The Counterfeiters
The Counterfeiters is an engaging and well-told story with pretty good acting, cinematography, and editing. It does a good job being simultaneously intimate and encompassing as well as tender but cruel. It has sad parts but does not try to be a tear-jerker.
Some parts of the plot seem implausible (such as the discovery of one inmate's children's passport photos--coincidentally together). In one case where an inmate receives a letter about his wife's death, it seems almost impossible and unnecessary for the plot even as the writer apparently chose to add dramatic tension. Finally, I was curious that the characters, many of them from different areas of the diaspora, did not speak more Yiddish when they were alone together. For many of them, it would have been their first language.
Holocaust films blanch at the idea of portraying the event as happy and therefore choose muted tones or even black and white. The desaturation in this film, however, seemed a little overdone and created a sense of artifice that distracted from that in the film and brings attention to the artifice of the film. This distracts from the viewer's emotional investment in the film or its characters. I am not saying that it should have been done in the colors of, say, The Constant Gardener, but perhaps the limit has been reached. Also, there was one place in the barrack yard where the hand-held camera effect and shaky zooming detracted rather than added to the look of the film.
Still, The Counterfeiters is definitely well-made and certainly worth seeing.
Some parts of the plot seem implausible (such as the discovery of one inmate's children's passport photos--coincidentally together). In one case where an inmate receives a letter about his wife's death, it seems almost impossible and unnecessary for the plot even as the writer apparently chose to add dramatic tension. Finally, I was curious that the characters, many of them from different areas of the diaspora, did not speak more Yiddish when they were alone together. For many of them, it would have been their first language.
Holocaust films blanch at the idea of portraying the event as happy and therefore choose muted tones or even black and white. The desaturation in this film, however, seemed a little overdone and created a sense of artifice that distracted from that in the film and brings attention to the artifice of the film. This distracts from the viewer's emotional investment in the film or its characters. I am not saying that it should have been done in the colors of, say, The Constant Gardener, but perhaps the limit has been reached. Also, there was one place in the barrack yard where the hand-held camera effect and shaky zooming detracted rather than added to the look of the film.
Still, The Counterfeiters is definitely well-made and certainly worth seeing.
posted by Ryan at 9:08 AM
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