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The Rape of Europa

The Rape of Europa (2007)

tomatometer

83

Average Rating: 7.2/10
Critic Reviews: 23
Fresh: 19 | Rotten: 4

No consensus yet.

audience

90

liked it
Average Rating: 4.1/5
User Ratings: 1,145

My Rating

Movie Info

Adolf Hitler spent years struggling to establish himself as an artist before his political ambitions rose to the surface and he brought the Nazi Party to power in Germany, and documentary filmmakers Richard Berge, Nicole Newnham, and Bonni Cohen offer a unique perspective on how Hitler's aesthetic viewpoint may have affected his nation's actions during World War II. The Rape of Europa examines the artistic tastes of Hitler and his leading advisors, and how they looted many of the great museums

Sep 16, 2008

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All Critics (46) | Top Critics (23) | Fresh (38) | Rotten (8)

That Hitler was mad is well known. That he was mad about art, not so well.

August 15, 2008 Full Review Source: Denver Post
Denver Post
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The Rape of Europa, an engrossing film based on Lynn Nicholas' 1995 book of the same name, offers a fascinating new perspective on an era that sometimes seems as if it has no more secrets.

May 29, 2008 Full Review Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune
Minneapolis Star Tribune
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It's long for a documentary, almost two hours, but it has a big story to tell.

March 6, 2008 Full Review Source: Arizona Republic
Arizona Republic
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This is a vast subject, ideally suited to a series of films. It's at its most moving when focusing on the small stories of individual artworks taken from their owners and restored to the families decades later.

February 8, 2008 Full Review Source: Seattle Times
Seattle Times
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As thorough as the movie is, it could easily devote another hour to cases like this.

February 1, 2008 Full Review Source: Detroit Free Press
Detroit Free Press
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There is a heart-rending feeling to this documentary, in part due to its sense of irretrievable loss.

January 25, 2008 Full Review Source: Toronto Star
Toronto Star
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Outstanding documentary on the theft and destruction of European masterpieces up to and during WWII.

October 16, 2008 Full Review Source: rec.arts.movies.reviews
rec.arts.movies.reviews

A fascinating history lesson about a generally-overshadowed aspect of the Second World War.

September 22, 2008 Full Review Source: NewsBlaze
NewsBlaze

A sometimes intriguing, sometimes maddening essay in the realm of informational overkill.

August 6, 2008 Full Review Source: Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)
Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

The Rape of Europa boasts a strong narration by Joan Allen as it explores a less familiar aspect of World War II and the legacy left by the Nazis.

June 20, 2008 Full Review Source: KPBS.org
KPBS.org

The Rape of Europa is conventionally made, but it doesn't need cinematic sizzle because it's packed with so many fascinating factoids.

May 30, 2008 Full Review Source: St. Paul Pioneer Press
St. Paul Pioneer Press

The directors might have benefited by going smaller %u2014 for instance, focusing on two or three pieces of lost artwork and tracing their history. This art documentary simply isn't artful enough.

May 29, 2008 Full Review Source: Arizona Daily Star
Arizona Daily Star

It's a compelling journey into a soul-chilling past that might not be fully sorted out for generations to come.

May 2, 2008

Its lack of both style and focus keeps it from being a success as a feature film.

April 24, 2008 Full Review Source: Las Vegas Weekly
Las Vegas Weekly

The Rape of Europa presents iconic images that viewers who aren't schooled in European art will recognize. That's a good way to connect with the film and understand the enormity of the pillage by Hitler and his cronies.

April 11, 2008 Full Review Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The movie's three directors sap the drama out of the story with slow pacing, a dispassionate accumulation of facts and a too-dry narration by Joan Allen.

April 4, 2008
Salt Lake Tribune

Narrated by Joan Allen, the film is a remarkably comprehensive look at the cultural destruction that accompanied the slaughter.

March 28, 2008
Kansas City Star

(T)his dense, dynamic documentary... takes on the high drama and difficult moral quandaries of Adolf Hitler's campaign to plunder the great artworks of Europe...

February 8, 2008 Full Review Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Audience Reviews for The Rape of Europa

Fascinating look at the Nazi's treatment of art during the WW2 period.
May 21, 2009
Beefy
Steve K

Super Reviewer

stunning. the story of how the nazis smashed and looted the art treasures of europe and the struggle to find and restore them.
November 24, 2008
rubystevens
Stella Dallas

Super Reviewer

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Latest News on The Rape of Europa

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November 20, 2007:
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