Schindler's List is 30 years old: Spielberg & co go behind the scenes of the film

Martin Scorsese almost directed the film

In 1982, the day after the release ofANDSpielberg is approached by Sid Sheinberg from Universal to acquire the rights to the book Schindler's List of Thomas Kenaelly. Despite his initial enthusiasm, the director doubts: “I hadn't made an 'adult' film yet, and I was terrified that Schindler's List become the first: what if I wasn’t mature enough?”. Resigned, he entrusts the project to his friend, Martin Scorsesewhich hires the screenwriter Steve Zaillian. This respite allowed Spielberg to sign two other projects which would give him the necessary confidence: “I couldn't have done Schindler's List without The Color Purple And The Empire of the Sun. These two films served as a springboard for me”.

At this point in history, points of view diverge. According to Michael Ovtizat the time Scorsese's agent, the two friends allegedly engaged in an exchange: Schindler's List against Nerves on edge. Spielberg refutes this version. Scorsese has another point of view: for him, it was a question of not causing more harm to the Jewish community, already upset by the release of The Last Temptation of Christ in 1988. White hat, white hat: Steven Spielberg definitively takes the reins of Schindler's List.

A decisive embrace

For casting, Steven Spielberg has two criteria: the actors must be neither headliners nor Americans because unlike the latter, “European actors have a visceral understanding of the Second World War”. For Oskar Schindler, he had the idea of Liam Neesonan Irishman he had auditioned for The Empire of the Sun. He goes to see him on stage, on Broadway, accompanied by his wife, Kate Capshaw and his mother-in-law. Moved to tears by Neeson's performance, the latter is consoled by the actor who takes her in his arms to console her.

“According to legend, in the car, Kate told Steven: 'That's precisely what Schindler would have done: he would have taken my mother in his arms!'”, quips the actor. However, this may have earned him his tryout in LA, and then the role.

George Lucas to the rescue

Michael Crichton (Mondwest, The Great Attack on the Gold Train) proposes the scenario of Jurassic Park to his agent, Michael Ovitz, who sold the rights to Universal with the promise that the film would be directed by Steven Spielberg to better ease the pill of obscure production Schindler's Listassures the latter.

If Jurassic Park subsequently becoming one of his biggest public successes, the film was initially a thorn in the side of the director, who above all aspired to begin production on his favorite project. Yielding to studio pressure, he completed the filming of the blockbuster and began post-production, planning to carry out the mixing in Poland, during the filming of The list. But seeing that this won't be possible, Spielberg turns to his longtime friend, George Lucaswho agreed to finalize the film while he was in Auschwitz: “George took over, and it was him and Kathy Kennedy who mixed the film”.

Steven Spielberg had to fight to impose black and white

Tom Pollock, one of Universal's leaders, refused black and white, which, according to him, could jeopardize the film's revenue. Steven Spielberg defends his choice: “If I make the film in color, we will end up with the same result as for The Color Purple”he remembers responding.

“The Color Purple should have been black and white. I have been accused of embellishing the film because its palette was too bright for such dark subject matter. I said : 'Except for the images of George Stevens at the liberation of Dachau, everything people were exposed to about the Holocaust was in black and white. I will not give color to the Holocaust'”.

The producer then suggested that he shoot the film in color, broadcast it in black and white in cinemas but market it in the form of technicolor cassettes, which Spielberg refused. The director will ultimately win his case.

NO ENTRANCE

The momentum of the production was hampered by a major setback: the World Jewish Congress refused non-documentary filming inside Auschwitz. Convinced of the importance of the real settings of the camp, Spielberg proposed a compromise to the President of Congress:

“I said : 'Would you object to me filming outside the Auschwitz compound?', he recalls. He told me no. I added : 'What if I used the existing sentry boxes and had barracks built outside the camp? If you let me reverse the train into Auschwitz and then exit through the gatehouses, it would look like it was entering the camp thanks to the barracks on both sides.'”

The representative of the World Jewish Congress agrees: Auschwitz will appear in Schindler's List.

A failed act

Three weeks before flying to Krakow, Steven Spielberg received a call from Billy Wilder (Twilight Boulevard, Insurance on death). He reports his words:

“I just read a book that I found out you own the rights to, Schindler's List. This is my story, before I came to America. I lost my whole family there. I need to tell this. Would you mind letting me direct the film and produce it with me?”.

“I didn’t know what to tell him other than the truth.”laments the director. “I said : 'Billy, I'm leaving for Krakow in three weeks. All roles are assigned. The whole team is committed. I start filming in February'”. A failed act sealed by a handshake between the two directors.

Duty of memory

On the set, the atmosphere is charged with the memory of the Holocaust. Firstly by the symbolism of the place, but also thanks to the various testimonies of survivors. Branko Lustig, one of the film's producers, shows Liam Neeson the barracks in which he was held as a child, part of whose family did not survive the deportation. And then, many survivors come to visit the filming. Steve Bauerfeindproduction assistant, remembers:

“It happened very often that someone from production would come and tell one of Steven's assistants that a woman had come forward who had been saved by Schindler or who had lived in Krakow, and he would always go and chat with these little wrinkled ladies who told him about their experiences.”

Behind the scenes

If the atmosphere is warm in the hotel rented by the production to accommodate the film crew, the latter is often confronted with chilling anti-Semitism. Ben Kingsley who is Jewish, suffers racist taunts from people in the neighborhood. Ralph Fiennes meets a Polish woman who assures him that the Germans were not so bad. Liam Neeson witnesses a derogatory comment about Jews and money. And then there is Embeth Davidtzverbally attacked by a woman who understood that she was participating in the filming of the film.

Ben Kingsley sums up the ambient anti-Semitism: “I describe it as a dull, sinister buzzing sound; like a melody that we all heard throughout the day, an underlying hatred”.

Robin Williams' contribution

Very good friend of Steven Spielberg, the actor Robin Williams had a positive influence on the filming. Spielberg says:

“Robin knew how complicated this shoot was for me, and once a week, on Friday, he would call me and make jokes. It lasted a good ten to twenty minutes, until he heard me laughing out loud. After which he hung up on me.”

Moments of lightness that the director greatly needed, he who describes this shoot as “the hardest thing he ever had to do as a filmmaker”.

A necessary end

The original scenario was to end with the community escaping and being saved by Oskar Schindler. But three weeks before the end of filming, Steven Spielberg was tormented by doubt: “Who would believe this story? Who would believe it actually happened? Won’t this story give fodder to the Holocaust denial movement?”. It was necessary to add an almost documentary added value to the film, so that “people understand that it wasn't just the rantings of the guy who made AND, Indiana Jones, Jaws And Encounter of the Third Kind”.

The filmmaker then asks that as many Jews as possible be brought in, saved by the German entrepreneur. One hundred and twenty-eight of these survivors will make the trip, including Emily Schindler, his widow, who until now had never seen her husband's grave. A meeting is organized with the film team, “a joyous celebration” remembers Liam Neeson. The next day, fiction meets reality at the Catholic cemetery of Mount Sion.