Film
What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases
Sophie Scholl (2005)
Director: Marc Rothemund
Movie review
From Time Out London
In the 2002 documentary ‘Blind Spot: Hitler’s Secretary’, Traudl Junge speaks of reaching a bitter epiphany when she saw a memorial plaque for Sophie Scholl, the sole female member of the White Rose anti-Nazi resistance group. Junge, who claimed she knew nothing of the Holocaust while in the Führer’s employ, was 22 years old when she went to work for him, a year older than Scholl was at the time of her execution for high treason; she was guillotined alongside her brother, Hans, and their White Rose comrade Christoph Probst. As the mortified Junge concluded, ‘It was no excuse to be young.’Scholl’s story has been told before, in two films released in 1982 with Lena Stolze, but Marc Rothemund’s film – starring Julia Jentsch of ‘The Edukators’ – can take advantage of new-found transcripts of Scholl’s interrogation by Gestapo officer Robert Mohr. An award-winning hit in Germany, the movie parses the last six days of a brief life: from Hans and Sophie’s risky decision to distribute resistance leaflets in the atrium of Munich University to Sophie’s fatefully conspicuous impulse to push a stack of the leaflets from an upper floor on to the exiting students, her arrest and extended interview with chain-smoking villain Mohr (Gerald Alexander Held) to the grotesque show trial and the executions that swiftly followed. Unfortunately, screenwriter Fred Breinersdorfer makes sentimental use of historical licence and the film holds few surprises, though it builds a remarkable level of suspense during the fait-accompli interrogation scenes, and is a well-intended commemoration of a courageous young woman.Author: JWin
Time Out London Issue 1836: October 26-November 2 2005
Cast & crew
Director: Marc Rothemund
Cast: Julia Jentsch, Fabian Hinrichs, Gerald Alexander Held, André Hennicke, Johanna Gastdorf full cast
Genre(s): Drama
Rated: PG
Duration: 117 mins
UK Release: Oct 28 2005
Most popular on this site
Top Stories
Has David Cronenberg turned tame?
Has director David Cronenberg veered too far from his radical and bloody roots with new film 'A Dangerous Method'?
The 10 worst date movies
Just in time for Valentine's Day, we present ten of the least romantic films ever made
Where to watch this year's Oscar-nominated films
Find out where to watch 2012's Oscar-nominated films in London cinemas
10 unlikely badboy biopics
Featuring Phil Collins, Jeremy Clarkson, Nick Clegg, David Starkey and a host of other unlikely subjects
Interview: Sean Durkin on 'Martha Marcy May Marlene'
The first-time director of the brilliant new thriller discusses religious cults and robot boxing
Pop-up cinema for Valentine's Day
Side-step romantic clichés with some alternative Valentine’s viewing






What do you think?
Post your review now