Comedian Harmonists (film)

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Movie
Original title Comedian Harmonists
Country of production Austria , Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1997
length 126 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director Joseph Vilsmaier
script Jürgen Büscher ,
Klaus Richter ,
Jürgen Egger
production Dor Film ( Danny Krausz , Kurt Stocker ), Perathon Film , Iduna Film , Bavaria Film , Senator Film , Televersal Film
music Harald Kloser
Pasadena Roof Orchestra
camera Joseph Vilsmaier
cut Peter R. Adam
occupation

Comedian Harmonists is an Austrian-German feature film made in 1997 by director Joseph Vilsmaier . The plot is based - with some artistic freedom - on the story of the historical vocal group Comedian Harmonists . The film was an audience success with over three million cinema-goers and received major awards in Germany.

action

In 1927, the unemployed arranger Harry Frommermann looked for singers in a newspaper advertisement in order to put together a vocal ensemble modeled on the US barbershop group The Revelers . Bass Robert Biberti reacts to the ad and introduces Frommermann to the other singers in the later group. After intense and nerve-wracking rehearsals and initial failures, they finally find their style and become one of the most successful music groups in Germany.

The group is subjected to several tensile tests. After the National Socialists came to power in 1933, Frommermann and his Jewish colleagues Roman Cycowski and Erich Collin had problems because the National Socialists began to put pressure on them. Frommermann and Biberti are also interested in the same girl, the cheeky student Erna. Cycowski, a Polish Jew, marries Mary, on the other hand, who converts to the Jewish faith for his sake.

During a concert in Nuremberg they learn that they have so far enjoyed the benevolence of one of the Nazis' most avowed anti-Semites, Julius Streicher (editor of the Stürmers ). But since they don't want to pay homage to him, the end of the group is inevitable.

An appearance in the USA encourages some members to stay there and thus avoid the political problems in Germany. But Biberti in particular would like to go back home - especially because of his mother, who would not leave her home country. Because the group underestimates the real danger and does not take the threat posed by the National Socialists seriously, they finally return to Germany together.

A short time later, they learned about their ban on performing there. The group is allowed to give one final concert. After the concert, the group is frenetically celebrated by the audience.

The Jewish members then leave Germany.

production

The film was shot in the summer of 1997 in Vienna , Bad Fischau-Brunn , Prague , Munich and Berlin . The main producer was the Viennese Dor Film , minority producers the German film companies Perathon Film , Iduna Film , Bavaria Film , Senator Film and Televersal Film (see also the co-production agreement between Austria and Germany ). Post-processed original recordings were used for the vocal parts in the film.

Reviews

“Joseph Vilsmaier traces the characters of the Comedian Harmonists with extraordinary precision. In dense sequences of images he conveys the atmosphere of that time and takes a stance on the political situation at the time. (...) With Comedian Harmonists, Vilsmaier has succeeded in producing a largely entertaining film that does not ooze ostensibly overcoming problems and allegedly 'coming to terms with the past' and yet expresses the tragedy of individual artists against the background of the tragedy of a whole people unadorned and clearly - an elementary knowledge at least presupposed over the Third Reich. Instead of hasty defense, he provokes questions from the audience (again). For example, how it was possible that followers and die-hard Nazis alike could be enthusiastic about the group and did not even intervene when the idols, whom they cheered wholeheartedly, were banned from performing. That was in 1934, long before the Reichskristallnacht. "

- kinofenster.de

"With his homage, the ambitious director, cameraman and producer in personal union delivered a piece of cinema that has everything: wit, drama, glamor and history, even if one or the other dramatic detail has to go under with the sheer mass of material."

- kino.de

"The anecdotally conceived entertainment film describes, with some external effort, but also with many supposedly 'catchy' clichés, the musician's careers in a 'turbulent time', which only serves as a projection surface for neat superficialities."

- Lexicon of international film

"By highlighting the personal fates of individual members of the Comedian Harmonists and their public careers, Vilsmaier manages to work out the political situation."

- Kinostraße

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Films from A – Z: Comedian Harmonists. Austrian Film Institute (page accessed on May 3, 2008)
  2. ↑ Comedian Harmonists in the Lumiere film visitor database, accessed on January 29, 2011
  3. ↑ http://www.kino.de/star/joseph-vilsmaier/news/comedian-harmonists-raeumen-ab/