Playing for Time

Vanessa Redgrave (Julia) stars as Fania Fenelon, a Jewish cabaret singer in Paris during the Nazi invasion. Fania and thousands of other Jewish and political prisoners are sent to the Auschwitz death camps on crowded trains. She’s certain that she and all the others are doomed after all their belongings and clothes are taken and their heads are callously shaven. Fania and a group of other classical musicians are spared from death in return for performing music for their captors, headed by SS camp matron Shirley Knight (The Rain People). They are also to perform to the benefit of those who are herded to the gas chambers: – a “humane” means of easing the condemned to the next world. Playing For Time was adapted as a play by Arthur Miller (Death of a Salesman) and directed by Daniel Mann (The Rose Tattoo). The Stellar cast also includes: Jane Alexander (Testament), Maud Adams (Octopussy), Marisa Berenson (Barry Lyndon), Verna Bloom (The Hired Hand), and Viveca Lindfors (Dark City). Winner of 4 Emmy Awards including Best Drama, Actress (Redgrave), Supporting Actress (Alexander), Best Teleplay (Miller) and winner of a 1981 Peabody Award.