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Anne Frank: The Whole Story

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Anne Frank: The Whole Story
Promotional television miniseries poster
GenreBiographical war drama
Based onAnne Frank: The Biography
by Melissa Müller
Screenplay byKirk Ellis
Directed byRobert Dornhelm
StarringBen Kingsley
Brenda Blethyn
Lili Taylor
Hannah Taylor-Gordon
Tatjana Blacher
Joachim Król
Jessica Manley
Nicholas Audsley
Jan Niklas
Theme music composerGraeme Revell
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Czech Republic
United States
Original languagesEnglish
German
French
Spanish
Italian
Dutch
Hebrew
No. of episodes2
Production
Executive producersTomas Krejci
Hans Proppe
ProducerDavid R. Kappes
Production locationPrague, Czech Republic
CinematographyElemér Ragályi
EditorChristopher Rouse
Running time190 minutes
Production companiesMilk & Honey Pictures
Dorothy Pictures
Touchstone Television
Original release
NetworkAmerican Broadcasting Company
ReleaseMay 20 (2001-05-20) –
May 21, 2001 (2001-05-21)

Anne Frank: The Whole Story is a 2001 two-part biographical war drama television miniseries based on the 1998 book Anne Frank: The Biography by Melissa Müller. The television miniseries aired on ABC on May 20 and 21, 2001. The television miniseries starred Ben Kingsley, Brenda Blethyn, Hannah Taylor-Gordon and Lili Taylor. Controversially, but in keeping with the claim made by Melissa Müller, the television miniseries asserts that the anonymous betrayer of the Frank family was the office cleaner, when in fact the betrayer's identity has not been definitively established. A disagreement between the producers of the television miniseries and the Anne Frank Foundation about the validity of this and other details led to the withdrawal of their endorsement of the dramatization, which prevented the use of any quotations from the writings of Anne Frank appearing within the television miniseries. Both Kingsley and Taylor-Gordon received Golden Globe and Emmy Award nominations for their performances as Otto Frank and Anne Frank, respectively.

Plot overview

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In 1939, Anne Frank (Hannah Taylor-Gordon) realizes her world is beginning to change around her. Eventually, the Nazis invade the Netherlands. Anne becomes increasingly distressed as her rights are taken away, and her family is ominously being forced to register as Jews with the government and to wear yellow stars. She is then forced to leave her school and attend a Jewish lyceum, where she meets her new best friend, Jacqueline van Maarsen (Victoria Anne Brown), who is only half-Jewish. Anne also meets Hello Silberberg (Nicky Cantor), on whom she develops a crush; it is implied that Hello also reciprocates her feelings. On her 13th birthday, she receives the famous checkered-patterned diary and immediately goes to her room to write her first entry.

A few weeks later, on a normal Sunday in July 1942, Margot (Jessica Manley), Anne's sister, receives a call-up from the Germans to be deported to a "labor camp" in the East. Otto Frank (Ben Kingsley) moves his family into the now-renowned "Secret Annex", followed soon by Hermann and Auguste van Pels (Joachim Krol and Brenda Blethyn), their son Peter (Nicholas Audsley), and Fritz Pfeffer (Jan Niklas), the Frank family's dentist. During their stay in the annex, the Van Pels family members are noted for their constant bickering. Fritz becomes Anne's antagonist, and Anne has her first serious relationship with Peter, from whom she receives her first kiss. All the while, she wishes for an end to the war. Anne also gets her first period while in the annex - an occasion that she had been anxiously awaiting. One night a thief breaks into the building below the annex, leaving the eight refugees in terror.

Eventually, on August 4, 1944, the Franks are denounced by Lena Hartog (Veronica Nowag-Jones), the cleaning lady of the business in which the annex resides. The eight people in the hiding are arrested and Anne's diary is dumped onto the floor while SS man Karl Silberbauer (Holger Daemgen) searches for hoarded money. Two of the helpers (of those in the Secret Annex) are also arrested. In conversation with Otto, Silberbauer is stunned to learn that he served as an officer in the Imperial German Army during World War I. Silberbauer laments that, if they had not gone into hiding, Otto and his family would have received decent treatment.

