Jakob, der Lügner / Jacob the Liar (1974) – 3/5

Carried by the lead actor

The following paragraph is my short review for this movie from summer 2016:

„Jakob, der Lügner“ or „Jacob the Liar“ is an East German 100-minute movie from 1974, so this one is already over 40 years old. And unlike many other films from the GDR, this one is in color. Then again, by the mid-1970s, this is almost to be taken for granted already. The special aspect about this film is that it is the only GDR film that managed to score an Academy Award nomination, a huge success for director Frank Beyer and his co-writer Jurek Becker, who also wrote the novel that this film is based on. When this film came out, World War II had been over for 30 years approximately, so this is also the gap in time between what we see and when this was made. A bit strange to see now that the gap between today and this film is already over a decade more. It may have been the subject that appealed to the Academy as it plays in the Jewish ghetto in the final years of Nazi Germany. And it is the story of one man, the title character, a career-defining performance by Czech actor Vlastimil Brodský. He is not really known today anymore, which is sad because his portrayal here got me curious about other works from him. Other than him, most of the cast is German however. Most German cinema fans will have heard of Erwin Geschonneck, Armin Mueller-Stahl and the very young Henry Hübchen. They all add their fair share to make this film a success. I would not call it great or one of the very best I have seen from the year 1974, but it was still a pretty good watch, mostly thanks to Brodský. Go see it.

Today, in February 2023, this was shown again at a movie theater and there was no fee to go and watch it, so I decided to give it another shot and see what stays in the mind for me this time:

I would say that I stay with the overall rating of 3/5 or 6/10 here, but I will certainly add some more thoughts now: I still think that Brodský was quite good, but maybe not as enthusiastic about his performance anymore. Geschonneck was older than I thought here and this kinda fits that he looked younger because he led such a long life and made it to the age of 101. The female cast members I have not mentioned yet. Blanche Kommerell had a lot of screen time here and she was a pretty prolific actress for decades and she is still alive, even if her last credit is now already over 15 years ago. Early on, her character was about romance, but towards the end then the hardships of war really get to her. Her own life may be saved thanks to her boyfriend pretty much, but her parents get deported. Manuela Simon must also be mentioned and I think she gave a really good child performance here. She also did so much with her eyes and face expressions. She captured the spirit of her character really in a perfect manner. The last shot with the clouds and her talking about those and wondering of what they consist while making a connection to a tale she heard earlier was pretty good, even if it was mostly her elevating the material there I would say. Other than that, it did not feel as memorable and spot-on as I would have liked it to be. But Simon was a scene stealer in every scene she was in. It’s such a pity to see that she has not acted in anything other than this film which also surprises me a bit because her role here was pretty significant. You don’t even find an information apparently what happened. Probably she just led a normal life away from the limelight. She must be in her mid50s now closing in on 60. I hope she is still alive. If so, she is not the only cast member who is still alive. Hübchen of course is still shooting movies and he was so young here. Mueller-Stahl was not that young anymore, but he is also still with us in 2023 and over 90 now. Klaus Brasch is in here too and he died at a really young age a little over five years later.

The GDR is often remembered for its fairytale films especially and for good reason because I agree that those are among the best the country had to offer movie-wise. So it is no surprise that they brought in a little fantasy component here too when the protagonist read or told this little story to the girl listening to him. She’s a smart one though, instantly understood that it was Jakob who had the radio and got the news. Well, at least that is what everybody was thinking. Maybe he was especially mad that one moment because he did not want the girl to know and did not want to lie to her too because of her youth and innocence. I was wondering nonetheless what was up with this key story. I mean I understand that it got them hope when they received news that the Russians are coming closer or just simple news unrelated to war when one character is happy that a Jewish singer is having success in America. Or the mention of the foundation of Israel etc. I still felt that there was no need really for Jakob to come up with the lie about the radio early on. At that point he would not know the effects of this lie and the other lies, so I really did not understand why he said this. Came out of nowhere. Speaking of the effects, there are also some that Jakob himself was not aware of. Like there was a guy who actually possessed a radio and he destroyed it to make sure that it won’t be found if they are going through everybody’s stuff and raid all the apartments in the ghetto. Another consequence was the death of a character, namely we see him being shot by a German soldier there when he talks to a man inside a train or so after they were prohibited to talk to them. And he was actually talking about the radio there, so this lie in a way resulted in him getting shot you could say. At least indirectly. This was still a moment of slightly shoddy editing. I would say that this production area was not the movie’s biggest strength.

So this is not really a film that encourages telling lies as we also see when it is depicted as some kind of relief when towards the end Jakob comes up with the truth towards his closest friend. The latter’s reaction was among the more memorable moments of the film. It can also be added then of course that you can easily say this is a GDR production because the way in which the Russians are depicted here as the ones that are basically saviors for the prisoners felt a bit exaggerated at times, but oh well if they saw it like this really back then, then I did not say a thing. I personally would say that the beginning that you can almost call a prologue here was the bets the film had to offer. The fact that Jakob got send to the police office because he ignored the curfew when he really didn’t was absurd enough. Add to that the fact that they had no watches to see what time it is, so they did not even know when they had to stay home was additional absurdity. Plus the sign at the door that Jews are strictly prohibited from entering the building and he is told to go inside. Or that Jakob wakes up the guy working there and said guy asks Jakob for the time then and so on. There were so many absurd moments in that scene that I easily remember it. Of course, in terms of the story, this scene was also needed because there Jakob got the news that the Russians are really not far and this news was basically what started the entire lying process. Fake news alert! I have read that people compared this film on many occasions to Roberto Benigni’s „La vita è bella“ and I can see the key parallel between the two protagonists, even if I would say that, other than that, I don’t see too many parallels between the two films. The girl here is also not as much of a crucial part to the story as the boy in the Benigni film, but this is clear of course because he is the protagonist’s son. That other film also included a more frequent depiction of the enemy. Here German soldiers/officers are missing almost completely if we ignore the start for a moment and the shooting of one character and the toilet scene. I think other than those, there are none.

Speaking of comparisons, this film was successful enough for an American/Hollywood version being made a quarter of a century later and the lead actor there was the late Robin Williams. I have not seen that film (yet?), so I cannot talk about parallels and differences between the original and remake, but I will only focus on this original here. I have also not read Becker’s novel, so no elaborations there either. This movie here to which he contributed as well, even if not as much as Beyer obviously, is still remembered in Germany and here and there they are showing it on national television. Not sure what it is like in other countries. Animals are not a factor in this film. The only ones you see briefly are flies around the food. It is a rather bleak film you could say, but this should also surprise nobody looking at which country made it and also what it is all about. The ending is also pretty sobering and depressing for sure with the elaboration on the hairdresser and everybody being on the train to an unknown destination, which in the best case is just a labor camp and in the worst case their death. The shot before that when the girl runs around joyfully and screams happily about their upcoming travelling is maybe the most heartbreaking moment of the film. The ending comes pretty abrupt I would say as we look at the sky and see the clouds and keep wondering what they consist of. The violin music that is featured pretty heavily at the ending especially is pretty nice though, but then again I am biased there because I love violin music in general. Overall, this film still gets a thumbs-up from me, even if I would say now that it is closer to a mediocre film, maybe even to a weaker film than to a really great film, but overall the outcome is good enough. See it if you care about the subject.