The Good German

Plot synopsis:
Jacob "Jake" Geismer (George Clooney), an American war correspondent for The New Republic, returns to Berlin during the Potsdam negotiations between the Allied powers after World War II was over in Europe (May 1945) but before hostilities ended in Asia (August 1945). Jacob witnesses his murdered driver, a black-marketeering American soldier named Tully (Tobey Maguire), being fished from a river eddy, suspiciously adjacent to the Potsdam conference grounds. The corpse is discovered to be in possession of 50,000 German reichsmarks — which are later revealed to have been printed by the U.S occupying forces.
Geismer becomes entwined in both the mystery of his murdered driver and the clandestine search by both Soviet and American forces for the missing German Emil Brandt (the title character, played by Christian Oliver). He becomes more involved in both mysteries as his investigation intersects with his search for Lena Brandt (Cate Blanchett), a Jew — and Emil's wife — with whom Geismer had been in a relationship prior to the war. Lena has survived the Holocaust by doing "what she had to" to stay alive — early in the film this is assumed to be prostitution, but Lena, in reality, holds a darker secret of complicity and guilt.
In the film, Emil Brandt is a former SS officer who had been the secretary of Franz Bettmann, Chief Production Engineer of the V-2 rocket at concentration camp Mittelbau-Dora/Mittelwerk. (Bettmann is only a minor character in the film; he appears to be based on the real Arthur Rudolph.) The Soviets, the Americans, and the British all try to get hold of Emil Brandt, for different reasons. The Americans have already detained Bettmann in a safehouse and intend to transport him to the U.S. as part of their Operation Overcast/Paperclip to have him work on their own rocket program (cf. Wernher von Braun). In the film, they are fully aware of Bettmann's role at Camp Dora and know about the slave labor used in the V-2 program, but want to cover up his involvement (because they could not lawfully employ a known war criminal), which includes eliminating Emil Brandt, whose testimony or written notes would prevent their whitewashing of Bettmann.
Geismer, in his attempts to get his former lover, Lena, out of Berlin, gets more and more involved in the search for Emil Brandt. At one point, Lena gives Emil's notes on Camp Dora to Geismer. When Lena and Geismer try to hand Emil Brandt over to the American prosecutor charged with handling war crimes cases, they are intercepted by the American authorities who want to protect Bettmann, and Brandt is murdered. But Geismer still has Brandt's notebooks, which he now trades in to the war crimes investigators of the U.S. Army (who have turned out to be in league with the other American authorities - the ones who want to keep that evidence confidential to whitewash Bettmann) in exchange for a Persilschein (a denazification document) and a visa for Lena, such that she can leave Germany.
Through a minor character of a Jewish owner of a pawn shop who survived the Holocaust with his legs amputated, the film refers to the Nazi human experimentation, in particular to bone transplantation experiments as they were done at the Ravensbrück concentration camp.

Tags: neo noir, murder, violence, intrigue, flashback, historical

Review:
The story is a joke and jumps around all over the place making little sense most of the time, the dialogue is written to match which is to say it's horrible, and even the cinematography that was talked about so much looks little like classic films from the 40s and instead just looks like a generic modern film with some stock footage thrown in.It's one of those films that while watching you just have to wonder why it was even made and how anyone involved thought they were making anything worth while.
Though generally the acting was of the high quality you'd expect from such a sterling cast, it's difficult to empathise with their characters plights given the lack of suspense or melodrama.Overall the experiment fails to deliver anything other than a beautifully shot but unengaging film.Very disappointing..
Cate Blanchett is okay although she has certainly been better elsewhere, but George Clooney is arch and affected while Tobey Maguire, usually a fine actor when properly cast is completely miscast, out of his depth and awful.
With its stylistic nods to 40's noir thrillers like "Notorious", "The Third Man", "Gilda" and at the end, "Casablanca", "The Good German" aims high but ultimately falls flat under the weight of an incomprehensible plot peopled by too many characters.
A clever look: imitation vintage B-movie in black and white; Steven Soderbergh's appropriate, artful gimmick for this film set in Berlin in the immediate aftermath of WWII.Cate Blanchett turns in an apt theatrical performance given "The Bad German's" archly retro conceit.
The cast is excellent: George Clooney is the solid American we know from old movies: not glamorous, not necessarily heroic, but good; Tobey Maguire turns the boy soldier cliché upside down.
Here he attempts to make a classic Hollywood film, reminiscent of The Third Man and Casablanca, by mimicking, or at least trying to mimic, the classical style of cinematography, by scratching the negative, having the dialogue recorded on mono (I think), and having the actors deliver performances along the lines of the studio days.
For a film that has so much devotion to being a 40s recreation or homage, and in spite of another mesmerising performance from the very talented Cate Blanchett, it is also a mystery as to why it is not more of a runaway success.Employing the grainy black-and-white look of Good Night and Good Luck, only more so, The Good German is a formal exercise in original 40s technique.
