Art in the times of War Crimes

BOOKY/BOOKIE: former Nobel laureate venturing into commercial/art-house cinema.

MUSIC MAN: semi-retired star of swooning songs and larger-than-death public image (limited).

MM: “Man, how I wish I had been there in Berlin in 36! To perform with my band as an opening act in the Olympic Stadium right before Jesse showed them Nazi’s how wrong they were about to be! It’s so unfair I was born too late for that moment of glory!”

BB: “I hear your pain. It’s a bit off-key, some may argue, but it does fit a certain pattern of fame and fortune. All art is politics, right? And which is the loudest protest song, after all: baby’s first cry, or the whisper in the dark?”

MM: “600 000 Watt on the microphone was behind my cry for battle! I served all over the world in the name of peace, and unity, and love, and humanity. I considered it my responsibility! A vocation, you might say. When I hear nowadays how some get into trouble because they call out names, they point fingers, they…

BB: “…you are jealous you can’t take the risk any longer?”

MM: “Shut up. I take a stand!”

BB: “A stand so general it becomes a high-rank officer in a war-crime army.”

MM: “What would you do, Booky? You know how many people’s paycheck depend on my every word?”

BB: “What I would say was printed around the time you wish you could have sang your lullaby for the brown bunch in swastikas: ‘“Mir fällt zu derzeit aktiven Kriegsverbrechern nichts ein.’ Anything less is too much to take.”