife thinking they were thieves. -Hans: What’s happening?? Are you ok? -Liesel: Yes dad, don’t worry Suddenly, someone knocked on the door aggressively. They were the nazi’s soldiers who were searching for the jewish from house to house. -Max: Ohh shit !!! They are searching for the jewish to kill us. How can I get away from them?? -Hans: I don’t know…. You can hide in the basement under a nazi flag.
5. Cover page analysis: On the foreground Liesel appears holding a book which we think it belongs to Max. Liesel’s figure, in a big size, performs the protagonist role. On the background, on the left there is a pile of books burning at stake and the fire is also burning the nazi’s flags, on the right there are some residents and nazi’s soldiers. This picture shows vanishing point perspective because all of the parallel lines meet together at the end of the street until there is nothing left to see.* It tries to stand out the protagonist of the film. The titles of other films by the same director (Brian Percival) appear in small letters on Liesel’s dress, and under it the title of the film in big letters. The image has a sepia tone to stand out the fire.
6. Trailer: The scenes were chosen to show to the audience the key moments of the film without telling the final. The trailer makes us feel empathy with a sad story which has a tragic final.
The scenes go fast during all the trailer. The quick music helps to create a curiosity ambient.
7. Conclusion: We liked this project because the film was so interesting and it achieved all our expectations. We learned to analyse films in depth. The most difficult part of the project was to write ​the conversation, because we didn’t know how to do it creatively. The easiest part of the project was to choose the characters and to analyse them.
8. Bibliography
Estamos rodando, Emily Watson, http://biografias.estamosrodando.com/emily-watson/ (Accessed 25/01/17) Florian Ballhaus, ¨La ladrona de libros¨ http://www.filmaffinity.com/es/film824161.html (Accesed 02/03/17) Geoffrey Roy Rush’s image : https://www.google.com/search?q=book+de+Geoffrey+Roy+Rush&tbm=isch&tbo=u &source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi4xLu7wu7RAhUGWRQKHRDmA6MQsAQIOw &biw=1920&bih=924#imgrc=1QQBJAS5gzBSqM%3A (Accesed 3/2/2017)
Geoffrey Roy Rush’s information: http://www.alohacriticon.com/cine/actores-y-directores/geoffrey-rush/ (Accesed 3/2/2017) Kapciusfek, ZŁODZIEJKA KSIĄŻEK-RECENZJA http://written-by-me-for-you.blogspot.com.es/2016/04/zodziejka-ksiazek-recenzja.ht ml ( Accessed 2/03/17)
Realidad incompleta, ¨La ladrona de libros¨ http://realidadincompleta.blogspot.com.es/2015_12_01_archive.html (Accessed 02/03/17)
Sensacine, Emily Watson, http://www.sensacine.com/actores/actor-24887/filmografia/ (Accessed 25/01/17) Sohpie Nélisse biography: http://www.tribute.ca/people/sophie-nelisse/38856/ (Accessed 3/2/2017)
Sohpie Nélisse photo: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/e1/da/7a/e1da7af69e74c3d043c483269 3b1dd63.jpg (Accessed 3/2/2017)
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92EBSmxinus (Accessed 26/2/2017) Types of perspective: http://kalisdigitalphotos.blogspot.com.es/2012/02/types-of-perspective-in-photograph y.html (Accessed 26/2/2017)
Wikipedia, Ben Schnetzer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Schnetzer (Accessed 18/01/2017)