Jake mentions, "the good old days - when you could tell who was the bad guy by who was shooting at you." But, although the line could have come out of the mouth of Bogart, it refers to a period and style of film-making that is a world away from what this tries to be.Lena (Cate Blanchett) is a mystery, and the film is worth seeing for this magnificent, towering performance, that is also a study in emotional complexity.
It should also be remembered that this movie had a very limited release both sides of the pond which considering has an Oscar winning director and three big names in the cast is not a good sign , so I went in with fairly low expectations Perhaps my low expectations worked in the film's favour because it's a very effective film noir/ political thriller .
You'll be left scratching your head wondering why sex and bad language has been included Still it's a minor complaint and one that doesn't destroy the movie which has a plot and if you had no idea that Cate Blanchett has been cast as Lena Brandt then you'd genuinely believe that her character was played by a European actress .
Filmed in black and white but very grainy as though it were an old, old copy of a movie; hard to look at much of the time; over-scored to the point of silliness sometimes; performed very flat and one dimensionally -- an attempt at a style perhaps, but it all sounds like Johnny one-note.
The Good German hides behind an aura of mystery which quickly crumbles away as one unlikely twist starts following hot at the heels of another one, eventually testing the viewer's willingness to suspend his disbelief.***SPOILER***: Personally, my biggest disappointment was realising that the entire movie rested upon a very unlikely premise: that of an SS Officer having been married to a Jewish woman.
***END OF SPOILER*** The Good German is apparently based upon true events, but the character played by Cate Blanchett was actually a combination of two real women: a Jewish one and an Aryan, an SS Officer's wife.
After all, what's not to like about a Soderbergh recreation of a 1940's production, using original equipment from that decade, shooting in a style reminiscent of "Casablanca" and having George Clooney and Cate Blanchett deliver lines like Bogart and Dietrich.
The performances are bad (with the exception of Blanchett who is always worth watching), the script doesn't really work, the story isn't compelling, and the world that is set up in the film isn't consistent.
They even name Clooney's character "Jake" (Jake Gittes was the detective in "Chinatown")Despite the use of black and white, 1940's lenses, old style music, old style framing and integrated footage from 1945 Berlin shot by Frank Capra among others, "The Good German" is a failure, but a good attempt.Clooney seems to be walking through his part as the film's star, a war correspondent who's in Berlin to cover the Potsdam conference but is actually just looking for his old girlfriend.
People who hate Clooney (I don't) might like "the Good German" for the fact he gets beat up not once, not twice but three times in this film (once even by the tiny McGuire!) while others might like the attempt at giving this film an old time look.
The Good German has George Clooney, Cate Blanchett and Tobey Maguire (Spiderman).
This was enough for me to choose to see this movie.The story is about an American military journalist Jacob (George Clooney) who comes to Berlin after the World War II and gets entangled in a mystery of Lena Brandt (Cate Blanchett), her husband Emil Brandt, and her lover Patrick (Tobey Maguire).
I think the reason the two sides fail to meet is simply down to the story being too familiar or well worn; with the visual experimentation and continual references to American and European post-war melodrama getting in the way of the story, while the very characteristics of the plot make the visuals seems somewhat shallow and ostentatious.It's not a bad film, but clearly this is the kind of work that carries with it an incredibly limited appeal; with the continual pretensions to classic films like Casablanca (1942) and The Third Man (1949), combined with the cinematic design that aims to recreate the look and feel of the films of that particular era - albeit, juxtaposed with harsher, twenty-first century preoccupations such as violence, sex and incredibly bad language - no doubt turning a lot of people off before the story has even had a chance to draw us in.
I guess that the studios let guys who have raked in millions for them occasionally use their talents and resources to attempt the odd piece of high art at commercial risk.This movie lacks color, pyro-technics, a pop music soundtrack, in your face sex, over the top explicit gore, hidden product placement, feel good, catchy/gimmicky lines, trendiness, relentless action and a happy ending.
On recent years,we have seen movies which try to emulate the visual or narrative style of past decades.They started as creative exercises made by cult directors to specialized audiences but now we can see many famous or acclaimed filmmakers doing the same for a massive public like Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez with Grindhouse or Steven Soderbergh with The Good German which is a great tribute to the film-noir in the 40s.In spite of having some false moves in his career(like Erin Brockovich or Ocean's Twelve),I admire the way in which Soderbergh orchestrates his career.He does some major Hollywood movies in order to win some economical and creative credibility to endorse his experimental movies which are always interesting and fun(like Solaris or Full Frontal).The Good German is one of that experiments.The film has an excellent story which has some ingenious things and the visual spectacle is amazing.The film has villains(the Nazis)and heroes(the North American people).But when the film advances we can see the morality of both groups is not too different.So,this film also makes us think and I think that's great.George Clooney and Cate Blanchett are excellent on their roles.Tobey Maguire's performance did not convince me too much and that's the only fail I found on this movie.The Good German is a fascinating experiment and a great tribute to film-noir..
