# Comedian Harmonists (1997)

### reviewed by
Steve Rhodes

    THE HARMONISTS
    A film review by Steve Rhodes
    Copyright 1999 Steve Rhodes
    RATING (0 TO ****):  ** 1/2

Based on the true story of a singing troupe called the "Comedian Harmonists," THE HARMONISTS starts in Berlin in the late 1920s. Unemployment is soaring with 3 million out of work, but a failed actor with a vision, Harry Frommermann, decides his future lies as a musical "arranger," and singer. Ulrich Noethen, who looks like LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL's Roberto Benigni, plays Harry, who hires 4 other singers and a pianist. Together they will sing a high-pitched, 5-part harmony. Their innocent, happy tunes will later prove somewhat of an antidote to the terror that will grip the nation as the Nazis come to power.

With Joseph Vilsmaier's warm and radiant cinematography and Rolf Zehetbauer's handsome period sets, post-World War I Germany looks lovely and inviting. The relatively light-hearted story is structured into 3 parts. The first concerns the trials and tribulations of the group's formation, the second has them living in the lap of luxury, and the final act covers the oppression they faced because some of them were Jewish.

Harry's vision, based on the popularity of The Revelers, was for the group to sing as one, with no individual standing out. Their memorable songs are of a type that most of you may not have heard before. The lyrics are childlike and silly with occasional and obscure double-entendre -- one such double-entendre mentions "sprouting asparagus," for example. Told you, they were obscure.

The movie's best scenes are its simplest. One especially charming one has the group at an impromptu jam session, in which they do an instrumental blues song with their voices as the instruments. Their talents as singers are never in doubt even if their type of music may no longer have the universal appeal it did then.

The long middle section of the movie has them, along with their girlfriends, wives, and one-night-stands, living like kings in the best hotels in Europe -- their rapid rise to musical stardom being roughly akin to that of the Beatles. Overwhelmed by their wealth and fame, one of them remarks propitiously, "My God, what will happen next?" He was thinking positively, but the storm clouds were brewing on the continent

At first the group is just harassed as "sissies," but later the same brash, young men don brown shirts and begin to torture and terrorize anyone they don't like and they especially do not like Jews. With their millions of fans, the Comedian Harmonists figure, naively, that they will be immune from the anti-Semitism rampant in the land.

The movie, which walks a fine line during the first two acts between light musical comedy and history, commits itself in the somber last act to being a message movie. This last, schmaltzy part is where the film begins to fall apart. Carefree entertainment doesn't switch easily into serious melodrama. Try as it will, the movie just isn't able to shift gears properly, despite its good intentions. The result is an enjoyable, historical story with a ponderous and sappy SOUND OF MUSIC-style ending. Whatever you do, don't leave before the epilogue that reveals what happened to the members of the group as well as to their spouses and lovers.

THE HARMONISTS runs 1:55.. The film is in German with English subtitles. It is not rated but would be an R for brief nudity, sexuality, drug usage and mature themes and would be fine for teenagers.

Email: Steve.Rhodes@InternetReviews.com Web: www.InternetReviews.com

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