Topic: German TV Film Reviews

[Najemikon]

You might have noticed I've been blanket bombing over the last couple of days, catching up with posting reviews that I wrote a while back but never got around to putting on here. Three of these are all DVD re-releases of German TV productions, so I thought as we have a handful of German members, it might make sense to separate them as you may be able to add some insight, especially as they are all true stories.

[Najemikon]

Der Tunnel **** Year: 2001 Director: Roland Suso Richter Rating: 12 Length: 160 Min.

The Tunnel was made for German television in 2001 and although it cannot boast the same production quality, it is nevertheless a satisfying companion piece to the marvellous The Lives Of Others. The story, based on truth, follows German champion swimmer Harry Melchior (Heino Ferch) who flees West Germany in 1961 during the construction of the wall, and then becomes part of a group digging a tunnel back under the wall to rescue their friends and family, including Harry’s sister, Lotte (Alexandra Maria Lara).

Clocking in at over two and a half hours, this is a substantial production that while never truly remarkable, is thoroughly rewarding. However, this DVD release is the theatrical version and so about 20 minutes shorter than the original TV broadcast, which is a shame, because the only real fault is how it occasionally feels like punches are being pulled. It is told with little irony or insight. For instance, an American TV crew become involved, filming the project for CBS, yet despite setting up some moral conflicts, they are largely ignored.

It is a balancing act with any such true story though and while it can be accused of playing safe, it is never boring. In fact, it’s a heartfelt adventure in the tradition of The Great Escape. It’s such an incredible tale and the film does a great job in keeping a very sombre plot entertaining, funny and moving in equal measure. The lightness of touch allows it to have an air of nerve-shredding suspense, evenly paced across the long running time. And while it has no real surprises (although the death of a prisoner making a break is heart breaking and a late set-piece with soldiers is a fun caper), the steady build-up of tension is tangible as it turns into a race against time. It has one almighty dollop of sentimentality, but I can’t hold that against it, largely because it worked!

The cast do justice to their real-life counterparts. Heino Ferch is a big fella with a natural, quiet charm, anchoring the film as Harry, the muscle and conscience of the group. His best friend Matthis, a tragic intellectual and the tunnel’s engineer, haunted by having to abandon his pregnant wife, is played by Sebastian Koch. It’s likely his similarly pitched role in The Lives Of Others was the impetus for this release. They are joined by impishly attractive Nicolette Krebitz who is great as Fritzi and gives the film a much needed spark. On the other side of the wall, Harry’s sister Lotte, played by Alexandra Maria Lara is dignified in hiding her desperation. On the other side of the wall, Uwe Kockisch is fantastic as the ruthless Krüger who embodies the West German threat. He brings a lot of power to every scene he’s in, including those with Harry or when he’s blackmailing Matthis’s wife (Claudia Michelsen).

This is a highly recommended film. Director Roland Suso Richter has made a solid production, with occasional flashes of inspiration (the inventive lighting and sets don’t feel like a TV production) despite a lack of insight. It’s watchable, honest and moving, unashamedly entertaining in the last act at least, and we should ask little more of such an important piece of relatively modern history.


Read the full technical review at DVD Compare

[Najemikon]

As Far As My Feet Will Carry Me (So Weit Die Füße Tragen) *** Year: 2001 Director: Hardy Martins

Based on a true story and a bestselling novel, this powerful epic captures the incredible journey of German soldier Clemens Forell in his dramatic escape from a Siberian labor camp after World War II. Through bitter cold winters, desolate landscapes, and life threatening adventures, Forell - determined to be reunited with his beloved family - makes his way, step by step, day by day, towards freedom. 8,000 miles and three endless years of uncertainty later, he is finally about to reach his destination... An edge of your seat drama that celebrates the power of the human spirit and the force of will, when inspired and empowered, by love.

As Far As My Feet Will Carry Me is an astonishing story of survival that could speak for itself, documenting one German soldiers effort to escape a Soviet Gulag in Siberia by walking out, with a daunting 8000 miles ahead of him. It’s let down somewhat by a mediocre production with an overdone screenplay and muddy, naïve politics. The Shawshank Redemption made you feel every step of Andy’s escape through that sewer and it felt worse than these 8000 miles! That’s absurd, but still, it is an engrossing two and half hours nonetheless.

It may feel longer for the first section! Clemens Forell (Bernhard Bettermann) leaves his family behind in a dreadful scene. The bright summery day at the train station straight off a tin of chocolates, the perfect child, asking for a postcard with dialogue such as, “a promise is a promise you can never break”. Pardon? I do hope that and other random examples are more to do with poor translation in the subtitles, but it’s awful to watch the cast wrestle with such thumping clichés in any case. I know this is a German film and they are battling against a history of their army being represented as goose-stepping thugs, rather than the family men some of them must have been, but still it’s hard to take seriously, especially when the narrative makes no attempt to ask what Clemens and his colleagues thought they were fighting for. That could have been an interesting perspective given their fate.

Prospects for the film don’t improve much when it jumps forward to post-war. Forell is on another train with many more German soldiers, imprisoned by the Russians, and heading for 25 years hard labour in Siberia. Once at the prison camp, they are introduced to an inhumane regime headed by Anatoliy Kotenev as Kamenev.

