MEIN BESTER FEIND (MY BEST ENEMY)

Germany, 2010, 109 minutes, Colour.
Moritz Bleibtreu, Georg Friedrich, Ursula Strauss, Marthe Keller, Udo Samel.
Directed by Wolfgang Murnberger.

Audiences may be expecting a serious look at the Third Reich and anti-Semitism. Well, it is but better to suggest first, Jack Higgins, The Eagle Has Landed and those entertaining adventures and action novels which dramatise what might have been.

This one has at its centre a Michelangelo sketch of Moses stolen from the Vatican in the 16th century and now in possession of a Jewish gallery owner in Vienna. It is 1938. The SS arrive to confiscate the sketch and send the family to the concentration camps. As the war goes on, the ideas is to strengthen the axis alliance with Mussolini, to consolidate the agreement with the gift to Italy of the sketch.

But, their copy is a copy, a fake, and the Italian delegation for protocols walks out. Only a short time to recover the sketch! The Kaufman family has been interned. The son of the Kaufman’s maid who grew up as part of the family is now proving himself as an SS officer, complicit in the confiscation and the imprisonment of the family. He is commissioned to find the Kaufman son and get the sketch in time for Hitler’s meeting with Mussolini.

There are some good twists half way through as the tables are turned with Rudi, the SS friend, and Viktor the internee, in control. There is some Chaplinesque mockery of the Third Reich. And there is quite a nice twist at the end with a Hitchcockian McGuffin? suitcase (which many will see coming, though it is entertaining nonetheless).

An entertaining show rather than history. Moritz Bleibtreu stars as Viktor. Georg Friedrich is Rudi and Marthe Keller has a good role as Viktor’s mother. The (mainly paying) audience at the Friedrichstadt Palast screening not only applauded but cheered vigorously at the table-turning at the end.

1. The popularity of World War Two films? The Third Reich? Jewish persecution?

2. The traditions of this kind of film, realism? This film as based on a novel, speculation?

3. Entertaining, presupposing the horror of the Third Reich, World War Two and the Holocaust?

4. Vienna in 1938, the presentation of the city, buildings and streets, vehicles? Atmosphere of the times? The art gallery? The villa? Police stations? The anti-Semitism and the boys painting stars on shops, the police chasing, riots? The arresting of the Jews?

5. The glimpse of the concentration camps?

6. The opening with the crash? The survivors? The setting up of the story – and the reprise of the crash? The hut, the camp, the SS offices, Berlin, the Third Reich?

7. The partisans, Poland, shooting straight up at the plane, the crash? The flashback and the return?

8. The Kaufmanns, their wealth, the gallery in Vienna, Hitler closing the gallery in Nuremberg? The star being painted on the window, Victor and Rudi and the fight, in prison? Victor and Rudi and the bonds between them, the long absence of Rudi? His place in the household? The police, Jakob Kaufmann’s connections, getting his son out? The glimpse of Rudi and the SS? The artist, the show, the journalist asking the questions about the authenticity of the Michelangelo sketch and its locations? Jakob Kaufmann and his evasive answers? Victor showing Rudi the sketch? The secret room?

9. The troops, politics in Austria 1938, the troops at the border? Arrests? Rudi and his changing into the Nazi uniform? His superiors and their relying on him?

10. The speculation of the Mussolini visit, the protocol arguments, the axis bond, the declaration that the Michelangelo was a fake, the repercussions? Hitler and his ambitions, wanting the axis for the war, the officials and their demands, the underlings, Rudi and his boss and their being embarrassed, the time limit to find the authentic sketch? Going to the concentration camp, Victor, hearing the news of his father’s death, his father’s heroism and support of those in the camps? His information for Victor – and its later realisation? The setting up of the plan to get the sketch back, the information, the deals, the flight?

11. The crash, Victor rescuing Rudi, the humanity in dragging him to safety? The idea of changing clothes – the twist and his being dressed in the Nazi uniform for the soldiers? Declaring Rudi was Kaufmann? Rudi and his denials? Victor and his bearing, imitating the SS? The ironic circumstances, the circumcision and Rudi’s illness, the sitting on the chair, the suspicious soldier, taking the photo of Victor beating Rudi – and its later coming to light for Victor’s identification after the war? The plan?

12. Lena, her love for Victor, at the gallery opening, the signing over of all the property to Lena? Her staying on at the villa, engaged to Rudi? Her arrival, her choice to identify Victor or not, her love for Victor, helping him? Sending the telegram to the artist in Switzerland, the Red Cross? Her meeting Hannah, taking her on the train? The travel, the border, the arrest, the phone call to Victor? There being no painting in Zurich?

13. The truth, the officer realising he was an idiot, the telegram as revealing what had happened? The plane diverted to Vienna? Going back to the villa, the search, Rudi realising that the sketch was in his case? The unnecessary search, Mussolini dead? Rudi hedging his bets about the outcome of the war? Getting Victor to sign over all his possessions to Rudi?

14. The post-war situation, Vienna, Victor identifying himself, the revelation of the photo in the SS uniform? His being in the camp? Being reunited with his mother?

15. The auction, the elite gathering, Rudi and his ambitions? Victor’s mother, her memories of her husband, the life at the villa, love for her son, her experience in the camp? Lena and her support? Rudi and his offering compensation, Victor asking for the portrait of his father as a gift? The declaration of the sketch as a fake? The revelation that it was hidden in the father’s portrait?

16. The impact for German audiences, their history, anti-Semitism, fanaticism? For world audiences? Audience enjoyment of Rudi’s final comeuppance and the Kaufmanns’ victory?