BY EDWIN JAHIEL
THE HARMONISTS (COMEDIAN HARMONISTS) (Germany,1997) *** 1/2 Directed by Joseph Vilsmaier. Written by Klaus Richter, based on an idea by Juergen Buescher; Photography, Joseph Vilsmaier. Editing, Peter R. Adam. Production design, Rolf Zehetbauer. Music, Harald Kloser. Produced by Hanno Huth, Reinhard Kloos and Danny Krausz. Cast: Ben Becker (Robert Biberti), Heino Ferch (Roman Cycowski), Ulrich Noethen (Harry Frommermann), Heinrich Schafmeister (Erich A. Collin), Max Tidof (Ari Leschnikoff), Kai Wiesinger (Erwin Bootz), Meret Becker (Erna Eggstein), Katja Riemann (Mary Cycowski), Dana Vavrova (Ursula Bootz), Susi Nicoletti (Mrs. Grunbaum), Noemi Fischer (Chantal), et al. A Mirama Disney release. In German with subtitles. 114 minutes. R (racist violence)
A doubly welcome movie. It is very good. And it comes from Germany, a country whose once glorious past in film took a tumble during the Nazi era, except for a small number of movies. (Not all was propaganda then, contrary to popular belief)
In the aftermath of World War II, German film, like much else, lay in ruins and (always with exceptions) was undistinguished. In the 1960s, partly influenced by the success of the French New Wave, there was a rebirth of truly creative, high-quality, audacious productions, loosely labeled The New German Cinema or The Young German Cinema (Kluge, Fassbinder, Herzog, many others).But in more recent years (again with exceptions) there has been a paucity of such works, mostly because the German public has ignored the avant-garde in favor of commercial movies, predominantly American.
The not-strictly-commercial exceptions that found a public in Germany and abroad have often dealt with the Nazi era, its preludes and aftermaths. They are often fact-based too. The Harmonists fills that bill --with a twist Its focus is a group of musical performers, their rise and not exactly their fall --since this would imply artistic disintegration--but their dissolution within a barbaric political climate.
It embraces the years from late 1927, during the Weimar Republic (1919-1933) , through the mid-1930s, during Hitler's Third Reich. Cinephiles may be glad to learn that the Weimar Republic's first President was a socialist named Ebert, not Roger but Friedrich.
It was time of all imaginable turmoil, social, political, of mass unemployment, the newly rich and the many newly poor. It was also a time of amazing creativity in the arts, including the popular ones (see the movie Cabaret). And a time of night life, daring sexuality, licentiousness and excitement. For a while Berlin was the artistic the capital of Europe.
The movie tells,with some inventions and poetic license, the "true" story of a singing/performing ensemble which became a huge hit in Germany and abroad. Of late there has been a stage and concert revival in Germany and the USA.
Among the innumerable, work-seeking starving artists is Harry Frommermann, who is Jewish. This talented, despondent man reacts to the suggestions of Mr. Levy, an agent, with "I'm not an actor, I'm a musician." And it is as a musician that he has a revelation on his Road to Damascus, so to speak.
He hears a recording by a black American group, The Revelers. A bulb lights up in his head. Harry will try a German equivalent of that group. He places a newspaper ad, selects five candidates (a pianist and four singers, including a wonderful Bulgarian singing waiter), and forms an ensemble which delivers German and American pop and folk tunes in lively, precise, harmonious and comical ways full of double-entendres and rakish allusions. (They even have to explain to their Bulgarian member what "a growing asparagus" stands for).
Call it an a capella group or a Teutonic variant of a barbershop quintet. Someone eventually has the bright notion of baptizing it, in English --except for the article-- Die Comedian Harmonists.
The film opens in 1935 Berlin, as the Harmonists, elegant in formal clothes, now at the peak of their fame, sing on-stage the hit "Veronika" in a version which includes one real instrument ,the piano, and several others which the group imitates beautifully.
Flash back to December 1927, Harry's vision, the formation of the group, their rehearsals, struggles, arguments, dissensions, tensions and all else that leads to their acquiring their Harmonist identity. They rehearse for six months, in sequences that are fascinating windows into musicality, tactics and personalities. After a desperate deadline of an extra month, the finally hit on the right formula.
