the lady in number 6
the lady in number 6, nominated for the best documentary short oscar, reviewed .
just days before the academy awards, netflix has acquired oscar - nominated short documentary the lady in number 6: music saved my life .
the lady in number 6: music saved my life is available to purchase online. it also has recently been acquired by netflix, although no release date has been announced .
subscribe to trailers: urltoken subscribe to coming soon: urltoken subscribe to indie & film festivals: urltoken like us on facebook: urltoken follow us on twitter: urltoken the lady in number 6 official trailer 1 (2014) - documentary hd the lady in number 6 is one of the most inspirational and uplifting stories of the year. 109 year old, alice herz sommer, the world' s oldest pianist and holocaust survivor shares her story on how to achieve a long and happy life. she discussed the importance of music, laughter and how to have an optimistic outlook on life .
the lady in number 6: music saved my life is a short starring aliza sommer - herz, zdenka fantlova, and anita lasker - wallfisch. aliza sommer - herz, aged 109 and the world' s oldest holocaust survivor, tells the story of how music saved her life: both during her time at theresienstadt concentration camp and in the years afterwards .
the lady in number 6 is one of the most inspirational and uplifting stories of the year. 109 year old, aliza sommer - herz, the world' s oldest pianist and holocaust survivor shares her story on how to achieve a long and happy life. she discussed the importance of music, laughter and how to have an optimistic outlook on life .
when malcolm clarke’s the lady in number 6 wins the oscar for best documentary short subject on sunday night, as it almost certainly will, there will no doubt be—among those few who bother to remark on the results in such an unglamorous category—a round of jokes about the converging factors that made its victory inevitable. this 38 - minute - long film is a portrait of the world’s oldest holocaust survivor, alice herz - sommer, a classical pianist who played in the orchestra of the potemkin - village concentration camp theresienstadt. after settling in london, herz - sommer continued to practice the piano for hours each day until near the end of her life—which came sunday at age 110, two days before the close of oscar voting. between the academy’s longstanding preference for holocaust stories and its penchant for handing out posthumous awards, the lady in number 6 is pretty much a lock .
the lady in number 6 is one of the most inspirational and uplifting stories of the year. as the world’s oldest pianist and holocaust survivor, 109 year - old alice herz sommer shares her views on how to live a long and happy life. she discusses music, laughter and how to remain optimistic come what may. the film features beautiful photographs and rare film footage that truly brings alice’s extraordinary story to life .
the real surprise of the lady in number 6 might be that alice herz sommer’s story hadn’t been told before. a london concert pianist and oldest living survivor of the holocaust, the film easily could have been depressing, but the optimistic sommer’s account of her long, extraordinary life instead is at times thrilling, incredible, cheery and miraculous. the fact that at 109 she was still able to recall so many historical events and was willing to share her experiences is something to behold .
liverpool is a remarkable city filled with remarkable people. in 2013 liverpool lift - off film festival’s first year, we saw a staggering success. 650 submissions from around the world, a programme that stretched across 4 unique venues across the city, showcasing 34 films selected by our judges to sell out crowds across 4 memorable days. in 2014 liverpool lift - off returned to the kazimier and showcased the best of british and international filmmaking to bumper crowds and a whole host of press and the filmmaking community. liverpool lift - off film festival 2014 had the uk premier of the oscar winning short documentary the lady at number 6 .
early on in the film, alice relates a memory of her son at the age of three, sitting in their prague apartment before the war as she listens to classical music on the gramophone. as the piece reaches what she describes as an “enormous fortissimo, ” the boy begins to cry and she asks him what’s the matter. “i’m crying because the music is so beautiful, ” he replies. at that moment in the story, alice grows quiet, giving her interviewer a smile and shrug that seem to say, well, there you go—what else could we possibly have been put here on earth to know? you will leave the lady in number 6 weeping for the exact same reason as that overwhelmed, happy little boy. please forget all about the oscars, and just see it .
