Woman in Gold(2015)

Plot Summary

• In a series of flashbacks throughout the film, Maria Altmann recalls the arrival of Nazi forces in Vienna, and the subsequent suppression of the Jewish community and the looting and pillaging conducted by the Nazis against Jewish families. Seeking to escape before the country is completely shut off, Maria Altmann and members of her family attempt to flee to the United States. While Altmann and her husband are successful in their escape, she is forced to abandon her parents in Vienna. In the present, living in Los Angeles, a now elderly and widowed Altmann attends the funeral for her sister. She discovers letters in her sister's possession dating to the late 1940s, which reveal an attempt to recover artwork owned by the Altmann family that was left behind during the family's flight for freedom and subsequently stolen by the Nazis. Of particular note is a painting of Altmann's aunt, Adele Bloch-Bauer, now known in Austria as the "Woman in Gold". Altmann enlists the help of Randol Schoenberg, the grandson of her close friends, but a lawyer with little experience, to make a claim to the art restitution board in Austria. Reluctantly returning to her homeland, Altmann discovers that the country's minister and art director are unwilling to part with the painting, which they feel has become part of the national identity. Altmann is told that the painting was in fact legitimately willed to the gallery by her aunt. Upon further investigation by her lawyer and Austrian journalist Hubertus Czernin, this claim proves to be incorrect, as the alleged will is invalid due to the fact that her aunt did not own the painting in question, the artist's fee having been paid by her uncle. Schoenberg files a challenge with the art restitution board, but it is denied and Altmann does not have the money needed to challenge the ruling. Defeated, she and Schoenberg return to the United States. Months thereafter, happening upon an art book with "Woman in Gold" on the cover, Schoenberg has an epiphany. Using a narrow rule of law and precedents in which an art restitution law was retroactively applied, Schoenberg files a claim in US court against the Austrian government contesting their claim to the painting. An appeal goes to the Supreme Court of the United States, where in the matter of Republic of Austria v. Altmann, the court rules in Altmann's favor, which results in the Austrian government attempting to persuade Altmann to retain the painting for the gallery, which she refuses. After a falling out over the issue of returning to Austria for a second time to argue the case, Altmann agrees for Schoenberg to go and argue the case in front of an arbitration panel of three arbiters in Vienna. In Austria, the arbitration panel hears the case, during which time they are reminded of the Nazi Regime's war crimes by Schoenberg. Schoenberg implores the arbitration panel to think of the meaning of the word restitution and to look past the artwork hanging in art galleries to see the injustice to the families who once owned such great paintings and were forcibly separated from them by the Nazis. Unexpectedly, Altmann arrives during the session indicating to Czernin that she came to support her lawyer. After considering both sides of the dispute, the arbitration panel rules in favour of Altmann, returning her paintings. The Austrian government representative makes a last minute proposal begging Altmann to keep the paintings in the Belvedere against a generous compensation. Altmann refuses and elects to have the painting moved to the United States with her ("They will now travel to America like I once had to as well"), and takes up an offer made earlier by Ronald Lauder to acquire them for his New York gallery to display the painting on condition that it be a permanent exhibit. from Wikipedia

Storyline

• Maria Altmann (Dame Helen Mirren) sought to regain a world famous painting of her aunt plundered by the Nazis during World War II. She did so not just to regain what was rightfully hers, but also to obtain some measure of justice for the death, destruction, and massive art theft perpetrated by the Nazis. — Elyse J. Factor In a series of flashbacks throughout the movie, Maria Altmann (Dame Helen Mirren) recalls the arrival of Nazi forces in Vienna, and the subsequent persecution of the Jewish community and the looting and pillaging conducted by the Nazis against Jewish families. Seeking to escape before the country is completely shut off, Maria Altmann (Tatiana Maslany) and members of her family attempt to flee to the United States. While Altmann and her husband, Fritz (Max Irons), are successful in their escape, she is forced to abandon her parents in Vienna. In the present, living in Los Angeles, a now elderly and widowed Altmann attends the funeral for her sister. She discovers letters in her sister's possession dating to the late 1940s, which reveal an attempt to recover artwork owned by the Bloch-Bauer family that was left behind during the family's flight for freedom and subsequently stolen by the Nazis. Of particular note is a painting of Altmann's aunt, Adele Bloch-Bauer, now known in Austria as the "Woman in Gold". A dramatization of the fight by Jewish Maria Altmann née Bloch-Bauer (Dame Helen Mirren), with the help of lawyer E. Randol Schoenberg (Ryan Reynolds) to reclaim items stolen from her family in Austria by the Nazis during World War II, including some paintings by Gustav Klimt , most notably one better known as "Woman in Gold" (a painting of Maria's aunt, Adele Bloch-Bauer ) which has been hanging in the Belvedere Museum in Vienna since the end of the war, and which is considered a national Austrian treasure, is presented. A young Maria (Tatiana Maslany) and her husband Fritz Altmann (Max Irons) were able to escape from what was the total Nazi persecution of the Jewish people in Austria during the war eventually to live in Los Angeles. Maria has been unable to reconcile what happened during the war with being a native Austrian, contempt what she feels for Austria and the Austrian peoples. Maria hired young and relatively inexperienced Randy, the grandson of composer Arnold Schönberg , and the son of a family friend, following the death of her older sister Luise, and discovering amongst her possessions that she was planning on taking some form of legal action with the recently instituted Restitution Committee in Austria. Only now getting back on track with his career after some earlier missteps, Randy takes the case solely for the potential financial gain in light of "Woman in Gold"'s market value. Even then, Randy has to convince his new bosses to allow him to work on this case, which may eventually have high profile, but little chance of success. In Vienna, Maria and Randy find an ally in Viennese investigative journalist Hubertus Czernin (Daniel Brühl), who tells them that the Committee is largely a sham that makes the conditions so prohibitively stringent as for no one being able to succeed. They will also find that the Austrian government generally and the administrators of the Belvedere have no intention of giving up, especially the Klimts, without a fight. Beyond these obstacles, Maria and Randy also have to discover if they do have a legal foot on which to stand regarding whether the paintings rightfully belong to Maria. As Maria and Randy hit one roadblock after another, Randy gains a new appreciation for the case in his affection for Maria and in coming to terms as being a descendant of Holocaust survivors. In Randy discovering alternative legal channels in which to pursue as those at the Belvedere refuse to negotiate, they all know that the Belvedere has one other important factor on their side: that they can drag out whatever legal proceedings as long as need be for elderly Maria to die before any legal decision is made. — Huggo