The scenes in the camp are brutal. It may seem too brutal and perhaps being overplayed, but Soviet treatment of their PoWs was notorious and shameful, so this could be the most realistic part. I do think the naïve scenes beforehand undermine what is probably a fair depiction of the camp and by the end there will have been no concession at all to Germany’s recent history in the war. Along with the before-mentioned lack of insight on Clemens part, it is starting to feel like an idealised cover-up by an author with the benefit of third-hand hindsight (this is an adaptation of a book based on the original man, Cornelius Rost and it was made for TV once before). Some context could have grounded the film and made it more challenging.

Once Clemens escapes with help from the prison doctor (Michael Mendl), the story takes off and the film is much more successful, dealing with the simple fascinating set-up of the lone man walking for years across thousands of miles from Siberia and into Iran, trying to get home (unfortunately we do have to put up with a few brief scenes from his daughter with the terrible dialogue in that strange chocolate box Germany, now post-war, so even more odd). It becomes clear that Bettermann is an excellent actor and he has great support from Kotenev. There’s little to say about the unambitious photography and the direction is rather uninspired, but finally they are letting the story speak for itself.

He meets several people along the way, making it feel episodic and slight, but an easy watch nonetheless. It made me think that it would be a fantastic extended TV series! “Episode 7: Clemens and The Gold Miners” and “Episode 8: Clemens and The Eskimos”, for instance. Plus, in what feels like a dramatic contrivance, Kamenev is chasing him, a bit like the reporter in The Incredible Hulk! I’m being facetious though, because actually, while rather unbelievable, the angry dedicated Russian makes for a great villain, especially in the hands of the charismatic Kotenev, and he adds an essential ticking clock to the narrative. They meet a couple of times and the scenes are stand-outs.

The only thing that really lets the film down at this point is an altruistic Jew that helps him. The scenes are well played and acted, but clearly contrived through guilt; Clemens is shocked the Jew would help him, but I failed to understand how Clemens could appreciate guilt properly. Still, the narrative doesn’t tackle the subject head on and there’s an elephant in the room! I do sympathise with German screenwriters and directors who must feel like they have to tread very carefully though and this is an adaptation after all, so it’s difficult to know where this character came in.

Throughout the film, I was occasionally reminded of Doctor Zhivago, which I always found overrated, except for the stunning cinematography. If only David Lean could have told this story, with his beautiful photography of Russia and his practiced irony from Bridge On The River Kwai, it would have been an absolute classic. Surprisingly, because all the family scenes had been very weak, the film is almost redeemed in the finale, possibly helped by low expectations. From a bridge at the Iran border to his return to Germany is brilliantly done. It’s sentimental, but undeniably moving and a film that feels frustratingly uninspired is suddenly easy to recommend.


Read the full technical review at DVD Compare

[Najemikon]

Speer and Hitler: The Devil's Architect **** Year: 2005 Director: Heinrich Breloer Length: 269 Min.

You may not be aware of Albert Speer. An architect, personal friend of Hitler and a Reich Minister, he was nevertheless not a military man with a notorious reputation that brought his name to the fore. So you might reasonably question if this effectively four part documentary is merely an over-long exaggeration of a minor Nazi, stretching for something new to say.

Actually, Albert Speer was incredibly important, instrumental even, to Hitler’s plans. For instance, we all know the dreadful story of the Berlin Jews being forced into ghettos, even before the terrible “Kristallnacht”, but this was instigated by Speer’s ambitious plans for the city. They needed room for the German citizens displaced by the construction work and they needed labourers for the stone. And the question this comprehensive and thorough story repeatedly asks through drama, archive footage and interviews with his family is how aware was Speer of the consequences of those decisions or even of Hitler’s true nature? It’s clear that as a Nazi, he shared the absurd vision of the Third Reich (if anything he could realise it better than Hitler) and would have considered Jews a lesser race, but did he know or care what happened to the people following their removal from Berlin?

At the Nuremberg trials he successfully argued that despite being made Arms Minister in 1942, Hitler never involved him directly. As the only high-ranking Nazi to show shame, admit he could have found out if he tried and to recant his former associations (he would come to call Hitler a “criminal” and claim he took part in an assassination attempt), he escaped the death penalty and was imprisoned instead.

So just who was Speer? Was he the manipulative liar, thirsty for power? Or a naïve artist, seduced by an enigmatic and visionary leader? This fascinating DVD thoroughly explores his legacy through three 90 minute instalments, plus an 88 minute epilogue (listed as an extra, but essential viewing to complete the story). Cleverly, it takes the masses of evidence and reverses it, to tell the story from Speer’s perspective without committing to a conclusion, at least for parts 1 to 3. He’s right at the heart of Hitler’s power-base, but we never see military action or the horrors of the camps (at least not until the Nuremberg section). As such, you may feel it sympathises with his claims, as you are effectively inside a bubble, but it’s a fascinating and contradictory view of Hitler, while any typical retrospective attempt to review the evidence would be impossible to follow.

