Comedian Harmonists

To be shown: 26 November 2001
Comedian Harmonists at rare-lyrics.com

Germany 1997 (subtitles)
127 minutes
Directed by Joseph Vilsmaier
Leading players - Ben Becker, Heino Ferch, Ulrich Noethen.

Synopsis

Comedian Harmonists is a gripping tale about a group of singers and a piano accompanist who won the hearts of the world through their music. It is based on a true story, taking place in 1930s Berlin. In the advent of Nazism, the three Jewish members were prohibited from performing with them, and the group had to choose between music and politics.

The actual recordings of the original group's music are used, with a deeply nostalgic effect. The music speaks to the heart, from the depth of the songs about springtime to sad farewell songs.

Music is portrayed so powerfully that the Jewish leader of the group finds himself physically sick and unable to continue singing when the group attempts to fill a request from a major local Nazi leader. The film focuses on the founding of the group, their difficulties as a growing group, their world success, to their eventual fall. The music is nostalgic, the story is timeless, the action is gripping.

* * * * * *

Available on both video and the big screen, Comedian Harmonists is significantly more compelling in a theatre making this showing worth the effort in itself. The production values, score, musical dubbing and sets are first rate; the actors make the viewer believe it is really they who are singing, not lip-synching. You grow to really enjoy the characters as individuals during the course of the film and you really care about what will happen to their lives. While the movie's overriding message is one of vast sympathy for all the victims of Nazi persecution, the subtext, equally strongly, is the power of live-performance art.

The film deals smoothly with subplots of the various romances leading to marriage for some of the Harmonist singers. There is the eternal mixed religion problems that are sorted out as love conquers all for some members of the singing group. That is until Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of the Third Reich in 1933. Then rejection of ethnic diversity by the Übermenschen and in particular the position of Jews in Nazi Germany become troubling issues for the Harmonists. By 1933 the Comedian Harmonists had a fiercely loyal following even among some of the Nazi leaders, and they naively supposed that their careers would not be harmed amid the growth of state sponsored violence against Jews. The rest is history.