"Jud Süss - Film ohne Gewissen" is a German movie from 5 years ago written and directed by Oskar Roehler. Roehler is one of the most successful German filmmakers right now and here he adapted Friedrich Knilli's book for this controversial movie. It runs for almost 2 hours and features Tobias Moretti (Kommissar Rex) as the title character. This film will do absolutely nothing for you if you do not know already about the events that are depicted in there. You so not necessarily have to have seen the original "Jud Süß", but it helps. However, you really need to know about the film's contents and also a bit about Marian, Harlan, Goebbels... And even if this applies to me that I do know about all of this as I am particularly interested in the Nazi years and World War II, I was still disappointed by the movie. It is tough to point a finger on what exactly went wrong. It may be the script. The actors exclude many big names, at least here in Germany. I will not list the names, but you can check the cast to see them. Roehler, once again, works with 2 actors who I am a bit surprised to see in here (Bauer, Stadlober). He has a tendency of casting popular actors that do not have that much talent really. But as long as they are just in smaller roles, it's fine for me.
Anyway, the premise here is excellent. It was a really interesting time for movies in Germany and, as despicable as propaganda films may be, it's still interesting to watch them and figure out how they could alter people's minds back then. It's a film about a film. But it's also a film about Ferdinand Marian's life around that time. We find out about his wife and how that relationship made things really complicated in every regard. But we also find out about his thought process and how Goebbels basically forced him to accept the role. Still, his doubts were mostly not because he despised the propaganda, but because people would see him as a Jew. Back then films were something entirely different. Audiences thought frequently actors would also personify with their characters in real life, even if that may sound absurd by today's standards. Anyway, all in all, I was pretty disappointed here. This film has not many interesting scenes really and it also drags and should have been kept a lot shorter. They certainly missed a chance here of turning a truly interesting story into an interesting film. I was particularly disappointed by Bleibtreu who offered absolutely nothing as Goebbels here apart from over-the-top face expressions and screaming. This was a disappointing work. Not recommended.
Anyway, the premise here is excellent. It was a really interesting time for movies in Germany and, as despicable as propaganda films may be, it's still interesting to watch them and figure out how they could alter people's minds back then. It's a film about a film. But it's also a film about Ferdinand Marian's life around that time. We find out about his wife and how that relationship made things really complicated in every regard. But we also find out about his thought process and how Goebbels basically forced him to accept the role. Still, his doubts were mostly not because he despised the propaganda, but because people would see him as a Jew. Back then films were something entirely different. Audiences thought frequently actors would also personify with their characters in real life, even if that may sound absurd by today's standards. Anyway, all in all, I was pretty disappointed here. This film has not many interesting scenes really and it also drags and should have been kept a lot shorter. They certainly missed a chance here of turning a truly interesting story into an interesting film. I was particularly disappointed by Bleibtreu who offered absolutely nothing as Goebbels here apart from over-the-top face expressions and screaming. This was a disappointing work. Not recommended.