Afterwards, the Franks are sent on a train to Westerbork, a transit camp, where Anne, her family and friends are held in the criminal "S Barracks". There, Anne meets a woman, Janny Brandes-Brilleslijper (Klára Issová) and her sister Lientje (Zdeňka Volencová), who are later seen with Anne in Bergen-Belsen. Anne also befriends the camp's schoolteacher (Jaroslava Siktancova), who often invites Anne to the camp school to tell the students stories. (One of them is Mrs. Quackenbush, a story that Anne had written before going into hiding, and had been assigned to write by her math teacher as punishment for repeatedly talking in class)

Anne and her family are soon transported to Auschwitz, where the women are stripped of their clothing and their hair is shorn. She is separated from her father and the other men. During a selection for women in the camp to go to a safer place to work in a munitions factory, Anne's mother and sister are chosen, but Anne is not. Therefore, Edith and Margot choose to remain behind. Anne and Margot are sent to a scabies barracks and later deported to Bergen-Belsen, which is no more than many large tents on a muddy ground surrounded by an electric fence. Mrs. Van Pels eventually arrives at the camp to find Anne very thin and Margot sick with typhus. One night Anne sees her old friend, Hannah (Jade Williams), through the fence. Hannah is a privileged prisoner and tells Anne that her father is dying but her sister is alive. She throws a package with bread and socks over to Anne.

In the last scene with Anne, a fevered Margot and Anne speak of the days before they went to Bergen-Belsen. They go to sleep. The next morning, Anne opens her eyes, and hears birds outside. She nudges Margot to show her, but Margot doesn't wake up, and instead falls out of bed onto the ground. Anne realizes that Margot is dead, and lifts her eyes to the sky in defeat.

After the war in 1945, it is revealed that Otto is, in fact, alive. He looks for information about his daughters, but has no luck in doing so until he is directed to find Janny Brandes, who survived the camp. Otto is told that Anne died a few days after Margot. Miep Gies (Lili Taylor), who helped the Franks hide, gives Anne's preserved diary to Otto. Otto reads it all. He then goes up to the now empty annex and photos. He collapses in a crying heap in front of Anne's wall, which is still plastered with movie stars. An epilogue is then shown which describes what happened to everyone mentioned in the story.

Cast

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Reception

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Anne Frank: The Whole Story earned critical acclaim from critics and viewers. The New York Post called the television miniseries "undeniably powerful".