but please don’t let the wisecracks about academy predictability and cliché keep you from watching the lady in number 6 (available for rental or purchase here), which is neither predictable nor clichéd nor—get this—even remotely depressing. rather, this talking - head interview with a woman who lived through the worst the 20 th century had to offer—and outlived every member of her family, including, eventually, the treasured son who was her only relative to make it through the war—is a document of pure joy and an encounter with a person you will count yourself lucky to have met, even briefly and indirectly, once in your lifetime .
i’m not making much of a case here for the lady in number 6 ’s status as a nondepressing holocaust documentary, am i? but maybe that’s because the case can really only be made by alice herz - sommer herself. this is less a film about one woman’s awful experiences in wartime than about the remarkable person she became afterward, in large part thanks to a lifelong belief in and dedication to the power of music to transfigure and redeem human suffering. “it is a mystery, ” she says in her still - heavy accent, pausing to choose each word carefully, “that when the first tone of music starts, it goes straight in our soul... . music is god. ” and throughout the documentary, she proves this claim with her fingers, sitting down at the keyboard to play bach, beethoven, schumann, and her wartime favorite, chopin, with exquisite expressiveness and control .
in 1943, herz - sommer, who was a pianist, and her husband and son were sent from prague to a concentration camp in the czech city of terezin. she spent two years at the camp before being liberated by the soviet army in may 1945 .
since 2011 the city of liverpool has hosted the annual northern england leg of the lift - off film festival network. liverpool lift - off film festival: the second oldest festival in the year long celebration and exchange of true indie cinema. liverpool lift - off is the only film festival in liverpool and is one of the best attended international film festivals in the north of england. with sell out screenings that span a week of celebration, where the focus is sat heavily on the directors and teams behind each piece that we showcase .
, who was the world' s oldest known holocaust survivor at the time of filming. sommer died in london at the age of 110 on sunday, feb. 23 .
enjoy a night in with these popular movies available to stream now with prime video .
jermaine fowler and omari hardwick of sorry to bother you take us back in time to the worst jobs of their careers .
all of the awards are audience choice and our winners get to enjoy full official selections at every - single subsequent lift - off film festival around the world. the liverpool lift - off film festival was created to stretch the possibilities of showcasing unheard talent in the north of england. liverpool was awarded the european cultural capital city back in 2008. it is a thriving destination for audiences and filmmakers .
alice herz was born in prague in 1903 into a cultured jewish family—her mother was a friend of franz kafka and gustav mahler, and she recalls in the film how she and her twin sister would take walks with kafka while he made up stories for them. (stories “which i’ve forgot, ” she tells the off - screen interviewer in the film, “but i remember the atmosphere. it made a deep impression. ” one can imagine .) she became a successful concert pianist in the 1930s and married her true love, businessman and amateur violinist leopold sommer, whom she relates a few anecdotes about with the proud passion of a young bride. they had a son, stephan, and were just entering a halcyon period of their lives when the war pulled their family apart. a year after losing her widowed mother to deportation, alice was sent with her husband and son to theresienstadt. leopold would later be transported to auschwitz and then dachau, where he died in 1945. but alice and her son would be allowed to wait out the war in the nazis’ ghoulish “model” concentration camp because of the music - loving german officers’ admiration for her playing .
i have a friend in new york, who is an older woman who is a retired concert pianist, and when i go to new york i often stay in her. and for several years she was, she would tell me about this lady, this other concert pianist who she knew in london, and she would say, look, you should really, really, just meet her. i think she’d make a terrific documentary. and i always found, you know, some clever way to politely dodge the issue because earlier, about, actually about 10 years ago, i made the film called prisoner of paradise, which was also nominated for an academy award, and it was a film about a very famous german actor and film director, kurt gerron, who was imprisoned in theresienstadt, oddly enough the same camp as alice, where he was forced by the nazis to make a movie. because he was like spielberg in the camp. so when the nazis discovered that he was in the camp, they said, let’s get gerron to make a film to show the world what a wonderful place the concentration camps are. it was a propaganda film, a pro - nazi propaganda film. and gerron made this film, and he literally made the concentration camp look like a kind of 1940s version of club med. it was an amazing, amazing film that he made .
