I have been watching a documentary on Turner Classic Movies about the the Europeans film artists who were exiled from Germany and other countries in the thirties as Hitler came to power. It is really moving and I didn't realize a lot of familiar names and faces were among them.
One example...Billy Wilder. I knew he was a great director, and lead many of my favorite films. Not only was he an European exhile, but three quarters of his family died in Auschwitz. It's sad that so many of these actors, directors, composers and musicians were forced from their homes, fleeing for their lives. Most never reaching the status that they held in their homelands.
And then there was Peter Lorre, Marlena Dietrich, Ernst Lubitsch, Bela Lugosi, Felix Bressart, Paul Henried, S.K. Sakhalin and so many more. Those names may not mean much to many people, but to me they are movie gold. And how our classic movies in the US were enriched by their presence.
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And now, on to Casablanca, which featured many of those same exhiles in small background roles.
Now, after that heaviness, here is the promise of May flowers.
My lilac bush has buds just waiting to pop later this month.
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