Conspiracy
Short description
Conspiracy dramatizes a single meeting held outside Berlin on January 20, 1942. Senior officials of Nazi Germany gather at a villa at the invitation of Reinhard Heydrich, head of the security apparatus, to work out how the deportation and killing of Europe's Jewish population should be organized and carried out. The attendees include Adolf Eichmann, who has prepared the paperwork, and a range of government and party figures whose ministries must be drawn into the process. Much of the film's tension comes from the polite, businesslike manner in which the participants discuss administrative questions while the purpose of the discussion becomes unmistakable.
Frank Pierson directed the television film, which followed his 1976 feature A Star Is Born and preceded Soldier's Girl and Paradise. Loring Mandel wrote the screenplay, Nick Gillott produced, and the production came from BBC Film and HBO Films. Kenneth Branagh plays Heydrich and Stanley Tucci plays Eichmann, with Colin Firth, Jonathan Coy, Brendan Coyle and Ben Daniels among the credited cast of 32.
The film runs 96 minutes and was released in 2001. On IMDb it holds a rating of 7.6 from around 29,000 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 7.3 from roughly 500 votes. A critics' rating of 6.5 from seven reviews places it below the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- The atmosphere on set was very reminiscent of a theatrical production. The performers remained in costume and character from morning until the end of the shooting day. A soundstage with fixed walls and ceiling was used. Filming took place in long takes – often 20 pages of the script or more at a time, which was quite unusual. On the other hand, many members of the cast had previously played William Shakespeare (1564-1616), so memorizing such a large amount of text presented no difficulties for them. The filming style required the use of the Super 16 cinematic format (which involves using the entire usable width of 16mm film with single perforation without reserving space for a combined soundtrack).
- Due to the lack of precise information about the conference details, the filmmakers had to make independent decisions on many nuances (for example, seating arrangements at the table, wearing uniforms at sessions, etc.). On the other hand, they did have some access to the necessary information. During his trial in Jerusalem in 1961, Adolf Eichmann (SS Obersturmbannführer, head of the “Jewish Department” of the Secret State Police; 1906-1962) provided a detailed description of the event depicted in the film. Eichmann recalled much about specific conversations, the overall atmosphere of the meeting, and so on. Many lines in the film are taken verbatim from surviving reports and speeches of Nazi officials.
- The epilogue states that a copy of the Wannsee Conference protocol, belonging to Martin Luther (head of the German Department of the Foreign Office and Undersecretary of State), was discovered by the Americans among the papers of the Third Reich's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1947. This is the only surviving copy of the protocol from the conference held at Lake Wannsee on January 20, 1942, where the methods and means of the genocide program against the Jewish population of Europe (now referred to as the "Holocaust") were determined.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
