It's been nearly 80 years since parades, bonfires, champagne toasts and sailors kissing strangers in the streets signaled the end of World War II.
But on television? The war still rages.
Recently released miniseries such as “Masters of the Air” and “The New Look” on Apple TV+, “We Were the Lucky Ones” on Hulu, “All the Light We Cannot See” on Netflix and “The Tattooist of Auschwitz” on Peacock allow audiences see different voices and stories about war and the Holocaust.
And we'll see more of them in the coming weeks. In June, to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Normandy, commonly known as D-Day, National Geographic will present the limited series “Erased: WWII's Heroes of Color,” produced and narrated by Idris Elba, and the special “The Real Red Tails,” narrated by Sheryl Lee Ralph of “Abbott Elementary.”
Although the successive release of these series is largely a coincidence, they come at a significant time when anti-Semitism has been on the rise and a new war, between Israel and Hamas, has aggravated tensions. Campus protests over the war have spread across the country in recent weeks, and in Hollywood, the war has continued to be a fracture point between artists and those working in the industry. One of the most public examples was the visceral response to Jonathan Glazer's statement. Oscar acceptance speech for “The Zone of Interest,” in which the director spoke about the dehumanization of Holocaust victims and the war between Israel and Hamas.
But for the creators of these series, depicting World War II and its aftermath is now part of a larger story they want to portray, as is the case with Todd A. Kessler's “The New Look,” which focuses on the designer Christian Dior fashion. .
“The New Look,” starring Ben Mendelsohn as French fashion designer Christian Dior, is set in Paris at the end of World War II.
(Apple TV+)
“The backdrop of the Nazi occupation of Paris and World War II for this story is essential because, in many ways, from this darkest period in 20th century history – if not world history – emerged creativity, a coping mechanism and a way to bring the world back,” says Kessler, who in addition to creating “The New Look” wrote and directed several episodes.
The series is ostensibly a biography of legendary fashion designers like Dior and Coco Chanel (played by Ben Mendelsohn and Juliette Binoche, respectively). But it is also essential in remembering French Resistance fighters like Catherine, Dior's younger sister (played by Maisie Williams). Catherine Dior was arrested by the Gestapo in July 1944. She was tortured and sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp in northern Germany on what was called “the last train leaving Paris” because the city was liberated for two weeks. after. She would not find her way back to Paris until May 1945.
All of this happens only halfway through the 10-episode season, which ended in April.
“Often, World War II stories end with Paris being liberated or a camp being liberated or [Holocaust victim] “Anne Frank dies,” says Kessler. “What this story does is introduce you to the occupation. But then, once the liberation circus leaves town, the question is how do they pick up the pieces?
While one goal is to expand the reach of World War II historical dramas, there is also pressure not to tell these stories in such a way that they become a trope.
“The Tattoo Artist of Auschwitz,” which premiered May 2, is an adaptation of the best-selling book of the same name by Heather Morris. Technically a historical novel, it is based on the life (and love) that survivor Lale Sokolov experienced in the extermination camp (in the televised version, Melanie Lynskey plays Morris and Harvey Keitel and Jonah Hauer-King plays the older and older versions. minor of Sokolov respectively).
“The Tattoo Artist of Auschwitz” centers on Lale Sokolov (Harvey Keitel), a Holocaust survivor who tells his story to writer Heather Morris (Melanie Lynskey).
(Martin Mlaka / Sky UK)
“The narrative approach literally takes us into his experience of evoking these memories,” says executive producer Claire Mundell, who was instrumental in shepherding “Tattooist” through production. “In the beginning, when he's with Heather and starts sharing memories, they're memories he can deal with; those he is willing to share.”
However, he says, when we see Sokolov alone, “and he is replaying these memories… through drama, we can demonstrate the way the trauma has influenced his mind, his conscience and his levels of guilt.” .
Although there is torture and brutality, the story also frequently opts for softer, wordless images of actors playing nameless people who did not survive. They stare at the camera as if they are looking at the narrator.
“In every scene we did, I always tried to imagine what Lale might want to see,” says director Tali Shalom Ezer. “The texture; what exactly did he experience? His smell; the sounds around him. And he always came back to those faces looking at him… and different kinds of looks. Sometimes they accused him of being the only one who survived, or even sometimes he “They looked with a certain compassion.”
Sometimes simply choosing where to put emphasis in the words of a title can add meaning and weight to a project, as showrunner Erica Lipez and others learned while adapting “We Were the Lucky Ones,” the story of their ancestors from the author Georgia Hunter: an extensive Polish version. Jewish family traveled the world before and during the war.
“It so captured the experience of the Jewish diaspora within this one family,” Lipez says of the miniseries, which ended its run on May 2. “This is what survival meant to the Jews during this time period.”
Hulu's “We Were the Lucky Ones,” an adaptation of Georgia Hunter's book about her Polish Jewish family, stars Sam Woolf and Joey King.
(Vlad Cioplea/Hulu)
Lipez says that as a Jewish person who sought out stories about this chapter in history growing up, he remembers how rarely he saw the Jewish voice centered.
“Jews were perceived as victims of this era, but they rarely became heroes of their own history or, at least, spoke for themselves,” he says. Upon discovering the book, she said she “was floored by what it felt like to see essentially 12 Jewish voices speaking for themselves in this series and telling their own story.”
“Lucky Ones” executive producer Thomas Kail, a Broadway veteran who also directed episodes of the Hulu series, says there's a distinction between new TV shows that address these issues and stage productions that address them, such as the current Broadway revival of the musical “Cabaret” which is set in Berlin during the rise of the Nazis and features Eddie Redmayne as a doomed ringmaster.
“The beauty of theater is that… it's about interpretation… especially in reruns,” he says.
He goes on to say that adding new projects, like “Lucky Ones,” to the compendium of Holocaust-related materials keeps the conversation alive, so people don’t necessarily come to a production like “Cabaret” without “that keyhole through which look”.
“That our program can be a point on this continuum is really significant,” Kail says.
This is not the first time that the events of World War II have been the subject of a television miniseries. Jason Lynch, curator of the Paley Center for Media in New York, cited the “Holocaust” of 1978, which he said exposed the Germans to the scale of the Holocaust for the first time; “Pearl” from 1978, about the events before the attack on Pearl Harbor; and the 1983 adaptation of “The Winds of War” by Herman Wouk.More recent examples include “Band of Brothers” and “The Pacific,” companion series to the Emmy-winning “Masters of the Air.”
“World War II has fascinated Hollywood for several decades, and I feel the subject matter is particularly well suited to the miniseries format,” says Lynch, adding that it allows for more depth.
It says World War II was one of the first conflicts with extensive video footage showing what it was like and that the public has connections to the people who fought in it. Perhaps most importantly, from the United States' perspective, this was the last war that had majority public support, he says. The Vietnam War, the backdrop of HBO's “The Sympathizer” and the Korean War, which endures through the film and comedy series “MASH,“They were more divisive.
Lynch also points to this year's Oscar-winning film, “Oppenheimer,” which details the inner turmoil “what I have caused” the father of the atomic bomb felt. He says that, like any major historical event, it takes time to contextualize its importance and what it means.
“If you're doing something more reactionary, your view will be a little different than when you look at it through a broader historical lens,” Lynch says.
