azdak

We watched The Counterfeiters last night and were distinctly disappointed - I'm sure it got the Best Foreign Film Oscar because it was a German film(German, Austrian, who can tell the difference, and anyway, pace The Sound of Music, the Austrians were as guilty as hell of anti-Semitism and pro-Nazism) about concentration camps, and not because it was a really good German (well, Austrian) film about concentration camps. Hollywood seems to like films about Germans facing up to their evil past, but whereas The Lives of Others was outstanding by any criteria, The Counterfeiters had a worthy subject, but not a lot else going for it. The most exciting moment was when a friend of mine showed up for about 5 seconds in one of the pre-war scenes. Thereafter, though the film did have a few interesting observations to make about heroism, and the point at which our duty to others stops being abstract and becomes personal; and above all how simple things like a haircut and a suit of clothes can make the difference between a human and a not-human; it wasn't ever thrilling. Neither the acting, nor the characters, nor the way the story was told grasped the imagination. It's not a bad film, in fact it's quite a good one, but oscar material? No way.