Les faussaires

Be prepared that this is not a bum bum war movie but another interesting film that touched my feelings. The first scene begins on the dreamingly beach of Nice in South of France where I am going always jogging with my wife in my holidays. Then it dives directly in the second world war time telling how the Jewish people were kept and murdered by the Nazis. DIE FÄLSCHER shows how high talented Jewish forgers have been forced by the SS to work with them. I have now a better view about the development of the German machinery. The movie is well directed with a fast pace and full of turns and twists that led to the Oscar as best foreign film of this year. I have never got bored and I liked it.

There have been several respectable productions in the last years about the holocaust as for example THE PIANIST, BLACK BOOK, DER UNTERGANG, DIE LETZTEN TAGE DER SOPHIE SCHOLL or DER LETZTE ZUG. Read for all these mentioned movies my reviews.

Final vote 7/10 and another important DVD for my best of collection.

This is the rare - and by that I REALLY mean rare! - case of an Austrian movie being able to bear comparison with international competition. "Die Fälscher" is a well-made and touching movie about the Holocaust and a special division of Jews in a concentration camp that survived by counterfeiting money (or pretending to do so) for the Nazis. Karl Markovics is the shining light of the cast. Who thought that the guy who came to greater popularity by starring in "Kommissar Rex" would end up getting roles like this one and playing them to perfection? August Diehl is good, too, but he comes across as a bit too dramatic at times. The Nazis - and that's the only weakness of Stefan Ruzowitzky's movie - are the way they always are. Ruthless, cruel, craven and at the same time stupid pigs who do everything to humiliate the Jews at any time. Even though, that is probably the way 99% of them really were, it would have been more interesting to get a differentiated view on some of them.

While "Die Fälscher" may not reinvent the wheel, it is a pretty great movie. And although it's typical that Hollywood would pick only a Holocaust-story from Austria as an Oscar contender, it is exciting as hell for a movie from this country to get a nomination. I really hope that Stefan Ruzowitzky will get the award, because his movie deserves it and it could help the Austrian film industry to finally get momentum again.

I thought the film was excellent on a number of grounds; the acting by the main players was uniformly good,I suppose one could carp about the main Nazi in that it was the traditional mixture of ' jolly fine fellow when out of uniform and with blonde wife and children but nightmare when faced with the Untermenschen in the camp'. The main actor was unknown to me and something of an anti-hero but the gradual emergence of his positive sides was well done.The concentration on life in the special part of the camp where only the sounds of shouts and gunshots penetrate was very well portrayed and the entire film gripped me from start to finish. I suppose there were no amazing revelations apart from the basis of the story but that was more than enough and I recommend it highly

In 1936, the greatest forger in Germany, the Jewish Russian Salomon 'Sally' Sorowitsch (Karl Markovics), is arrested by the agent Friedrich Herzog (Devid Striesow) and sent to Mauthausen concentration camp. Years later, he is transferred to Sachsenhausen concentration camp to work with a group of professionals counterfeiting sterling pounds under the command of Herzog in the Operation Bernhard. When the group is ordered to produce American dollars, the idealistic Adolf Burger (August Diehl) sabotages the work of Sally and his team.

"Die Fälscher" is based on a true story of a group of Jews that are forced to counterfeit currency to destabilize the economy of England and North America in World War II. The realistic plot discloses a fight between the idealism of Burger and the intention of surviving the war of the group of Jews led by Sally in excellent performances. The result is another great and powerful German film that leaves an open question: what could you do or how far would you go to survive? My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Os Falsários" ("The Forgers")

I just saw this movie in London last night. There were 5 people in the audience (including myself). What a shame because this was a solid piece of film-making. If you haven't seen The Counterfeiters, go see it. Here's why.

The acting is outstanding all the way through. You will learn more about counterfeiting efforts by the Nazis to undermine the British and Americans. This movie has numerous layers to it, and avoids the typical clichés that all Germans acted one way, and all Jews acted another way. You learn the subtle ways that control over other people is used to manipulate them. Do you put aside your beliefs in order to survive? If so, are you being true to those beliefs? Is it better to be a dead, morally right person or a live, less moral one? These are central themes. Finally, does how we make our wealth matter? These aren't ideas unique to cinema, but the way the movie presents them is.