The Attic: The Hiding of Anne Frank (Universal) (1988)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Main Menu Audio
Rating
Year Of Production	1988
Running Time	95:38
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	John Erman
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Mary Steenburgen Paul Scofield Huub Stapel Eleanor Bron Frances Cuka Miriam Karlin Ronald Pickup Gary Raymond Victor Spinetti Tom Wilkinson Lisa Jacobs Isabelle Amyes Ian Sears
Case	?
RPI	$34.95	Music	Richard Rodney Bennett

    The story of Anne Frank is one that needs little introduction. I'm sure many of us read at least something about her life while at school. I vividly remember having to churn through several novels either based on the famous diary Anne kept during her days of confinement or excerpts from the actual diary itself. As one of the many millions of persecuted Jews in Europe during the dark days of World War II, she was cloistered away in a small Amsterdam attic with several others, including her immediate family, for more than two years. Anne kept a diary, intending the highly personal entries to ever only be for her own use. Little did she know at the time just how many millions of people she would touch with her writings. In her diary she described daily life in the attic, the inability to make noise, or move around much, the isolation and the ever-present fear of discovery.

    As we all know, Anne's diary survived the war, even though she did not. It was found by Miep Gies, one of the people who helped hide the family. When it was confirmed that Anne would not be returning, Gies gave the diary to Anne's father, Otto Frank. In 1947 the first edition appeared in print and since then the diary has been published in more than 55 languages around the world.

    This is a 1988 Yorkshire Television production about the hiding of the Frank family in an attic. It is based on the book Anne Frank Remembered by Miep Gies (played here by Mary Steenburgen). It is told from the perspective of Gies and her husband who agree to help hide the family. It does not focus on Anne herself (played by Lisa Jacobs) and there is only passing mention of the all-important diaries and certainly never a look at just what is written in them. The process of the hiding and the subterfuge created by the couple in order to keep their hidden visitors a secret is pretty much all the story is about. It plays out as a fairly dull and by-the-numbers affair as we all know what happens in the end. As a result of there being very little focus on Anne or the diary I began to lose interest mid-way through. I really could not help but compare this pretty ordinary effort at terror and suspense with the magnificent portrayal offered in The Pianist. That was a film that offered a real look at the terrors inflicted by Nazi Germany on the Jewish population.

Video

    This is a made-for-television film and it is presented in the full screen aspect ratio of 1.33:1. It does not feature 16x9 enhancement.

    This is not a super sharp transfer, and is probably worse than what one would expect from a television broadcast a little over 15 years old. Shadow detail is handled well with no loss of clarity. There is a reasonable amount of grain throughout the whole feature but low level noise is absent.

    Colours are incredibly dull almost to the point of being monochromatic. Skin tones tend a little on the pale side. Black levels are probably the biggest disappointment, appearing generally grey or blue in pretty much every scene. There are no other problems with bleeding or oversaturation.

    I saw no MPEG artefacts. There is some minor aliasing scattered throughout, but it doesn't really become an issue. The biggest film-to-video problem is the ever-present telecine wobble which starts as soon as the opening credits start and doesn't end until the closing credits begin to roll. It is probably the worst case of such wobble that I have ever seen and is particularly distracting. Film artefacts are present in quite numerous quantities and some them are very large. The usual small spots, nicks, and hairs appear in addition to several solid horizontal lines running the full length of the transfer.

    There are no subtitles present.

    This is a single layered disc only, therefore there is no layer change to navigate.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Only one soundtrack is present, an English Dolby Digital 2.0 effort that sounds pretty much like it could be mono only. There is no discernible panning or stereo effects at all. It is also a fairly harsh soundtrack with little fidelity or dynamic range on offer.

    Dialogue comes across quite muffled. Without the benefit of subtitles I had to turn this up well past my normal review volume just to hear what was going on. The soundtrack features some poor ADR work at times and as a result there is the occasional issue with audio sync. There is very little else to say about the audio. It's a fifteen year-old made-for-TV movie, and it really does sound like one.

    There is obviously no surround channel nor subwoofer use.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Main Menu Audio

    Aside from a little menu audio there are no extras.

    I can't find any reference to this title in Region 1.

    The Attic - The Hiding Of Anne Frank is a fairly lacklustre effort at recounting a tale that is both depressing and inspirational. The production design is quite cheap with the whole thing reeking of made-for-television.

    The video quality is worse than I was expecting, even for a made-for-television movie. It looks like one that was made in the 1970s and not the late 1980s.

    The audio is flat and lifeless with little fidelity on offer. It does the job in unspectacular fashion.

    There are no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall