Mein bester Feind

There can be no doubt that this film is wonderfully scripted, brilliantly acted and very skillfully directed. It is pacey, exciting and at times even amusing. On those grounds it should definitely be given a fair viewing.

A Jewish art dealer in Vienna has inherited a Michealangelo masterpiece that was stolen from the Vatican 400 years before. Mussolini wants it back and the Nazi government needs to appease him for Italian military support. The plot revolves around the complex struggle by the Germans to seize the painting and the Jewish family to keep it.

Of course the plot is absurd. So many really great masterpieces had been seized across Europe by 1942 that a single piece would hardly attract so much effort. Besides which Italian military support was probably not worth it anyway and the attention given by the High Command to this issue is utterly ridiculous.

Interesting also is that the justification of the dealer and his family to keep this stolen treasure is never questioned. We are led to feel total sympathy for their efforts to keep it.

But there is something much more sinister behind this production. As a elderly German who personally knew so many of the character types involved in the drama I was left deeply saddened that 70 years on we are still portraying all Germans as nasty maniacs and all Jews as beyond reproach. Not a single German in this film has any positive characteristics at all. They are all without exception portrayed as being either brutal, heartless, self seeking, incompetent or simply stupid. In fact many of them are given all of these faults. And to balance this not a single Jewish character is given any negative characteristics at all. They are all without exception portrayed as being honorable, clever, caring, compassionate and socially concerned. Indeed most of them are given all these attributes.

I realize that many readers who accept the factual absurdity of this approach will feel it either acceptable artistic license (on the grounds that Nazism was so bad that even lies are justified) or that it's just a bit of fun and it doesn't really matter.

Of course were this to be an isolated example of such distortion I wouldn't waste my time writing this review. But it isn't. This particular handling of the Nazi-Jewish conflict is sadly copied in literally dozens of major productions made each year to perpetuate sympathy towards the Jews and hatred of the Germans. Accordingly whole generations have grown up who seriously believe that ALL wartime Germans were bad and all supported Nazism. But this was simply not true. Hitler was never elected with overall majority support and effectively staged a clever Coup d'Etat to seize power over a nation that wasn't even his.

If only such dramas were balanced enough to show this.

This is a movie playing in the second World War, but it is not about the second World War. If you really want to watch a(nother) movie about how evil Nazis have been there a really good ones, but this one will possibly disappoint you.

However this movie is great anyways. It is a drama that isn't as depressing as many others out there, but still manages to not travesty the whole thing. It's a bit hard to describe the movies, because with every genre describing it would sound like a stereotype. They may describe what you'll see if you watch this movie, but be assured it is most likely lighter and more enjoyable than you might think.

One should watch this movie for enjoyment, but please don't expect a long lasting mood coming from this one. Still I recommend it.

this movie faithfully and loyally portrayed how a rich Jewish family and a great friendship suddenly turned bad after the crazy Hitler came into power. the things that affected me deeply is that when lives hung dangerously unpredictable before and when the big catastrophe happened, rich and poor people still naively hold their earthly properties so dearly and would have tried every way to not let go. they didn't know when the disaster strikes, it's without prejudice and discrimination, nothing would be more important than your life. precious artworks such as great paintings, unless they could buy you a pathway to safety and freedom, they would be nothing but burdens that only blocked your passage to freedom.

i've seen those documentary films about Jewish people rounded up and forced unto the one way death trains to concentration camps, they were still burdened themselves with carry-on luggage, suitcases, handbags....they were still so naively believed that those things could ensure them a more comfortable trip, those stuff could make them feel more confident that they still owned something absolutely necessary in their lives. but they didn't know that their lives were cliffhanging on the upcoming elimination of the gas chambers.

a famous Greek painting was the focus of this dark movie, and i just felt so ridiculous to see how the Nazis tried to get the genuine one back to their hands.

suppose the world your live in suddenly comes to an end, owning a painting or a diamond, or a great mansion, or a huge saving and checking account and so on, would be totally meaningless. when world ends, only one big NADA would exist, nothing else.

and this movie could teach you a lot about the real value of property ownership.

The story line was entertaining for the full 109 minutes, with several unexpected turns to keep us awake. The film initially shows a short scene of an airplane that was shot, leaving only a few survivors. It immediately jumps back to what happened before, and returns half way to pick up the story after the plane crash. Regardless, the story line remains clear and interesting throughout, maybe even thanks to this flashback and forward.

I saw this film at the 2011 Berlinale filmfestival on a Sunday morning as part of a large (over 1,500) audience. I can only assume that the majority was of German origin. I saw a cross section of nearly all ages present, maybe except people old enough to have actually lived during World War II. Nevertheless, a considerable part of the audience would have heard their fair share about this dark part of German history. Regardless of that being the main topic, all present were apparently enjoying what was shown on the screen.

The scenario scratches the surface of the well-known good versus bad choices one can make to advance a career, or conversely to keep principles upright and refusing to go along with the common trends. I consider it logical that this film does not take a vigorous stand, being intended for general viewing, but still presenting the dilemma's in a compelling way.

In conclusion I find that the film makers did a good job, by keeping the end product attractive for a broad public, and simultaneously not trying to evade the underlying problems of choices that everyone makes in a lifetime. After all, it is easy for us to judge those choices as bad. Upcoming Nazism before the World War II involved many such situations, and thus offers an infinite source of subjects for films like this one.

However, these dilemma's are an inherent part of a broader issue. This is confined to neither the 1930-1945 time frame nor to Germany. I saw at least 5 other films that revolved around similar situations, all of them released in the last 12 months, based on recent developments in very different countries and regimes.

Other reviewers of this film mention the chore of listening to the German language while reading subtitles, but believe me, it could be a lot worse. My copy of this dvd was dubbed rather than subtitled, and the uninspired American voices emanating from the mouths of the actors diminished the believability of this WWII drama. For a while, it was unintentionally funny to hear Victor Kaufmann's parents, Hannah and Jakob, conversing in a West Texas drawl, but the Nazi guards, who sounded a lot like Charley Sheen, were not very convincing. My dvd was marked as an IFC film marketed by Phase 4 Films. Try to avoid that label like the plague. The Trailer for My Best Enemy, available on this IMBD website, offers the original German language with subtitles, and provides us with a glimpse of what looks like a pretty exciting story, if one can just find a copy that's free of dubbing.