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The opening of István Szabó’s Taking Sides — a musical performance interrupted by an aerial bombardment — echoes that of another film about the consolation of art and the nightmare of history: The Pianist. In the latter the Luftwaffe is bombing Warsaw to open World War II, and in the former the Allies are bombing Berlin to end it. The similarities are not surprising, since Robert Harwood wrote the screenplay for both (Taking Sides is based on his play). But unlike Holocaust survivor Wladislaw Szpilman, Wilhelm Furtwängler (Stellan Skarsgård) enjoyed the greatest privileges of the Third Reich because of his artistic gifts. Was it collaboration? Major Steve Arnold (Harvey Keitel), the US Army officer assigned to Furtwängler’s case, seems to think so. Played by Keitel, he’s the epitome of brash American bullying. Which doesn’t automatically make Furtwängler more convincing, though he’s played with restrained, tormented dignity by Skarsgård. Furtwängler insists his intent was preserving the integrity of music and the distinction between politics and art. Arnold tells him he could smell the stench of burning flesh four miles away when they liberated Bergen-Belsen. Despite the title, Szabó seems noncommittal, as in his 1981 Mephisto, a more flamboyant take on the same subject. He suggests that the sides to be chosen are not between Furtwängler and Arnold, but between art and compromise, conscience and practicality, and perhaps no one who has not had to make that choice is truly fit to judge those who have. (108 minutes.) At the Kendall Square and West Newton.
BY PETER KEOUGH
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