At first I wasn’t sure about the decision to dramatise the story and certainly in the first two parts, I wanted to see more of the real, archive footage, but I still quickly warmed to the reconstructions. Sebastian Koch (The Lives of Others) is superb as Speer, giving a measured and reserved performance of a likeable man who may yet turn out to be as twisted as his new best friend, Adolf. Watch the archive footage of Hitler playing with Speer’s young children and you’ll see how tough that role was for Tobias Moretti. Consider the difference between the happy scenes at the mountain retreat and those in the bunker. Those in particular bring comparisons of Moretti with the incredible Bruno Ganz (Downfall), but unlike Ganz, Moretti also has to convince us of the calm, even brilliant, leader who so entranced Speer (and it seems the feeling was mutual). Again because of the restricted atmosphere, Moretti rarely gets to cut loose, but his delivery of authentic dialogue occasionally simmers with menace and you can still understand the evil of the man, despite his playful nature.

Part one introduces Speer as the architect, commissioned to design the stage from which Hitler would make his historic speech in 1933. It is his extravagant vision that brings him to the leader's attention and plans are soon under-way for a new Berlin. The two men are soon very close friends. The plans for the city have to be abandoned as the war takes its toll, and Speer is made Arms Minister (“you must order me”, he tells Hitler). It ends with the Nazi high command awaiting trial at Nuremberg, which is where part two picks up.

How much of Speer’s testimony was fabricated to save his own neck (literally), his revelation of attempting an assassination, or his truthful shock at what was happening in the camps is detailed in the second part, as is his friends trying to gather evidence to help him and his family struggling to keep safe in a Berlin that was becoming a political mess already as the Allies and the Russians take control.

The third part is possibly the most interesting one for reconstructions, which surprised me. Speer is now in prison for 20 years, with several other high ranking Nazi’s, including Hess. Their playful dialogue (such as arguments between the Navy Minister and the Admiral) run really well and alongside Speer’s illegal letters that would form his memoirs, his flashback memories of conversations with Hitler and his imaginative walk around the world (counting the kilometres around the prison yard), a proper and inventive narrative is formed. It could easily form the basis of a play in its own right. Meanwhile his family struggle to cope, as supported by their interviews. As they grow older, his daughter tries to negotiate his release.

Included as an extra on the DVD is an Epilogue. Running almost as long as the other three parts, it is a true epilogue in that it is a traditional documentary, no longer from Speer’s perspective with no reconstructions (except repeats for context) and the interviewers are a more aggressive in their revealing of evidence. It is essential viewing, occasionally moving (Speer’s nephew, Wolf, in particular) and brings the story to a proper close. I find it odd that it should be considered a Special Feature!

The film flows well, supporting the sometimes limited production of the reconstructions with the archive material, so it never feels over-done. It has an ironic sense of humour, especially in part three (a flashback of Hitler exercising his arm so he can salute for hours during parades!). Add into that clips of the interviews that offer perspective, especially from Speer’s children, and this ambitious piece of work that never loses focus on Speer, offers a wide and illuminating perspective on Nazi Germany and Hitler’s motivation. A six hour film can be daunting, so it may only appeal to those already interested, but it’s absolutely worth the effort.

Read the full technical review at DVD Compare

[Tom]

I haven't seen any of these. Probably because I don't watch television, so I hardly see any German productions.

Watch the archive footage of Hitler playing with Speer’s young children and you’ll see how tough that role was for Tobias Moretti.

Interesting to see him do such challenging roles. I only know him from Kommissar Rex, with which he became famous in the 90s. Never really watched it, but everybody in Germany knows it.



 

[Najemikon]

That show looks awesome! 

I can't find a trailer for Speer and Hitler, but someone has uploaded it to YouTube and you can see Moretti here at least. Very different!

[goodguy]

All of these, while not exactly bad, are rather unremarkable. If you want to see what German TV once was capable of, I recommend RW Fassbinder's Welt am Draht (World on a Wire) and Edgar Reitz' Heimat trilogy. Both are available in the UK, the former even on Blu.

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

If you want to see what German TV once was capable of, I recommend RW Fassbinder's Welt am Draht (World on a Wire) and Edgar Reitz' Heimat trilogy.

But that was before we got private TV.
Nowadays RTL is only producing shows for the mentally challenged and/or plagiarizes, barely hidden, successful movies of the 80ies.

The public TV-stations on the other hand restrict themselves to pensioners-and braindead-TV. Their development of new formats has stopped long ago. This is because they are not allowed to compete the private stations for viewers, probably because it would be too easy.

[Najemikon]

Yeah, you can tell these are definitely middle-of-the-road productions. They have moments of brilliance, but not a cohesive whole. I got them through one label who seem to be having a run on churning out old stuff. I certainly get spoilt in the UK. All the big channels produce very slick stuff consistently.

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Here you can see what Germany is still capable of when Til Schweiger is not involved and the Director is not trying to do the umpteenth version of "Ooops, sorry we let an Austrian rule our country for 12 years"



Sadly in German only.

It's basically trying to catch up with international standards, but in a quite impressive way.
And Jürgen Vogel is brilliant (as usual).