overall, gravity won the most oscars with a total of seven, dominating the crafts categories .
oh, yeah. [ laughs ] because, you know, again, she’s not, there’s no guile in alice, and when she says in the film, “i love people, i love talking to people, i like listening to, ” it’s who she is, and it’s actually what keeps her alive. i think the fact that she’s sustained, by two things, by music, she still plays every day for 4 hours, she takes a huge amount of spiritual sustenance from the music that she plays and by kind of playing it in her hand even when she’s not playing it on the piano, and then she takes kind of intellectual and social sustenance from these people who come and visit her and talk to her and, you know, she absolutely adores nothing more than sitting in that armchair and chatting to people for hours on end. it just keeps her going. so the idea of a camera crew arriving on her doorstep was a little bit like the circus coming to town. she was interested in what we were doing, interested in the camera, where we were putting it, what we were doing, how we did our jobs. it was exciting for her and i think she loved it .
ellen degeneres hosted the show, which aired live on abc. the ceremony included a
movie heroes
theme, honoring big - screen real - life heroes, superheroes, popular heroes and animated heroes, both past and present, as well as the filmmakers who have brought them to life in theaters .
so we made a film about him and his experience in the camp and it was a tragic film. so for two years, two and a half years actually, i was deeply, deeply, kind of involved in holocaust material. every day, i would go to work, i’d go to my cutting room, and i’d look at footage that was just, awful. that was just, you know, disparaging and depressing and incredibly horrific. and in all candor, i did not want to go through that again. i’d done it. once is enough in a lifetime. you know, the holocaust is so unthinkably horrible so i figured, you know, i’ve done it, i think i made a pretty good film, i don’t need another holocaust film in my life it’s too disparaging. so when i heard that alice was not only a holocaust survivor, but she was also at theresienstadt, which was the camp i spent a lot of time at, and i shot there for a long time, it was like the last thing i needed in my life was another kind of repeat performance of the film i’d made several years before .
you know, i don’t know if she’s seen the movie. we dealt with alice through her grandson, ariel, who lives close to her in london. and he’s quite protective of her. and i think in fairness, i think quite rightly. he’s quite right to say, “let’s just shield her from too many kind of emotional ups and downs…. ” ariel has definitely seen the film and obviously we’ve asked him to show it to alice but whether or not he’s actually done that, i don’t know for sure. i know that her two friends [ in the film ] have seen it because they came to the screening. we had a special screening in london, and they loved it. so i know that they have spoken to her about it, and they’re very enthusiastic about it which is nice .
the part of the film that deals with alice’s experience at the camp is relatively short, and blessedly free of the stock newsreel footage of starved bodies that seems to appear in every documentary of the time and that threatens to turn our collective memory of the holocaust into a history channel montage. there is, though, one wrenching shot of the theresienstadt children’s choir singing onstage. the camera moves along the row of tense, miserable faces (some of them incongruously made up as clowns) pausing on the face of one thin, jug - eared boy at the end of a row. it’s alice’s son stephan, who would take the name raphael sommer when he went on to become a concert cellist after the war, eventually dying of an aneurysm at 64—a lifespan that, as his century - plus - old mother points out, no longer really counts as reaching old age .