Three of the six happen to be Jews. Among the others, the most forceful is big, blond Robert Biberti. When push come to shove following a critical audition by the then-nobodies, it is Robert who brazenly states to a (presumably Jewish) impresario that he, Biberti, represents the financial interests of the group. He ups the ante of the salary with imaginary offers. The impresario is not taken in, but plays along. He knows talent when he sees it. Throughout, Bob-the-Aryan's attitude is best described as chutzpah.
The film is most adroitly edited, knowing exactly when to cut, never allowing its scenes to overstay their welcome. It has lightness, humor, effervescence.The singers are excellent. In reality, they do perfect lip-synching to the sounds of original 78 rpm recordings, magically digitalized. It will fool you.
Past the early flashbacks the story continues with the Harmonists' skyrocketing to fame, private lives and political situations. Bob, shown living in a palatial suite, phones the concierge to ask for a call-girl in the matter-of-fact way you ask for breakfast to be brought up. " Not too voluptuous. She must look like a student trying to make extra money." But then, there is another, real student, Erna. She works at the music store of a charming old Jewish couple who remind me a bit of the couple in Casablanca.
Harry loves Erna. Erna seems sweet on Harry. Then Bob too falls for Erna. And so on. There are ambiguities about her, as in many other aspects of the film. To what extent the details are truly biographical, I cannot tell. However, rather than intrude into the story, those relationships and others flesh it out and humanize the Harmonists. (The amusing fact is that the actors who play Bob and Erna are brother and sister in real life).
What intrudes, and with a horrible vengeance, is Adolf Hitler and his minions. The now renowned Harmonists have to face anti-Semitism, which raises its monstrous head for the first time at a swimming pool. No doubt this is a filmic simplification, since awareness of the problem must have existed already --especially in artistic circles with their huge numbers of German Jews.
On the other hand, the shock becomes a quake when Bob and Harry arrive at the music store as S.A. men (Brownshirts) break the glass (a prelude to the 1938 Kristallnacht), tear up the place, abuse verbally and bodily Erna and her bosses. The owners cannot understand this. They are Germans and patriots, love the country, in the late war lost a son---all this will pass, no doubt.
The thread of Jewish incomprehension runs throughout the film. I recently saw the Spielberg-produced, Oscar-winning documentary The Last Days, about Hungarian Jews. Like the German Jews, the Hungarians were so "assimilated" that they could not imagine anyone harming them during World War II, and they hardly believed the rumors of death camps. Until their turn came.
In The Harmonists, no anti-Semitism is shown within the group and their circle. In fact, one of the men's girls converts to Judaism in order to marry her lover. The wedding has klezmer music, enormous brio, and none of the satire that one finds in many such ceremonies in American movies, by Jewish filmmakers too. (This is no criticism. When you feel free, you can afford to laugh at yourself).
During Hitler's early reign, Bob and Harry are summoned to the Nazi Artists' Chamber. A high official points out to them that "half of your people are non-Aryan," but, given their admirers in high places he'll try to find a solution. Then he asks them to autograph one of their records. Clever irony.
Soon after comes the request that the group go to the palatial home of Gauleiter Julius Streicher, as rabid a Jew-hater as any, if not more (he was hanged after the Nuremberg War Crimes trials). There, among a host of uniformed Party members, Streicher requests a folk song with lyrics by the great Romantic poet Eichendorff. Harry gets physically sick, the others say: "We'd be grateful if we don't have to sing this particular song."
I confess that I was baffled.I don't know what the upsetting reference is here, nor how historically true this Streicher "invitation" was.
Racist tension mounts. An invitation to sing in America arrives. In New York, on the USS Saratoga and elsewhere the group gives rousing renderings of American songs and marches. The New World is like Paradise. Though most Harmonists are tempted to stay there,they do return to Germany. There, the audience at a sold-out concert is chockfull of Nazi uniforms. An announcement that comes as a thunderbolt both to the dumbfounded performers and the audience tells them that the group is now banned after this, their last concert. The Harmonists deliver one of their trademark "serious" kitschy songs (about a bit of heaven, somewhere, sometime). Moved, the public mobs them. True ? Invented?
The Jewish members, plus Erna, go straight to America. It's an historically incorrect, simplified finale, but I suppose that their real peregrinations (in Europe, even in Australia) before settling in the USA, would require another half-hour of film. Not that it is long at 114 minutes. There are no dead moments, no dull scenes. The movie has a lot more than meets the eye. And what meets the ear is enchanting.
" Le mauvais gout mene au crime" (Stendhal)
Edwin Jahiel's movie reviews are at http://www.prairienet.org/ejahiel
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