Schindler's List (1993 Steven Spielberg)

It would have been Billy Wilder's last film ("But maybe mine wouldn't have been as great as Steven's") - what he would have made of it is a fascinating guessing game - in Spielberg's hands it's almost too big for review or comment. I sure was in trouble for putting it on. Still, it needs seeing every twenty years or so.

Ben Kingsley, Liam Neeson, and my alter ego Ralph Fiennes star, with a large cast of unknowns. Steve Zaillian won one of seven Oscars for his adapted screenplay. Spielberg won for film and director, as did Janusz Kaminski, making it look like Charles Lang had shot it, if such a thing is possible in this horror - the Auschwitz scenes in the snow are a standout; and overall it kept making me think of the Stroop report photos:

So did Spielberg regulars John Williams (an excellent decision to under-Hollywoodise the music score), Michael Kahn (editor) and art direction.

Utterly devastating. And for that reason, difficult to study objectively as a film. Obviously, we both cried quite a bit. Q said she doesn't ever want to watch it again. It's an endurance test for the soul. I had to go for a walk afterwards, and the trees and sky seemed to have an unbearable beauty.

Should be required viewing in sixth form. This, in a week when a 93 year old former Auschwitz guard is put on trial, and anti-Semetic activity is on the rise in Hungary... It's a difficult film to recover from, and that probably makes it unique.

In my journal I wrote it was 'Spielberg's antidote to Spielberg films', but I'm not sure if that was an original comment or not.