Szabó’s Taking Sides (2001): the Figure of the Musician in the Face of the Nazi Regime

Abstract

István Szabó’s film Taking Sides (2001) is an adaptation of the play originally written in 1995 by South-African born playwright Ronald Harwood. Harwood wrote the film’s screenplay. It is based on the real-life investigation of the great German conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler by the Allied-Denazification Commission in the immediate aftermath of World War II. Wilhelm Furtwängler is an extremely controversial figure who is viewed by some as « the Devil’s Music Master » and by others as a figure of the resistance. The film dwells on the political role of the musician under the Nazi regime. The inquiry sheds light on the character’s inner contradictions and complexity as well as on the tangled period during which the events under scrutiny occurred. Szabó and Harwood present the viewers with the « objective » historical facts so they can take sides with full knowledge of the evidence. This paper will attempt to demonstrate the impossibility of such a challenge for both film director and screenwriter to present the audience with a film they claim refuses to take sides. The historical facts displayed in the play are open to interpretation which, considering the period, is not surprising. Moreover, the film’s editing and the choice of actors throw into sharp relief the way in which, despite their claims, Szabó and Harwood are actually taking sides in favour of Furtwängler. We thus hope to understand and explain why Szabó and Harwood made those choices.