The Fault in Our Stars movie has scenes showing the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam

I saw the movie entitled The Fault in Our Stars yesterday.  The movie is fictional, and is based on a 2012 best-selling novel by John Green.

Hazel and Gus, the two main characters in the movie

The title of the movie comes from a line in Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar, in which the nobleman Cassius says to Brutus:

“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,  but in ourselves, that we are underlings.”

In my humble opinion, the movie gets off to a slow start, but improves as it goes along. I thought that the first scenes should have been more dramatic, to get our attention.

I perked up when it was announced in the movie that the two main characters were going to take a trip to Amsterdam. The most famous thing to see in Amsterdam is the Anne Frank house, so naturally I was anxious to see if the movie would include a visit to the house, which is now part of a  Museum.

The Anne Frank house in Amsterdam

The early scenes in Amsterdam show the area close to the Anne Frank house, but not the house. At first, I thought that the movie was not going to show the house, since it has nothing to do with the plot of the movie. There were scenes showing the canal boats which pass the house, and the church that is near the Anne Frank house is also shown in the background of some scenes.

A canal boat passing the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam

I was standing in front of the Anne Frank house, when I took the photo above. Passengers can get off the boat and enter the house, which is now a Museum.

Church that is very near the Anne Frank House

Just when I had given up, and had decided that the Anne Frank house would not be shown in the movie, the two main characters in the movie decide to visit the house.

The entrance into the Anne Frank house is from another house that is next door; visitors must stand in a long line before they can get in. The house next door is shown in the photo below.

House that is next door to the Anne Frank house

Entrance into the Anne Frank Museum is through a modern building at 267 Prinsengracht, which is shown in the photo below.

Entrance into the Anne Frank Museum

The front door into the Anne Frank house is not open

Just after Hazel and Gus enter the Anne Frank house, Hazel asks an attendant if she can take the elevator. She is told that there is no elevator, which is a bald-faced lie.  I was also told that there was no elevator when I asked.

The steps up to the attic, where Anne Frank hid, are shown in the movie. These steps are so steep that they should really be called a ladder. Hazel has to drag her oxygen tank with her up the steps.

There are no scenes of the rooms where Anne and her family hid.  Would it have killed them to show the rooms?

The reason that the rooms are not shown is because the Anne Frank house is a money machine.  The Museum rakes in billions (maybe trillions) of dollars by charging admission.  No photos are allowed to be taken, because the Museum wants to sell photos of the rooms. No photos of the rooms can be put on the Internet because the Museum folks will demand that they be taken  down. Don’t even try it.

But to get back to the elevator. The exit from the Museum is through a building next door which has a modern elevator.  Important people are taken up to the attic by this elevator and they enter the Museum through what is the exit for the lowly tourists.

I felt that the movie was disingenuous in telling poor Hazel that she had to climb the steep stairs, dragging her oxygen tank behind her.

The Museum personnel should have come clean and said, “Yes, there is an elevator, but it is only for important people, not for you, Honey. We don’t care if you die while climbing the stairs; you are not good enough to use the elevator.”