Smartorhypo
Highly Overrated But Still Good
ScoobyMint
Disappointment for a huge fan!
Reptileenbu
Did you people see the same film I saw?
Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de)
"The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life" is an Academy Award winning documentary short film from 3 years ago and it takes us on a journey into the life of Aliza Sommer-Herz. She is the heart and soul of this film here and I certainly enjoyed watching her tell about her past. I also liked the video and photo footage from this film. These were my favorite parts. I guess I would have preferred a bit more focus on the lady in number 6 instead of the other lady as a film with this short runtime is perfectly fine if it only covers one person during its entirety. Apart from that, I was not too fond of writer and director Malcolm Clarke narrating himself. They should have used some professional. However, as the narration is sparse, it's nothing that could destroy the film. For Clarke, it is already the second Academy Award and he won it no less than 25 years after his first while scoring another nomination in-between. Sadly, the protagonist in here did not live to see this major success, but then again her age is still an incredible achievement. As a whole, I recommend this documentary. Thumbs up.
Meli Gruber
The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life is an Academy Award- winning short documentary written and directed by Malcolm Clarke.The plot focuses on the stunning story of Alice Herz-Sommer, who was not only the world's oldest Holocaust survivor, but also a talented pianist. Born in Prague on the 26th of November 1903, she grew up amongst many of the most creative minds of that day, such as Mahler and Kafka. Music has always meant the world to her, she has never been interested in anything else, and although her life has always been a constant struggle, she managed to conquer the bad days with laughter and positivity. Music was the only constant in her life and without it, she probably would have never survived those years in the concentration camp.From my point of view it is a remarkable story indeed. Alice transformed the pain of her tormented life into ecstatic beauty and achieved much more than many people ever will: she lived life to its fullest.I would definitely recommend this movie, not only because it won an Oscar for Best Short Documentary, but also because of the extraordinary and moving story that shows the real value of life.
Red-125
The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life (2014) is a Canadian short documentary co- written and directed by Malcolm Clarke. It introduces us to Eliza Sommer-Herz, a holocaust survivor, still going strong at age 109!Ms. Sommer-Herz was--and is--a classical musician. Although she suffered terribly during the Holocaust, she remained alive because the Nazis wanted to show outsiders that even their concentration camps contained orchestras. Now, Ms. Sommer-Herz vividly remembers the horrors of the Holocaust, but she refuses to let her suffering define her life. She is fully alive, fully active, and still plays the piano every day.In the film, two of her friends are visiting her, and, for some reason, they aren't listed in the credits. I would have liked to have known more about them, as well as about Ms. Sommer- Herz. However, director Clarke clearly made the decision that film this was the story of the Lady in Number 6, and that's what he presents to us.This movie is definitely worth seeking out and viewing. It won an Oscar for Best Short Documentary, and that honor was fully deserved. It will work well on DVD. We had the privilege of seeing it at Rochester's wonderful Dryden Theatre, as part of the fabulous Rochester Jewish Film Festival.
MartinHafer
Today I made my annual pilgrimage to the local theater to see all the Oscar-nominated Documentary Shorts. My good friend came with me and force once we were in agreement as to which shorts were strongest and weakest--which is a little unusual."The Lady in Number 6" is a film about Alice Herz Sommers. Although she is 109 when the film was made, she was amazingly healthy and vibrant in the short. It begins with her playing beautiful classical music on the piano and she does on to tell her life story. She was a concert pianist who grew up in Czechoslovakia--a very successful one. However, her life with her husband Leopold* and son Raphael changed forever when the Nazis invaded in early 1939. She, along with a couple friends, then talk about their experiences in the Nazi camp Theresienstadt--a fake model prison where the Red Cross was fooled into believing the Nazis were benevolent towards the Jews--a camp where music and the arts thrived (at least when folks from the outside were watching).The story, however, is not just about the horrors but about how Alice's positive thinking helped her survive and thrive in this hell. In many ways, it's a nice complement to Victor Frankl's book "Man's Search for Meaning"--a book that asks what is it about some inmates that helped them survive whereas others just shriveled up and died. It's all very interesting and informative and makes for lovely viewing. The film's strengths are its existential undercurrent as well as the amazingly artistic quality of the film itself. From a purely technical point of view, it is the most professional looking of the nominees--with amazing post-production work and direction.*By the way, this film made an odd omission. While it talks about Alice and her son, no further mention is made of Leopold! He apparently was killed in Auschwitz. Also, I checked. At 110, Alice is still going strong!