“the film is finally finished and we promise you it has been worth the wait. i am in awe at the photographs and some of the 70 year old film footage that our researchers have found. if you want to learn some invaluable lessons about how to live longer and live happier, alice herz sommer is a master teacher. i have seen this film a 100 times and its power, like the power of music grabs me every time and keeps me coming back for more. ”
that’s kind. in all candor, i’m a little bit bewildered by the kind of reception that it’s getting. and i think it’s hard because i haven’t seen it for a very long time. and monday this week, there was a kind of a screening, here, in montreal, and i… literally, the first time ever, i sat in front of my own movie and watched it like a member of the audience. because it had been so long since i’d seen it so i had a little bit of a distance. and it was really only on monday that i kind of, you know, i got it. [ laughs ] when you’re in the process of making a film, and you’re looking at so many factors, obviously, one knows that you’re trying for a certain feel and a certain kind of emotional response, but you’re doing it from the point of view of being a professional filmmaker as opposed to being an audience member and, you know, you can’t ever really calibrate how people are going to react .
slate is published by the slate group, a graham holdings company. all contents © 2018 the slate group llc. all rights reserved .
follow thr' s live blog for the premier oscars second - screen experience .
this documentary short about the oldest holocaust survivor is 38 minutes of pure joy .
read on for more of ew’s q & a with clarke about the film .
she’s quite different on so many levels. and the thing that was most striking about her. the thing that really convinced me in a nanosecond that i had to make this film was she didn’t carry any enmity, no pain, no tragedy. and it’s not that she hasn’t experienced these things, but she processed them so much differently to everyone else that i met. you know, who else in the world goes through the holocaust, goes through a concentration camp, and comes out the other side and says, you know, sometimes i actually think i’m grateful to have been there? you know, because of the legends that she left. i mean, i don’t know anyone who’s grateful for the holocaust. and she’s not saying it disingenuously; she’s saying it from a very kind of deep and profound place. because she took something away from it which gave her strength and gave her, kind of forged who she is today, so you know, it was a very, it was a very, very compelling kind of assignment .
liverpool lift - off film festival has deadlines spread throughout the year, month by month .
want to share imdb' s rating on your own site? use the html below .
filmmakers and script writers may submit to the lift - off global film festivals via either one of our two submission partners. both have varying levels of fees they charge us and fees they charge you. this reflects on the respective costs per submission. each festival is at different stages of deadlines, with the event dates spread throughout the year, please take your pick ...
telling alice' s story was a life - changing experience for everyone involved with the film. we are so glad to partner with netflix so that their viewers will be able to enjoy alice' s infectious love of life and bright spirit ,
said reed in a statement .
netflix viewers and future generations will be able to learn so many life lessons from this most amazing
finally i was making a trip to london and my friend found out about it, and she said, well, at least go and meet her, go and have a cup of tea with her. so i went to meet alice, i spent a hour with her, and of course when you meet her, you kind of get it immediately. there was just no way when i walked out of that apartment that i could not figure out a way to make a film about her. she was, and remains, pretty remarkable. i mean, she’s like no one i’ve ever met. i mean, obviously, i made a film about the holocaust and theresienstadt, i must have met, certainly several hundred people who had experiences in the holocaust. and they all have unique stories to tell and they’re all special in all kinds of ways. i’ve never met anyone like alice .
the director also spends time interviewing two of alice’s close friends, who are camp survivors, one of whom first met her in theresienstadt. all three women evince an extraordinary optimism and strength of character, but even among their company, alice is something special. the word “saint” sounds overly sanctimonious (not to mention profoundly un - jewish), but there’s something holy about this woman’s utter openness to the moment, her deep commitment to her art, and her tangible happiness and gratitude for every minute of extra life she’s been vouchsafed. “sometimes it happens that i am thankful to have been there, ” she says of her time at the camp, “because this gave me a … i am richer than other people. when i hear them saying, oh, this is terrible—no, it is not so terrible. ”
come oscar season, all cinephiles are ready to campaign for their favorite film. are you team gravity or team 12 years a slave? jennifer lawrence or lupita nyong’o? while movie fans have likely seen all the big nominees by this point, there are smaller categories where even some film enthusiasts may not be as well - versed. leading up to the oscars, ew will tell you all about one often - overlooked category: best documentary short. come back each day this week for a look at one of the nominees, and impress your oscar party with your knowledge when the category appears on sunday’s broadcast .
