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To: sphinx

That was very nice of him to honor his mother in that way.


127 posted on 04/08/2020 8:18:52 AM PDT by lee martell
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To: lee martell
Imitation of Life was released in 1959. Operation Finale is set in 1960. In Operation Finale, Imitation of Life is playing in a theater in Buenos Aires with an English soundtrack and Spanish subtitles. Susan Kohner plays a young woman who is passing as white despite being considered black by the democrats of the time under the one drop rule. The clip shown is the moment when she is challenged by a boyfriend, who has heard rumors that her mother is black.

A group of boys in the theater starts snickering at the dialogue; one of them is Klaus Eichmann, son of Adolph, who is of course living in Buenos Aires under an assumed identity. An Argentine girl, Sylvia Hermann (played by Haley Lu Richardson) turns to shush them. Sylvia and Klaus are teenagers. Eyes meet. One thing leads to another, secrets will out, and in the end, Adolph gets hung, so all's well that ends well.

Sylvia was born in Argentina and raised a Catholic. She was aware that her father was a German émigré, but she did not know that her father was Jewish and had spent time in Dachau before emigrating in the 1930's. He got out before the war and decided to leave the old world behind. He raised his daughter as a Catholic and had not burdened her with past horrors. That changed when she brought home a young fellow whose name set off an alarm.

That makes three hidden identities entangled in the opening seconds of Operation Finale. It's a big heavy handed, but when a director is giving a nod to his mom for her greatest role almost 60 years earlier, I am not one to complain.

Ben Kingsley was superb as Eichmann. The rest of the cast is very good as well, but the Eichmann character dominates the movie.

128 posted on 04/08/2020 9:53:56 AM PDT by sphinx
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