Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Great film, 17 Aug 2006
German cinema has recently produced some absolute gems about the period of the rise and fall of the Third Reich. "The Downfall" covered the end, "Sophie Scholl" the middle and this the beginning. The Comedian Harmonists were the first "boy band", and by far the most skilful (until the advent of the King's Singers). They were wildly successful - and then came the rise of the Third Reich and three of the guys were Jewish... It shows their struggle with Nazism and its creeping exclusion of Jews from all aspects of public life, of the police turning their backs while Brownshirt thugs smash up a Jewish music shop, and finally the disbandment of the band and the departure of some of the group for the USA. The period is beautifully captured and the acting is excellent. For the music, the voices of the originals were used (watch out for the gloriously decadent rendering of the classic "Mein kleiner grüner Kaktus").
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Great film with lovely music, 9 Feb 2008
I'd never heard of the Comedian Harmonists before I got this film, but apparently even today they are well-known in Germany and other German speaking lands. The original group was made up of 5 singers and a pianist, singing what you might call German barbershop numbers, often with silly words or vocal imitation of instruments to give them that comic edge. They formed in the late twenties and disbanded in the early thirties, and the film has a certain "Heartbeat" quality to it with all the period costumes and cars you see. In fact the whole pace and style of the storytelling would almost make you think of "Heartbeat" set in Germany with barbershop music and Nazis, if that makes any sense. I think they tried to follow the true story of the group as much as they could.
The best thing about the film is the music, and actual recordings were remastered and used in the movie with the actors lip-synching. The main numbers are Veronika der Lenz ist da (Veronica, Spring has Sprung), Mein kleine gruner Kaktus (My Little Green Cactus), The Way With Every Sailor (in English) and the very moving Auf Wiedersehn, Leb'Wohl. The five singers blend wonderfully together as one. The high tenor Ari Leschnikoff sounds especially good, ever-present at the top of the harmony. His introduction in the film is very well done, bringing to life the old recording when mixed in with the action that takes place.
Take a chance on this film, it's very entertaining and a wonderful introduction to a fantastic group of musicians.
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