well, the film was about alice, so you know, we were, i mean. you know, she does have memory lapses. she’ll say, hang on a second, was that this year or that year? and in fact, there’s one slight inaccuracy. when she remembers going to a concert with her mother to see gustav mahler and i think she says she was, i can’t remember now, i mean, my memory’s lapsing, she said she was 7 or she was 9. she was off by a year, anyway. the mahler symphony was premiered one year earlier. so she was one year younger than she said. but i think at the ripe old age of 110, and to be, you know, to be off by a year when it happened more than a century ago is allowable. [ laughs ] we didn’t take her to task on it .
12 years a slave was named best picture, while supporting actress honors went to the film' s lupita nyong' o. john ridley won best adapted screenplay .
director malcolm clarke’s interview with ew took place last week. unfortunately, this past weekend sommers passed away at the age of 110 — an inevitability clarke knew he was facing when filming .
“we had to move very quickly, clarke explained. “alice was not young when i met her, i think she was 107 when i met her. any 107 year old, even if they’re very healthy, they are clearly closer to the end of their life than the beginning of their life and so we wanted to get this woman on film while she was still healthy and sprightly and chipper. we did it as fast as we could. no one got paid, it was a labor of love for everyone, it was actually pretty much everyone who had worked on prisoner of paradise came back and gave their services, you know, gratis, so we could get the movie quickly and get her on film while she was still alive. ”
“kids all over the world grow up on superheroes, what we, their parents, must remind them, is documentaries tell stories about ‘real superheroes. ’ superheroes are based on great people, real people, like alice herz sommer. ” – nicholas reed, producer
privacy & cookies: this site uses cookies. by continuing to use this website, you agree to their use. to find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: cookie policy
12 years a slave
won best picture at sunday' s ceremony .
blue jasmine' s cate blanchett was named best actress, while alfonso cuaron won best director for gravity .
some parts of this page won' t work property. please reload or try later .
18 of 18 people found this review helpful. was this review helpful to you? yes no | report this
malcolm clarke' s film followed holocaust survivor alice herz - sommer, who died on sunday .
there’s something holy about this woman’s happiness and gratitude for every minute of extra life she’s been vouchsafed .
all products featured were editorially selected. urltoken may receive a percentage of sales for items purchased from these links. © 2018 meredith corporation all rights reserved. use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms of use and privacy policy (your california privacy rights). | eu data subject requests
the lady in number 6 : music saved my life is an academy award-winning 2013 documentary-short film directed , written and produced by malcolm clarke . the lady in number 6 : music saved my life tells the story of alice herz-sommer , a german-speaking jewish pianist from prague who was at her death the world 's oldest holocaust survivor . in the documentary , she discusses the importance of music , laughter , and how to have an optimistic outlook on life . herz ( 1903 – 2014 ) died at age 110 , one week before the 86th academy awards . 
the lady in number 6: music saved my life is an academy award-winning 2013 documentary-short film directed, written and produced by malcolm clarke. the lady in number 6: music saved my life tells the story of alice herz-sommer, a german-speaking jewish pianist from prague who was at her death the world's oldest holocaust survivor. in the documentary, she discusses the importance of music, laughter, and how to have an optimistic outlook on life. herz (1903 – 2014) died at age 110, one week before the 86th academy awards.
the lady in number 6: music saved my life is an academy award-winning 2013 documentary-short film directed, written and produced by malcolm clarke. the lady in number 6: music saved my life tells the story of alice herz-sommer, a german-speaking jewish pianist from prague who was at her death the world's oldest holocaust survivor. in the documentary, she discusses the importance of music, laughter, and how to have an optimistic outlook on life. herz (1903 – 2014) died at age 110, one week before the 86th academy awards.