Jakob, der Lügner (1975)

User Rating:

7.4/10   

Director:

Frank Beyer

Writers:

Jurek Becker (novel)
Jurek Becker (screenplay)

Release Date:

17 April 1975 (East Germany)

Genre:

Comedy | Crime | Drama | War

Plot:

A Jewish ghetto in the east of Europe, 1944. By coincidence, Jakob Heym eavesdrops on a German radio...

Plot Keywords:

Ghetto | Radio | Death | Hope | Soviet Army

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 2 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Vlastimil Brodský	...	Jakob Heym
Erwin Geschonneck	...	Kowalski
Henry Hübchen	...	Mischa
Blanche Kommerell	...	Rosa Frankfurter
Manuela Simon	...	Lina
Dezsö Garas	...	Frankfurter
Zsuzsa Gordon	...	Mrs. Frankfurter
Friedrich Richter	...	Dr. Kirschbaum
Margit Bara	...	Josefa
Reimar J. Baur	...	Herschel Schtamm
Armin Mueller-Stahl	...	Roman Schtamm
Hermann Beyer	...	Wachhabender
Klaus Brasch	...	Najdorf
Jürgen Hilbrecht	...	Schwocj
Paul Lewitt	...	Horowitz

Also Known As:

Jacob the Liar (USA)
Jakub lhár (Czechoslovakia: Czech title)
Jakub luhár (Czechoslovakia: Slovak title)

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

East Germany | Czechoslovakia

Language:

German

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

West Germany:12 (f)

Company:

Deutsche Film (DEFA)

Trivia:

Popular German actor Heinz Rühmann was considered for the role of Jakob. Frank Beyer was unsure whether he should cast a good friend and great, but lesser known actor (Vlastimil Brodský) or cast Rühmann in an effort to make the film accessible to a larger audience. The fact that Rühman was from West-Germany caused a lot of controversy. In the end, 'Erich Hoenecker' , political leader of East-Germany himself decided that Frank Beyer should desist from casting Heinz Rühmann.

Quotes:

Josefa: What's wrong, Brother?
Dr. Kirschbaum: I'm afraid. I am very afraid. The radio could be bad news for us all. You know these pigs.
Josefa: Let's call it a day. You can be afraid in bed.

Movie Connections:

Version of Jakob the Liar (1999)

Very good, though a tad sanitized

This East German movie is a very unusual movie about the Holocaust because it focuses on life within the ghetto. However, the film seemed a bit sanitized in how the residents looked and how they were treated. Unlike some later films, some of the Jews in this film looked awfully well-fed and conditions didn't seem all that bad. The cattle car where the remaining Jews were placed seemed rather spacious and not all that bad either--even though in reality many died on the cars due to conditions. In addition, some of the German soldiers seemed pretty nice. Perhaps this might have been that the Soviet-dominated East Germans were more willing to talk about their sordid past but were still struggling with fully accepting it. Whatever is the case, this aspect of the film did surprise me a bit.

Now as for the rest of the film, it was marvelous and provided an odd insight into life in the ghettos. The acting was excellent and the film is very much worth seeing, though not nearly as compelling as THE SHOP ON MAIN STREET, SCHINDLER'S LIST or AU REVOIR LES ENFANTS. I have not seen the recent remake starring Robin Williams, so I can't really compare the two, but my inclination is almost always to go with the originals.

PS--The English captioning for this film is pretty poor. Instead of directly translating what is said, it's often summarized or even wrong. My knowledge of German isn't too bad, and several times what they said did not correspond at all to the captioning. You can't blame the film makers for this, but the company that released the film.