SOPHIE'S CHOICE

US, 1982, 150 minutes, Colour.
Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Peter MacNicol?.
Directed by Alan J.Pakula.

Sophie's Choice is based on the novel by William Styron, the Stingo of the film. It is a star vehicle for Meryl Streep who is superb. She won an Oscar for this performance. (She had won an Emmy award in the 1970s for her role in the mini-series, Holocaust). She is well supported by Kevin Kline as the manic Nathan and Peter MacNicholl? in a warm performance as Stingo, both at the beginning of their screen careers.

The film re-creates the atmosphere of Brooklyn in 1947 with sad and well-dramatised flashbacks to Auschwitz. In fact, these scenes are very powerful especially because the sequence of Sophie's choice concerning the life and death of her children is dramatically kept to the latter part of the movie. The pathos of the film is very, very strong by the end when Sophie's choice and its secret are revealed.

The film makes comment on the American way of life, its madness. its dreams, its disappointments. It contrasts it with the world of Poland during the 1930s, the world of the Jews and anti-Semitism in Poland, the fears of the Communists and the accusations against Jews that they were Communists. Sophie is a Polish Catholic caught up in Nazi persecution and viciousness and, finally, the concentration camps.

A very moving film with Meryl Streep at her best. Music is by Marvin Hamlisch. The screenplay was written by director, Alan J. Pakula (Love and Pain, All the President's Men, The Parallax View).

1. Impact of the film? Its acclaim?

2. Adaptation of the novel? The autobiographical perspective of Stingo?

3. The strength of the cast? Re-creation of Brooklyn in the '40s? Poland and Auschwitz? The camp sequences? The styles of photography, the blue black flashbacks? The mellow Brooklyn? The use of close-ups, especially
of Sophie? The final look at Sophie at the end? Musical score, songs?

4. The structure of the film: Stingo's voice-over (and the older Stingo voiced by Josef Sommer)? His coming to Brooklyn, his hopes, encounters with Sophie and Nathan? The flashbacks to Sophie on her arrival in New York? The flashbacks to Auschwitz, to the choice itself?

5. A young man's journey: the naive young man, his understanding of personalities, of himself? Discovering American madness? The pathos in Nathan? World War II, the heritage of Nazism, the camps, cruelty? The ultimate suicide? The pessimistic experience for Stingo?

6. The portrait of Stingo: age, background of the South, hopes, literary talent, a man of his era, Brooklyn, the apartment and the landlady, the encounters with Sophie and Nathan, the initial puzzle, Nathan mocking him, apologies, Nathan's erratic changes? Sophie's friendship, inviting him to the apartment, sharing with him, talking? Their becoming the best of friends? The picnic on the Brooklyn Bridge and the toast to Nathan and his achievement? Nathan's being erratic, his devotion to Sophie? The encounter with Leslie, the picnic? the sexual gropings? His work, finishing the novel? Nathan reading it, his hopes, Nathan's mockery? The encounter with Nathan's brother, the impact of the truth? His concern? Listening to Sophie's story, the impact on him? The proposal, her telling him the secret and its impact? Going to the South, the hopes, the sexual encounter, her leaving the note? The deaths? Stingo and what he had learnt from this experience? The audience identifying with him?

7. The skill of Meryl Streep's portrayal of Sophie, the actress's versatility: the first impressions, her appearance and accent, in herself, relationship With Nathan? her response to his erratic behaviour? Pleasant, welcoming to Stingo? The fights, on the staircase, in the room? Love and love making? The moods? Her friendship with Stingo, justifying Nathan? The gift of the watch and his rejection, suspicions? The suspicion about the English professor? The pleasant times on the roof, the picnics, the beach? Audience sympathy with her? The concentration camp number? Her memories, emaciated, unable to speak English, classes, the question about Emily Dickinson, the library and her collapse? Nathan taking care of her, the bed, her illness, Nathan reading? The bond between them? Her memories of her father, explanations of his genius, praising him? The gradual change in America? her Polish background, Catholic background - no more?

8. The gradual revelation of the truth, the close-ups for her explanation of herself? The sequences in Poland, her work, her relationship with her father, his anti-Semitic attitudes? Her husband, the children? Helping her husband, accused of being a communist? The arrest, the train journey, with her children, her explanation of one being sent to die, the other living? The Auschwitz scenes? Her survival in the camp, her work, emaciated, interaction with the officials, the attraction of the officer, the women supervisors, the families? Her final being let out of the camp?

9. The final revelation of the choice: the sequence in the train, the officer, her not being Jewish, her being given the choice of one child, her choosing her son, criteria, the cries of her daughter being taken away? The anguish, the consequences, the distress and disillusionment?

10. Her support for Stingo, interest in his work, the proposal of marriage, her love for him, leaving him? Nathan and his moods, going back to him, the truth, her debt to him, the suicide and the tableau of the two together in death?

11. Kevin Kline's personification of Nathan: in himself, his mental illness, his moods, rudeness, joy and frustration, in love with Sophie, angry at her, being late, suspicious? Friendship with Stingo after the initial attack? His stories, the celebration, the Brooklyn Bridge? The happy scenes together? His care of Sophie and genuine love for her? His reaction to Stingo's book? The gift of the watch and his jealousy? The truth, his collapse? In death with Sophie?

12. The sketch of Leslie, in the house, relationship with Stingo, at the beach, in the room, her psychological jargon?

13. Nathan's brother, the phone call, the explanations to Stingo, the truth?

14. The Brooklyn characters, the landlady? Brooklyn style?

15. The contrast with the flashbacks to Auschwitz: the visuals, the crowds, the horror, the trains, the officers, the women? The official families and the children? Sophie and her trying to take the radio, being caught by the girl, the dangers?

16. Audience sympathy with her? The concentration camp number? Her memories, hated, unable to speak English, classes, the question about Emily Dickinson, the library and her collapse? Nathan taking care of her, the bed, her illness, Nathan reading? The bond between them? Her memories of her father, explanations of his genius, praising him? The gradual change in America? her Polish background, Catholic background - no more?

17. A film and a portrayal of insight and sympathy?