Jacob the Liar (1999)

Movie
German title	Jacob the Liar
Original title	Jacob the Liar
Country of production	United States ; France ; Hungary
original language	English
Publishing year	1999
length	120 minutes
Age rating	FSK 12
Rod
Director	Peter Kassovitz
script	Peter Kassovitz , ; Didier Decoin
production	Steven Haft , ; Marsha Garces Williams
music	Edward Shearmur
camera	Elemér Ragályi
cut	Claire Simpson
occupation
	Robin Williams : Jakob Heym; Bob Balaban : Kowalski; Liev Schreiber : Mischa; Hannah Taylor-Gordon : Lina Kronstein; Justus von Dohnányi : Preuss; Armin Mueller-Stahl : Dr. Cherry tree; Alan Arkin : Max Frankfurter; Michael Jeter : Avron; Mark Margolis : Fajngold; Mathieu Kassovitz : Herschel; Nina Siemaszko : Rosa Frankfurter;

Jakob the Liar is a film adaptation of the novel of the same name by the writer Jurek Becker and directed by Peter Kassovitz . This film adaptation dates from 1999 ; with Robin Williams as Jakob and Armin Mueller-Stahl as Dr. Cherry tree. The latter was already involved in the first DEFA film in 1974 as Roman Schtamm.

action

Jakob Heym is Jewish and lives in a Polish ghetto in 1944 . When he happened to hear on the radio that the Red Army was advancing, the news soon spread throughout the camp and gave the inmates a little hope. In order to maintain the hope of his fellow prisoners, Jakob claims to own a radio and provides the people with other new messages he has invented. But then the Germans find out about him.

The plot of the film largely corresponds to the plot of the novel , but, like the 1974 film, dispenses with the parallel story about Professor Kirschbaum. In the remake, the ending was also changed: Jakob Heym dies a martyr when he is shot by the Nazis - he does not revoke his news from the Russians.

criticism

“Unlike Frank Beyer in his first film adaptation, Peter Kassovitz stages the tragicomic material more specifically, but also more superficially, faster and louder. While the film flattens out as a result, Robin Williams and especially Armin Mueller-Stahl achieve convincing performance. "

- Lexicon of International Films

Awards

In the same year, director and screenwriter Peter Kassovitz was nominated for the Golden Ear at the Semana Internacional de Cine de Valladolid .

Robin Williams was nominated for the Golden Raspberry as worst actor (also for The 200 Years of Man ).

literature

Jurek Becker : Jakob the Liar. Novel . Welt-Edition, A. Springer, Berlin 2009, 285 pages, ISBN 978-3-941711-16-7 .
Olaf Kutzmutz: Hope in Need - a series of lessons on Jurek Becker's novel »Jakob the Liar« and its film adaptations (9th / 10th grade). RaaBits German, Stuttgart 2002.

Web links

Jakob the Liar in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Jacob the Liar at Rotten Tomatoes (English)