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Bookmark this pageComedian Harmonists (1997)
Director: Joseph Vilsmaier
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
The Comedian Harmonists were a popular German sextet of the late '20s/early '30s specialising in sentimental or smutty ditties (inventively arranged) with titles like 'My Little Green Cactus'. A showbiz saga with grisly historical trimmings, the film recounts the assembling of the poverty-stricken musicians during the Depression, their initial setbacks and eventual success; followed by personal tensions, exacerbated by the Nazi ascendancy - half the group being Jews - and their final break-up. It ought to be fascinating, and there are intriguing sidelights: their fans, embarrassingly, numbered the prominent anti-Semite Julius Streicher. But it's relentlessly routine, both on the personal and political level, though the director's affection for the Harmonists' music certainly comes across.Author: BBa
Cast & crew
Director: Joseph Vilsmaier
Producer: Hanno Huth, Reinhard Klooss, Danny Krausz
Cast: Ben Becker, Heino Ferch, Ulrich Noethen, Heinrich Schafmeister, Max Tidorf, Kai Wiesinger full cast
Genre(s): Musicals
Duration: 129 mins
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