Awards and nominations

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Year Award Category Nominee(s) Result Ref.
2001
 Artios Awards Best Casting for Mini-Series Meg Liberman and Cami Patton Nominated [1]
Online Film & Television Association Awards Best Miniseries Won [2]
Best Actor in a Motion Picture or Miniseries Ben Kingsley Won
Best Actress in a Motion Picture or Miniseries Hannah Taylor-Gordon Nominated
Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture or Miniseries Brenda Blethyn Won
Best Direction of a Motion Picture or Miniseries Won
Best Writing of a Motion Picture or Miniseries Nominated
Best Ensemble in a Motion Picture or Miniseries Won
Best Costume Design in a Motion Picture or Miniseries Nominated
Best Editing in a Motion Picture or Miniseries Won
Best Lighting in a Motion Picture or Miniseries Won
Best Makeup/Hairstyling in a Motion Picture or Miniseries Nominated
Best Music in a Motion Picture or Miniseries Won
Best New Theme Song in a Motion Picture or Miniseries Nominated
Best New Titles Sequence in a Motion Picture or Miniseries Won
Best Production Design in a Motion Picture or Miniseries Nominated
Best Sound in a Motion Picture or Miniseries Nominated
Best Visual Effects in a Motion Picture or Miniseries Nominated
Peabody Awards Touchstone Television Won [3]
Primetime Emmy Awards Outstanding Miniseries Hans Proppe and David Kappes Won [4]
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie Ben Kingsley Nominated
Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie Hannah Taylor Gordon Nominated
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie Brenda Blethyn Nominated
Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries or a Movie Robert Dornhelm Nominated
Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries or a Movie Kirk Ellis Nominated
Outstanding Art Direction for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special Ondrej Nekvasil, Jan Vlasak, and
Marie Raskova (for "Part 2") 		Won
Outstanding Casting for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special Meg Liberman, Cami Patton, Angela Terry,
Suzanne Smith, Risa Kes, Job Gosschalk,
and Nancy Bishop 		Nominated
Outstanding Cinematography for a Miniseries or a Movie Elemér Ragályi (for "Part 2") Nominated
Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special Christopher Rouse Nominated
Outstanding Sound Editing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special John Benson, Walter Michael Bost,
Michael Babcock, Erik Aadahl,
Andrew Ellerd, Jeff Sawyer, David Beadle,
Sonya Lindsay, Helen Luttrell, Ralph Osborn,
Patrick Hogan, Gretchen Thoma, and
Timothy Pearson 		Nominated
Television Critics Association Awards Outstanding Achievement in Movies, Miniseries and Specials Nominated [5]
2002
 American Film Institute Awards TV Movie or Mini-Series or the Year Nominated [6]
Actor of the Year – Male – TV Movie or Mini-Series Ben Kingsley Nominated
Actor of the Year – Female – TV Movie or Mini-Series Hannah Taylor Gordon Nominated
Cinema Audio Society Awards Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for Television –
Movies of the Week and Mini-Series 		Michal Holubec, Terry O'Bright, and
Tom E. Dahl (for "Part 1") 		Nominated [7]
Golden Globe Awards Best Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television Nominated [8]
Best Actor in a Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television Ben Kingsley Nominated
Best Actress in a Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television Hannah Taylor Gordon Nominated
Humanitas Prize 90 Minute or Longer Network or Syndicated Television Kirk Ellis Won [9]
Producers Guild of America Awards David L. Wolper Award for Outstanding Producer of Long-Form Television Nominated [10]
Satellite Awards Best Miniseries Nominated [11]
Best Actor in a Miniseries or a Motion Picture Made for Television Ben Kingsley Nominated
Best Actress in a Miniseries or a Motion Picture Made for Television Hannah Taylor Gordon Nominated
Best Actress in a Supporting Role in a Miniseries or a Motion Picture Made for Television Brenda Blethyn Nominated
Screen Actors Guild Awards Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie Ben Kingsley Won [12]
Writers Guild of America Awards Long Form – Adapted Kirk Ellis;
Based on the book Anne Frank:
The Biography by Melissa Müller 		Won [13]

Home media

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Anne Frank: The Whole Story was released on VHS and DVD on August 28, 2001, by Buena Vista Home Entertainment. The only difference between the DVD and VHS version of this television miniseries is the trailer of South Pacific on the DVD.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "2001 Artios Awards". www.castingsociety.com. October 4, 2001. Retrieved July 11, 2023.
  2. ^ "5th Annual Television Awards (2000-01)". Online Film & Television Association. Retrieved July 11, 2023.
  3. ^ "Anne Frank". Peabody Awards. Retrieved July 11, 2023.
  4. ^ "Anne Frank". Emmys.com. Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Retrieved July 11, 2023.
  5. ^ Goodman, Tim (June 17, 2001). "The critics have their own awards / If nothing else, July's ceremony proves that we don't hate everything". SFGate.com. Archived from the original on April 21, 2023. Retrieved April 21, 2023.
  6. ^ "AFI Awards 2001". Retrieved July 11, 2023.
  7. ^ "Nominees/Winners". IMDb. Retrieved May 6, 2019.
  8. ^ "Anne Frank: The Whole Story – Golden Globes". Golden Globe Awards. Retrieved July 11, 2023.
  9. ^ "Past Winners & Nominees". Humanitas Prize. Retrieved July 11, 2023.
  10. ^ McNary, Dave (March 3, 2002). "Producers plug 'Rouge'". Variety. Archived from the original on September 23, 2017. Retrieved September 22, 2017.
  11. ^ "International Press Academy website – 2002 6th Annual SATELLITE Awards". Archived from the original on February 1, 2008.
  12. ^ "The 8th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards". Screen Actors Guild Awards. January 29, 2002. Retrieved July 11, 2023.
  13. ^ "WGA Awards 2002". Writers Guild of America Awards. Archived from the original on March 7, 2016. Retrieved December 24, 2015.
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