Jakob der Lügner

This was the first and only East German film ever to be nominated for the Best Foreign Language film Oscar. It won many other awards, and features three actors, who are still very much active today. It has been re released in video throughout the world. I saw it after ordering it recently from Amazon.com. For all the accolades the film received, I must say that I enjoyed the recent American remake, directed by a Hungarian Holocaust Survivor, much more. I know the critics panned this version, but curiously the same things critics hated about the remake are taken right out of this, the original. In any case, the original is also good, though disappointing if you enjoyed the recent JACOB... The film does offer us the opportunity to see the famous Czech actor, V. Brodsky, still very active in Czech film and TV. We also see a young (late 30s) Armin Mueller-Stahl, prior to his defection from Communist East Germany. Interestingly, he also starred in the recent remake as the sixtyish doctor in the film. The young romantic (played by L. Schreiber in the remake) is played by the still active Henry Hubchen, recently featured in the German hit SONNENALLEE. In my opinion, the film is mostly worthwhile for these hindsight curiosity values. However, many will feel it is indeed a landmark film, on its own. Watch it and decide what you think.

One of the legacies of the late GDR (East Germany) is a treasure-trove of cultural productions, much of which has been inaccessible to us. An exception is the 1974 DEFA (GDR successor to pre-1945 Ufa Film Studio) production "Jacob the Liar", which enjoyed a brief exposure in the US in the late '70s, even being nominated for an Academy Award. If you missed it, this is your chance to have it, beautifully transferred to DVD (also another justification for splurging on a DVD player, if you haven't already). Although it can be viewed without, the subtitles (your choice of language)are well-worded and legible.

"Jacob" centers on a man inadvertently finding himself a focus of hope among the doomed in a Polish ghetto. Circumstances have him reluctantly pretending to possess a forbidden radio, which leads to dramatic (and comedic) situations, and even raises moral questions and insights about truth and responsibility in such an adverse context. Billed as a tragic comedy, the acting and pacing of the story are equal to the serious nature of the subject.

Director Frank Beyer's "Jacob" should not be confused with the 1999 Hollywood remake starring the talented (but often glib and facetious) Robin Williams. This Columbia distribution is a sort of roadrunner-cartoon version trying to be profound. It has the frantic pacing and excessive gratuitous violence evidently presumed necessary to put it over. If you must have a Holocaust-era drama that can bear watching more than once, get the real McCoy.

Exemplary Situations of life in a Jewish Ghetto, during the reign of Hitler's forces were very much present in "Jakob der Lügner". One such occurrence of how the Jews tried to deal with their new realities involved the substitution of thoughts about reality and the invading/controlling Nazi War machine in many of their lives, for other exciting and positive experiences, of which they tried to focus. Jakob tries to focus on such an experience, which occurred in his past, before he was forced to move to the Ghetto. He thinks of his former wife, and the happy times they spent together. Through his invention of the "radio broadcasts", he helps others living in the Ghetto to think of a reality, on which they can believe, due to its similarity with their wishes for their futures and even for their reality under Nazi control to be different than it was in reality.

In 1944, in Poland, the Jew Jakob Heym (Vlastimil Brodský) breaks the curfew in the ghetto where he lives and a guard in the lookout sends him to see the chief of the guards. Jakob is released by the German, but overhears a radio broadcasting that the Russians are advancing towards their town. On the next morning, his comrade Mischa (Henry Hübchen) wants to risk his life to steal a couple of potatoes in a German store, Jakob tells that the Russians are coming and confides that he has a radio. Soon the secret Jakob has told to Mischa is known by the residents of the ghetto and Jakob notes that his lies give hope to the Jews, reducing the number of suicide. Meanwhile his niece Lina (Manuela Simon), who is sick, gets better with Jakob stories and believes that clouds are made of cotton balls.

"Jakob, der Lügner" is a dramatic film with a beautiful and heartbreaking story of hope and survival in one of the saddest and darkest moments of the contemporary history. The analogy between Jakob's radio that gives hope to his comrades and the cotton balls that helps his niece to live a fairytale is the summit of this tale and the open conclusion where the viewer does not know what he will tell to Lina are amazing. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Jacob, o Mentiroso" ("Jacob, the Liar")

I think this film was very well done. I was drawn into the plot and characters very quickly. I would reccommend this film to anyone who would enjoy a new outlook on life. I know that is one of the things I got from watching this movie. Jakob was a very charismatic person and I could not wait to find out what would happen to him and his comrades. Though this movie was not very fast paced, there was enough going on that kept me interested during the entire movie.