Diarist’s Cousin Softens Stance on ABC Movie ‘Anne Frank’

Just one week before ABC airs its four-hour movie on the life of Anne Frank, the network appears close to resolving its dispute with the young girl’s last living direct relative, who had voiced strong opposition to the film.

ABC executives and Buddy Elias, Frank’s cousin and the chairman of the Basle, Switzerland-based Anne Frank-Fonds, met in Paris Friday for a screening of the film, which airs May 20 and 21 and is called simply “Anne Frank.”

The Fonds, the foundation which holds rights to Frank’s famous diary, had previously threatened legal action over the movie, which was made without any use of the diary.

Early on, Elias and the Fonds pressured Steven Spielberg to pull out as executive producer of the ABC movie. The Fonds has also licensed the diary rights to Fox, which has a feature film in development.

However, after seeing the film, Elias said Friday that, while still not having made a decision about legal action, “we feel differently.”

“There are wonderful things in it,” Elias said, “and things I didn’t like very much. It’s very difficult for me, as Anne Frank’s last living direct relative, having known Anne so well. I see it with other eyes than the ordinary public. But there are quite a lot of very, very good things in this film.”

Elias, Frank’s slightly older cousin, singled out the casting for praise, citing in particular Hannah Taylor Gordon, the 14-year-old who plays the lead character, saying she is “a great talent and is absolutely terrific. I was thrilled by her.”

But Elias remains concerned about a scene that shows a cleaning woman tipping off the police to the Frank family’s hiding place, setting in motion their deportation to Nazi concentration camps. “It’s a theory, and in the film it comes out as a fact,” he said.

More importantly, he said, “for me, it’s very difficult to listen to the dialogue, knowing the dialogue is [screenwriter] Mr. Kirk Ellis and not Anne Frank.” While he still is upset that a movie was made without Frank’s words, Elias said, “there are very good things in this film and it moved me very much.”

ABC executives couldn’t be reached for comment by press time.