With the closing of the Varsity Theater, the Honolulu Academy of Arts’ Doris Duke Theatre is the lone art house in town, and film curator Gina Caruso is keeping it stocked with top-notch options. Opening Sunday is the acclaimed documentary “The Rape of Europa” by Richard Berge, Nicole Newnham and Bonni Cohen. Based on the book by Lynn H. Nicholas, the film is about the Nazi regime’s systematic plunder of the art treasures of Europe. The title plays on the Greek myth, so eloquently depicted by Titian, who was one of the artists on Hitler’s wish list — he had a list drawn up of all the works he wanted to steal for a supermuseum he had planned for Berlin. The film covers a lot of ground, from the Nazi attempt to obliterate Warsaw of its people and culture (and repopulate it with good Aryan stock) to the more recent art debacle involving Klimt’s portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer.

Nazis pilfered the collections of Parisian Jews such as the Rothschilds. Meanwhile the U.S. Army had a squad of art experts who were dubbed “Monument Men,” and the film also tells their story — trying to recover art stolen by Nazis, and in some cases, bombed by flubbed Allied missions. The movie is riveting. It runs Dec. 9 to 15. Don’t miss it.

Honolulu Academy of Arts (Map)
900 S Beretania St /Honolulu, HI 96814 / (808) 532-8734)


(Note: Lesa Griffith works at the Academy)

—LesaG, 12/07/07