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The HarmonistsRating:
Release Date: 02 September, 2003 Retail Price: $9.99 OUR Price: $8.99 You SAVE: $1.00! Cast: Complete Cast (11 total) |
The Harmonists Reviews
Enormously Entertaining And Enormously Touching
In 1927 in Berlin, Harry Frommermann (Ulrich Noethen), a poor, talented musician, puts an ad in a paper asking that anyone interested in forming a singing group meet with him. Robert Biberti (Ben Becker) shows up, equally poor but brash, confident, full of drive. Soon there are five of them, plus the piano accompanist. They are all young, all talented singers, all unknown. Frommermann is the creative force, choosing the songs and creating the vocal arrangements. And of the six, three are Jews (including Frommermann), and three are gentile (including Biberti). By the end of 1927 they have become a huge success in Germany as The Comedian Harmonists. The perform in white tie and tails, sing complex harmonies, all sorts of songs, and use their voices to imitate instruments. In the next few years their success extends to Europe and the United States. Some say, even now, that they are one of the greatest vocal groups of the century. After Hitler comes to power they are quickly banned from singing any songs written by Jews. Even so, they believe their popularity will provide them protection. At the end of a successful tour in the United States they debate about returning to Germany, but decide to go back where their friends and families are. In 1934, the group is banned from performing in public, and the Nazis strongly hint that the Aryan members of the group should reform without the Jewish members. Eventually the Jews leave Germany and the Aryan members stay put. Both form new groups but without any particular success. Both groups disband in 1941.
This movie works on many levels:
--It's a clear-eyed view of the growing racist changes in German society after Hitler comes to power. It shows how people didn't want to see what was happening around them. A Jewish music shop owner who has racist slogans painted on her window blames it on kids.
--It tells not only the story of The Comedian Harmonists, but the stories of the individual members. One Aryan who is married to a Jew divorces her as soon as he can and eventually marries the daughter of a wealthy Nazi. The Aryan girlfriend of a Jewish member of the group unhesitatingly converts to Judaism so they can marry in his faith. They eventually wind up in San Francisco in a happy marriage that lasted over fifty years. One Aryan member (Biberti) helped design rocket bombs during the war. One Jewish member (Frommermann) became a U.S. citizen, immediately joined the Army and spent the war years entertaining U.S. troops. One Jewish member after the war became a manufacturer of eye glass frames.
--It resurrects the style and skill of The Comedian Harmonists, who in America have been long forgotten. Throughout the movie the group performs some of their best songs, with the actors expertly lip synching to superbly restored original recordings.
There are many movies which show the impact of Nazism in the Thirties and Forties. I suppose the fate of a successful singing group, in that context, might not be considered worth too much attention. But this is an accomplished movie, with great acting. It is entertaining and enormously affecting. It's a movie well worth having. The DVD transfer is excellent.
Portraying the horrors of Hitler incrementally
If you thought "Schindler's List" came off a little heavy-handed and patronizing, you are not the only one. I find movies such as "Sophie's Choice" and the "Comedian Harmonists" to be infinitely more effective in relaying the sadness and depressing realities of the Nazi fanaticism. Whereas "Schindler's List" is one numbing horror story after another, the smaller stories mentioned above have the ability to focus the viewers attention and admisration on a smaller range of characters and themes.
Watching this film was simultaneously uplifting and depressing-the fine characters practicing their art while the politics trudge on. The last concert scene is one of the more heartrenching aspects of this film. Hitler's drones allowing one last go-around before the Jews are disbanded from the group forcefully. It's amazing how petty the politics were-ranging from music,literature and artwork. We all know the end result, but it's more interesting to me to see it's effects and roots from a different viewpoint.
The music of course is the big draw here. Good acting and singing easily overcome some of the staid visual direction. Some scenes looked like they were slapped together. The sets were obvious and did not successfully visualize pre WW2 Germany and the depressed economy.
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