Sophie's Choice (film)
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Sophie's Choice is a 1982 film that tells the story of the beautiful Polish immigrant Sophie, and her tempestuous lover that share a boarding house with a young writer in Brooklyn.
It stars Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, and Peter MacNicol. Alan J. Pakula directed the movie and wrote the script after a novel by William Styron, also called Sophie's Choice.
It won the Academy Award for Best Actress (Meryl Streep) and was nominated for Best Cinematography (Néstor Almendros), Costume Design (Albert Wolsky), Best Music (Marvin Hamlisch), and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium (Alan J. Pakula).
Plot
In 1947, the movie's narrator, Stingo, a young writer from the South travels to post-war Brooklyn. He is befriended by Sophie Zawistowski (Streep), a beautiful Polish immigrant, and her lover, Nathan Landau (Kline). It is clear to Stingo from the serial number tatooed into Sophie's forearm that she is no stranger to pain.
One evening, Stingo has a chat and a drink with Sophie and learns some more about her past. She was married but her husband and her father were killed in a German work camp. When Stingo notices scars on Sophie's wrists, Sophie explains that after being rescued from Auschwitz, she was taken to a refugee camp in Sweden, but while there, she went to a church, broke a glass, and cut her wrists. Sophie goes into another room where Nathan spends a lot of time, and finds another wine bottle. Images of the Holocaust are all over the walls, and Sophie explains it is Nathan's obsession.
Sophie and Nathan's relationship is endangered by Sophie's ghosts, and Nathan's obsession with the Holocaust, and his violent temper. When Stingo visits a man who knew Sophie's father, he learns she's been lying to him. He learns that Sophie's father, a Polish college professor, hated Jews. Later, Stingo talks to Sophie about this, and Sophie explains. More about her past emerges through a series of harrowing flashbacks. Sophie reveals that in the winter of 1938, her father was working on a speech he called "Poland Jewish Problem". In a flashback, Sophie listens to a recording of a man speaking in both German and Polish, and she is typing a speech for her father. While typing, she hears a word repeated several times that she has never heard before. She goes back a bit, and hears the voice say that the solution for "Poland Jewish Problem" is "extermination". Something makes Sophie go to the ghetto, and she looks at all the people her father has condemned to die. Sophie suddenly remembers that her father is waiting for his speech, so she hurries home to finish the typing. But, in her haste, Sophie makes a lot of mistakes, and Sophie hurries to university, and her father reads in front of loads of people, getting very angry, too. Later, Sophie had a lover, Józef, who lived with his half-sister, Wanda, a leader in the Resistance. Wanda tried to convince Sophie to translate some stolen Gestapo documents, but Sophie, fearing she may endanger her children, declined. Two weeks later, Józef is murdered by the Gestapo, and Sophie was arrested not long after that, and sent to Auschwitz with her children. Upon arrival, the Germans decide who will live, and who will die. Jan, Sophie's son, is sent to the children's camp, and her daughter, Eva is sent to her demise in Crematorium Two. Sophie is later asked by another prisoner to steal the Commandant's daughter's radio. Sophie later learns of an epidemic in the children's camp, and becomes concerned for her son's well-being. She convinces the Commandant to let him into the Lebensborn programme. He relents, and tells Sophie she will see him the next day. But, when she tries to steal the radio, Sophie gets caught red-handed. The Commandant breaks his promise about letting Sophie see her son. Sophie never knew what happened to him.
Nathan asks Sophie to marry him, and she accepts. Stingo feels betrayed, because he's falling in love with Sophie, but agrees to be Nathan's best man. However, when Nathan goes into another of his violent moods, Sophie goes running to Stingo, just as Nathan makes a threatening phone-call, which ends with the sound of a gun firing, and Nathan making more threats.
Stingo and Sophie flee, and check into a hotel, and Stingo insists they start a family, but Sophie has yet to tell him her sad secret - her choice. She recounts the night she arrived at Auschwitz with her children, and how a Nazi officer forced her to select one of her children to be killed, the other would be spared. Despite her plea of "Don't make me choose. I can't choose", Sophie's words fall on deaf ears, and when a young Nazi is told to take both Sophie's children away, she releases her daughter, shouting "Take my little girl!". Sophie can only watch as the screaming little girl is carried away to die, and Sophie's guilt and despair is all too clear. Back in the present, Sophie tells Stingo not to talk about marriage and children. They sleep together that night, but Stingo wakes up alone. Sophie has left him a note, saying she has gone back to Nathan, but she tells Stingo he is a great lover. Stingo later goes back to the building where he met Sophie and Nathan, only to find that they have committed suicide. Picking up Nathan's book of Emily Dickinson poems, Stingo recites "Ample Make This Bed" as if he were delivering a eulogy at a funeral. The film ends with Stingo leaving Brooklyn, the screen going misty, and an image of Sophie's face fading into view.
Trivia
- In preparation for the role, Meryl Streep not only learned a Polish accent, she also learned to speak Polish and German.
- This film was Kevin Kline's movie debut.
- William Styron wrote the novel with Ursula Andress in mind for the part of Sophie.
External links
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