MovieChat Forums > Shining Through (1992) Discussion > The opera

The opera

posted 19 years ago by lishol7-1
10 replies | jump to latest

I loved Melanie Griffith's dress at the opera (the german's wife's dress) It was so lovely. I cringe when Hollywood makes women run for their lives in dress shoes or heels. This is where actresses EARN their pay.

I wanted to know, though, who was the lady at the opera that recognized her. If she recognized her real persona, why wasn't she "outed" as a Jew or an American. Weren't there any red flags raised when she saw her old friend accompanied by a nazi?

I saw the movie twice but I was tending to errands both times and missed a few minutes from each viewing, so I may have missed something important.

[–] enidvan 19 years ago

The woman at the opera is Margarite's mother, who she met earlier in the movie. Margarite said she wanted her mother to kiss a Jew, so she introduced Linda as a friend from school.

[–] lishol7-1 19 years ago

So, Margarite's mother knew that she was Jewish and didn't see a problem seeing her with a Nazi soldier?

Then she must have known that they were both spies, right?

If that was the case, did Margarite's mother know her daughter was a double agent?

Okay, maybe I'll have to watch the movie one more time all the way through.

[–] abrooks1 19 years ago

marguerite's mom didn't know linda was a jew. marguerite never told her. she just said a friend from school. marguerite just told linda she wanted to see her mom kiss a jew, laughing that her mom unknowingly did. so marguerite's mom didn't see anything funny about linda being with a nazi, and i highly doubt that she knew her own daughter was a spy.

[–] lishol7-1 19 years ago

Oh, thanks.

[–] Elisabet Jonsson 16 years ago

But what bugged me here (saw it again the other night) is that Dietrich (Liam Neeson), catching up with Linda when she's talking to Margrete's mother, refers to Linda as Fraulein ALBRECHT. And the main reason Margrete's mother kissed Linda when they were introduced was because Linda is presented as a member of the nobility, daughter of a Baron von KOPPEL (if I remember the name correctly).

Was this on oversight of the script-writer, or is it in the novel as well?

Elisabet

[–] waldenpond88 12 years ago

It was Baron von Kloppel from Plauen.

[–] Elisabet Jonsson 12 years ago

Thank you, but what about my question? Or is the piano playing mother too occupied with being sociable and nice at the opera, so that she doesn't get the name Albrecht?

[–] shawdog 19 years ago

"lishol7-1" said (regarding "Shining Through"):

'I saw the movie twice but I was tending to errands both times and missed a few minutes from each viewing, so I may have missed something important. '

....which is a prime reason to see movies from beginning to end and NOT do anything else while you're watching. Maybe I'm a purist, but to me a movie is a piece of art. It's just as insulting to a director to go see his movie after walking in 5 minutes late as it would be to go to a museum and see the Mona Lisa with the top or bottom or middle 12 inches covered up.

As a perfect example, I saw the movie "Nixon" in the theater, and later brought a younger friend when I saw it again. My friend bought a gigantic Coke and I told him that he should go take a "pre-emptive" stop at the restroom before undertaking a movie that was 3 hours long. He insisted he didn't need to "go". Sure enough, right in the middle of the film, he breathlessly says "I've gotta go". He got up, came back in 3 minutes or so, and missed the most important moment in the film when John Dean tells Richard Nixon that "there's a cancer growing on the Presidency."

I don't go to movies with that friend anymore.

[–] lishol7-1 18 years ago

Given the choice, of course, I would watch movies uninterrupted. But, life gets in the way.

[–] targi 11 years ago

I wonder the same thing....The lady in the opera was a VIP aristocrat and Hitler´s friend, Dittrich knew that Linda was going to school with this VIP´s daughter. Why the hell he took a gun, when they came home? Who was he thinking Linda was? The only thing he could think was that Linda is a nazi spy! And he was a nazi..there was no reason he wanted to kill her...he was a loyal nazi, he had nothing to hide from the authorities....anyone helping to solve this little mistery? :-)