Description
In this episode of Rosie the Reviewer, we discuss Taking Sides (2001), a postwar drama built around a single, unresolved question: can you separate the art from the artist?
Set during the Allied denazification of Germany, the film centres on the interrogation of celebrated conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler, who insists that his art existed above politics. His American interrogator argues the opposite: that cultural figures who remained visible under the Nazi regime cannot claim neutrality.
Our conversation focuses on complicity and whether art is “apolitical” under fascism, as we try to determine whether the film truly challenges its subject.
Taking Sides Trailer
Historical context for Taking Sides
Denazification after 1945
After the German surrender in May 1945, the Allied powers launched a denazification programme aimed at removing Nazi influence from public life. While the Nuremberg Trials prosecuted leaders, millions of ordinary Germans were investigated through questionnaires and tribunals that assessed their level of involvement with the regime. Artists, academics, and cultural figures were included, as culture had played a central role in Nazi propaganda.
Wilhelm Furtwängler and Cultural Power
Wilhelm Furtwängler was one of Germany’s most famous conductors before and during the Second World War. Although he never joined the Nazi Party, at times clashed with officials over artistic control, and helped Jewish musicians, he chose to remain in Germany, conducted high-profile concerts at Nazi functions, and became a symbol of German culture abroad. His prominence made him valuable to the regime and controversial in the postwar period.
Art and Propaganda
The film highlights how art can be used as propaganda even when artists claim political neutrality. Under the Third Reich, music and other cultural forms were actively used to project legitimacy, continuity, and national pride. Taking Sides interrogates whether preserving culture can ever be separated from the political systems that exploit it.
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Other media mentioned
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