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.
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06/20/08
The Rape Of Europa (2007)
79
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:39
Fresh:31
Rotten:8
Average Rating:7.2/10
Runtime: 1 hr 57 mins
Genre: Musical & Performing Arts
Synopsis: Joan Allen narrates this documentary that chronicles the plight of Europe's greatest artistic treasures during the Nazi reign. As the Third Reich attempted to destroy the continent's culture, art... [More]
Director: Bonni Cohen, Richard Berge, Nicole Newnham
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Reviews for The Rape Of Europa
(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...
02/08/08
Its lack of both style and focus keeps it from being a success as a feature film.
04/24/08
Renders one of the most arresting untold stories of World War II into something quite unaccountably boring.
01/07/08
You don't have to be an art lover to shed a few tears over the excellent human spirit involved in protecting such art treasures from violent, despotic greed. And, for their proper restitution.
09/23/07
A fascinating account of art's fate during the rise of the Third Reich and the Second World War.
09/13/07
Top CriticThe 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.
05/29/08
Top CriticThe 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.
04/11/08
A startling documentary.
01/04/08
Top CriticThat Hitler was mad is well known. That he was mad about art, not so well.
08/15/08
Top CriticNot helping matters are Joan Allen's blanched tones as narrator, or the general flatness of the talking heads.
09/28/07
Top CriticThe movie doesn't dramatize this crime -- it catalogs it. With deadening monotony.
09/13/07
Top CriticRape of Europa is a history lesson dressed as a measured thriller.
09/27/07
The Rape of Europa is conventionally made, but it doesn't need cinematic sizzle because it's packed with so many fascinating factoids.
05/30/08
The film is somewhat scattered in construction, but it's an eye-opener.
12/07/07
Narrated by Joan Allen, the film is a remarkably comprehensive look at the cultural destruction that accompanied the slaughter.
03/28/08
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.
02/08/08
There is a heart-rending feeling to this documentary, in part due to its sense of irretrievable loss.
01/25/08
Top CriticThis meticulously rich documentary chronicles the cultural scavenging of the Nazis and the heroic efforts of art patrons and ordinary citizens to hide the treasures.
09/14/07
Top CriticMuch of the documentary shows in gripping detail the efforts to save Europe's treasures from Hitler's clutches and the ravages of war.
09/17/07
Top CriticLatest News for The Rape Of Europa
January 11, 2008:
Juno, No Country for Old Men Among Writers Guild Award Nominees
If there's one Hollywood awards ceremony that you'd think would be able to go off without a hitch this year, it'd be the Writers Guild Awards -- but you'd be wrong. More...
November 20, 2007:
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A little over a week after reporting the names of the dozen films being submitted for Oscar consideration in the animated feature film category, Variety has given readers the... More...
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