GERMAN FILM FESTIVAL 2023

GERMAN FILM FESTIVAL 2023 REVIEWED BY GREG KING 

LAST UPDATED MAY 5, 2023 

A THOUSAND LIES. 

Opening the festival this year is A Thousand Lies, the latest film from Michael “Bully” Herbig, whose Balloon opened the festival a couple of years ago. This timely, ripped from the headlines drama explores the ethics of journalism, corporate politics and the decline of print journalism in an era of social media and the Internet. It has been loosely inspired by a scandal that rocked Germany in 2018 when it was discovered that now disgraced journalist Claas Relotius, who worked for the prestigious publication Der Spiegel, had fabricated many of his news stories. A Thousand Lines opens with images of Donald Trump decrying “fake news”, a term he used to discredit any news stories he disliked. We then meet Relotius’ fictional counterpart, Lars Bogenius (Jonas Nay), a rising star amongst German journalists whose stories for Chronik have attracted lots of accolades and favourable attention. His articles include human interest stories about a young boy in Aleppo whose graffiti on a wall was supposedly the spark for the on-going war in Syria and an exclusive interview with the adoptive parents of an NFL footballer who was the first to take the knee in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. The only problem is that they were all made up. Lars’ latest story about the Border Wolves, an American vigilante group patrolling the US/Mexico border in Arizona attracts the attention of freelance journalist Juan Romero (Elyas M’Barek), who digs away at numerous inconsistencies in the story. But as Bogenius’s stories win awards and attract sponsorship and readership the magazine’s management turn a blind eye to Romero’s suspicions. His revelations eventually lead to one of the biggest journalism scandals in Germany and the ruin of many reputations. Herbig draws a strong visual contrast between his two central characters – Bogenius is calm, confident, assured, handsome and articulate and well-dressed, but his whole life is based on a lie, while Romero is frazzled and highly strung, a family man with a working wife and four young children and his job is often a distraction from his domestic responsibilities. A Thousand Lies shares many similarities to Billy Ray’s 2003 biographical drama Shattered Glass that starred Hayden Christensen as a journalist who fabricated his stories, but Herbig’s film is more visually interesting as he and his cinematographer uses a variety of colour palettes and stylistic flourishes to imbue the story with a sense of energy. Unfortunately, Herbig’s film is not as strong a condemnation as one might have hoped for, and ultimately is only a moderately engaging drama. 

SISI AND I  

Sisi And I (Sisi und Ich) is the latest in a string of movies and tv movies exploring the life of Empress Elisabeth of Austria. This German production is a reimagining of the last few years in her life and it shares a few similarities with the recent Corsage, although this film pales in comparison as it lacks Marie Kreutzer’s bolder vision and style. Here Elisabeth is played by Susanne Wolff, and she is largely seen through the eyes of her latest lady in waiting, the Countess Irma von Sztaray (Sandra Huller), a middle-aged spinster from Hungary, who served the Empress until her death in 1808. Elisabeth is depicted as a more radical woman with a modern sensibility, but she is also shown as a flawed person – vain and capricious. Irma joins Sisi on the island of Corfu where she is living in a commune, and then follows her on a world trip that takes the pair to Algeria, and England where Sisi has a brief but torrid affair with a handsome stable hand Smythe (Tom Rhys-Harries). We also get to see Irma herself undergo something of a transformation, from a frumpy woman to someone who is more worldly. The film has been directed by Frauke Finsterwalder, and as with Corsage she gives this period piece something of a contemporary flavour with a modern sounding and anachronistic soundtrack primarily featuring songs about heartaches and heartbreaks. The film looks great with some fabulous costumes and production design, and it has been nicely shot by cinematographer Thomas W Kiennast who gives us some evocative imagery. However, the film lacks any real depth or insight into the characters and is episodic in nature. And at over two hours the pacing is uneven and the film drags at times. The central performances of Wolff and Huller are strong. Sisi is a complex character and Wolff obviously had a lot of fun playing her and bringing her many contradictions and her erratic behaviour to life.  

GERMAN FILM FESTIVAL 2023 Review by Greg King Film Reviews.