"Dreigroschenfilm" is a new German movie from 2018, a pretty long one indeed at easily over 2 hours. The writer and director is Joachim Lang, probably by now most known for his work on the George father and son movie, but this one here is not the first time he elaborated on the subject of Bertolt Brecht. The latter is the man who is in the center of it all. And he is played by established actor Lars Eidinger. He is the one who wrote the Dreigroschenoper / Three Penny Opera back in the day, almost a decade ago now already. And he is also the man in charge of everything related to it. Or is he? At least he was in charge of the hoghly successful stage play with what the movie starts and while we initially hear that Brecht has no intentions to turn his work into a movie, his approach to that plan changes quickly. And that's what the movie is all about, namely Brecht's efforts to pull through with his creative vision and have the film made and look exactly the way he wants it. An almost impossible challenge if you look at his plans of profanitiy and sexuality included in the film while at the same time sending a political message (or at least you could read one between the lines). The production studio bosses are not happy at all about Brecht's vision. But watch for yourself. Anyway, this part is really only the frameset if you want to call it like that. The actual piece, the Three Penny Opera is included in this movie too, at least large parts of it, pretty much all the crucial scenes like the ways in which MacHeath gets to know the girl, hhow her mother finds out about who he is, the meeting between MacHeath and his aides (if you want to call them that), several scenes about Mr. Peachum and his "army" of beggars etc. So you will learn a lot about the piece too, it's almost two films in one pretty much and this also explains the massive running time of course. Eidinger was pretty good I think, but a lot of that had also to do with his make-up and that he was almost unrecognizable. Would not be surprised if this film gets in at the next edition of the German Film Awards in this category, maybe for sets and costumes too. But the real MVP for me was once again Tobias Moretti, who is just amazing in everything he is in these days and always elevates the material. Who would have thought he could make a transformation like this when he was in kommissar rex a long time ago. Joachim Król was pretty good too. Once again, I was not amazed at all by Hannah herzsprung and I wish they could have cast somebody else as the female lead. First of all, the attempts when they were trying to sell her to us as gorgeous felt pretty cringeworthy to be honest and I am not only talking about the butt scene early on (honestly, hers is not that great), but also about one moment in particular when we see Eidinger call her something like she is the only woman who is more desirable than his art or so. Oh well, but it fits that we hear him say that because there are a more than just a few parallels in this film between MacHeath and Brecht, especially how they are both led to their execution eventually, well Brecht metaphorically with the lost courtroom trial.
Another important note here is that this is a musical during many occasions. Interesting for sure as German musicals really are a rarity these days in fact, European musicals you could even say. And most of the music scenes were fine. The highlight came already early on when we hear the famous Haifisch song, definitely my favorite from all numbers, But the rest was okay as well. Especially Król was really good at times and I did not expect that. Again here the negative hoghlight was Herzsprung as her opera-like singing felt pretty flat compared to other female singers, especially the one who plays Mackie's other wife when they meet at the prison house. Man that one had a great voice. All in all, an enjoyable movie I think overall, mostly thanks to Moretti, even if his super modern jailhouse cell with the bars being lasers may have been a bit too much to be honest. But that was of course not his, but the script's fault. Other than that, you could feel the creativity was always there from start to finish, sometimes maybe even a bit too much as the film lost itself in dialogs that sounded overly important. But then again, this was another time and it says early on that basically everything Brecht says is quoted from him directly at some point, so I cannot even make a really negative statement here. I also liked how they included an audio tape with his voice at the very end, so we could hear him in real. Besides, the Nazi references, not too frequent, but enough to feel interesting made an impact to me especially as this is the era from German history that interests me the most I must say and I think it would have been wrong to shut this subject out completely. Of course, that is just my subjective opinion, others may have preferred this movie as void of political references as possible and honestly it would not have been considerably worse if they had taken this route. "They" means Lang in this case of course. All in all, a decent watch I'd say, one of the better German films of the year for sure, maybe not among the very best except on 2 or 3 occasions, but here and there it could have been shortened a bit I guess, especially in the second half. Nonetheless, there is really no reason for me to hesitate in giving this film a thumbs-up and positive recommendation, even though there is no denying this isn't a movie for everybody. If you care about the subject, about German (film) history, then go for it. Bay the way if you generally like films about the production of other films and that's how you could describe this movie, then my suggestion also is that you check out a rceent, but not new, movie about Michael Kohlhaas starring Robert Gwisdek. But we shall talk about this one on another occasions. That's it for Mackie Messer. Oh yeah, wait, by the way I would have loved to see more from Lotte Lenya as I think she was an amazingly interesting woman. Now that needed to be said still. Over and out.
Another important note here is that this is a musical during many occasions. Interesting for sure as German musicals really are a rarity these days in fact, European musicals you could even say. And most of the music scenes were fine. The highlight came already early on when we hear the famous Haifisch song, definitely my favorite from all numbers, But the rest was okay as well. Especially Król was really good at times and I did not expect that. Again here the negative hoghlight was Herzsprung as her opera-like singing felt pretty flat compared to other female singers, especially the one who plays Mackie's other wife when they meet at the prison house. Man that one had a great voice. All in all, an enjoyable movie I think overall, mostly thanks to Moretti, even if his super modern jailhouse cell with the bars being lasers may have been a bit too much to be honest. But that was of course not his, but the script's fault. Other than that, you could feel the creativity was always there from start to finish, sometimes maybe even a bit too much as the film lost itself in dialogs that sounded overly important. But then again, this was another time and it says early on that basically everything Brecht says is quoted from him directly at some point, so I cannot even make a really negative statement here. I also liked how they included an audio tape with his voice at the very end, so we could hear him in real. Besides, the Nazi references, not too frequent, but enough to feel interesting made an impact to me especially as this is the era from German history that interests me the most I must say and I think it would have been wrong to shut this subject out completely. Of course, that is just my subjective opinion, others may have preferred this movie as void of political references as possible and honestly it would not have been considerably worse if they had taken this route. "They" means Lang in this case of course. All in all, a decent watch I'd say, one of the better German films of the year for sure, maybe not among the very best except on 2 or 3 occasions, but here and there it could have been shortened a bit I guess, especially in the second half. Nonetheless, there is really no reason for me to hesitate in giving this film a thumbs-up and positive recommendation, even though there is no denying this isn't a movie for everybody. If you care about the subject, about German (film) history, then go for it. Bay the way if you generally like films about the production of other films and that's how you could describe this movie, then my suggestion also is that you check out a rceent, but not new, movie about Michael Kohlhaas starring Robert Gwisdek. But we shall talk about this one on another occasions. That's it for Mackie Messer. Oh yeah, wait, by the way I would have loved to see more from Lotte Lenya as I think she was an amazingly interesting woman. Now that needed to be said still. Over and out.
