Tuesday, January 8, 2013

My Best Enemy (Mein bester Feind - 2011)

While many around me at the Jewish Film Festival laughed a lot, I did only a little at this holocaust story about an Austrian Jew and a Nazi whose lives are intertwined. Moritz Bleibtreu (last blogged in Soul Kitchen) stars as the Jew and Marthe Keller (Golden Globe nomination for Marathon Man (1976) and much more) plays his mother. Paul Hengge (his first of 27 writing credits was in 1965) and director Wolfgang Murnberger (born in 1960, he has 36 directing credits) adapted Hengge's novel. At least I think the novel came first. This interview with the director suggests otherwise.

There are some funny moments and the rest of my audience seemed to love it. Because of the movie's limited release there haven't been many reviews, but those I've read agree with me--it can't commit to being a comedy or tragedy (here is a spoiler-filled review from The Hollywood Reporter). Available now on DVD.

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