In the case of one scene at the end he has lifted the whole setting from "Casablanca", and we have some underground stuff reminiscent of "The Third Man".Cate Blanchette as Lena the femme fatale is certainly channeling Marlene Dietrich but George Clooney is no Humphrey Bogart or Clark Gable.
The "film noir" of the 40's will defines its all aesthetically codes (that means we'll have a black and white movie with a certain mannerism in the way actors play, different points of view in off voices, that every scenes are shoot in LA studio, and that the script will suffer from all kind of useless complications...) and all its themes (we'll see the disillusion of an idealist character in front of a corrupt world, a femme fatal, that manipulates the men who try to save her, etc...).This is quite amusing for a little while but it rapidly becomes a little boring, when the experimental concept of the movie is understood .
Trouble is, nobody makes movies like this anymore either, so difficult is it to find dialogue that can replicate an idealism and world weariness that Bogey and Bergman easily did.Steven Soderbergh uses all authentic techniques to recreate the look of The Third Man and Casablanca, among many 40's noirish post-war intrigue films.
In fact the movie is devoid of any feeling except "My God what an awful time we're all having!" Cate Blanchett is quite good, seeming a bit like Marlene Dietrich in certain close-ups.
Tobey Maguire is cast against type and having a good time.If you're looking to have some fun at this movie, you can start counting the 1940s film conventions Soderbergh experiments with.
And this makes The Good German look like as if it is trying to be a black and white classic from old times and not an original in its own account.
It makes the audience remember those other movies and you automatically associate The Good German with those other movies (that is, if you have seen them).George Clooney plays an American officer Captain Jake who comes to post-war Germany and runs into his old flame Lena Brandt (Cate Blanchett).
It's hard to judge the film on its own merits when so much of it borrows from other films, from the soft focus shots of Cate Blanchett to the dialogue 'you should never have come back to Berlin'.Clooney is as watchable as ever, good solid performance but you can't help but feel he's doing Soderberg a favour.
That is the key question running throughout the film.Fans of classic film - those who love Casablanca, The Third Man, or A Foreign Affair - will appreciate the references to those films in the look and feel of this one.Fans of George Clooney and Cate Blanchett will be thrilled at their performance, especially Blanchett's.
Cate Blachett makes the whole movie, while George Clooney is a dogooder plagued by curiosity and who will play the roles of both narrator and favourite pawn.The subject is rather intricate, it swirls around the interests of jews, Germans, nazi-hunters, SS, Russians, Americans and George Clooney (as a country of his own :)) The film does tend to get tedious at times, while getting intense and confusing next, but if you have the mood to watch a film that is in the same time based on a novel (so no too idiotic Hollywood script), filmed in a somewhat innovative way (by copying very old ways, hmm), acted rather well and that also has a point, some extra information about those times that you won't find in history books, then this is the film for you..
For some reason I did not feel that George Clooney, (John Geismer) belonged in this role, he just said his lines and did what was expected of him and that was that as far as his performance.On the other hand, Cate Blanchett, (Lena Brandt) put herself in her role as a woman who had to keep alive under the Nazi rule in Berlin and then when Germany was divided with Russia it became even harder for her to leave Germany Her former lover years ago was John Geismer, who once again started a relationship even though he found out her husband was still alive and was a scientist who worked on the rockets that bombed London England during WW II.
Here we have, Jack Thompson as Congressman Breimer, John Roeder who plays the General and George Clooney as Jake Geismer, with Tobey Maguire as corporal Tully and finally Cate Blanchett as Lena Brandt.
Soderbergh and Attansio are clearly attempting to create some kind of revisionist post-modern version of 'Casablanca', making the point that war and its aftermath are ugly and morally ambiguous, highlighting the inherent dishonesty in the old-fashioned feel-good war movies.
Steven Soderberg attempts to re-imagine the iconic noir films of the 1940's with "The Good German." With the old fashioned music score from Thomas Newman and the evocative black-and-white cinematography, he scores in spades.
Then in 2006 he picks his stars back up and makes The Good German with George Clooney and Cate Blanchett.
The Good German is essentially an homage to classic film noir and war time thrillers.
When I heard about a modern past-war movie that would settle in destroyed and desperate Germany that was turned in intense black and white images and would include actors like George Clooney, I was really looking forward to this movie.
Soderbergh's visuals did not strike me in any kind of impressive way, & his closeups were largely successful due to having a couple very gifted faces to work with, in Clooney, & Blanchett.The most positive credit should go to Cate Blanchett for doing what she constantly does, in taking on a role that I never seem to think she fits in, & then turning out a very canny & poignant performance in it, earning her place in the unsuited part, by only moments into her first appearance.Overall, it's a worthwhile attempt, & not a bad view, for black & white fans, on a bored rainy day, but doesn't impress like some of the more well known war dramas, & certainly doesn't hold a candle to original film noir, or even to some other homages to it, like "The Man Who Wasn't There".
The later movie was a collaboration between Orson Welles and the director Carol Reed, and I would recommend the viewer of The Good German to also see The Third Man.Cate Blanchett's acting in this film is, as always, outstanding.
As a huge fan of classic film noir from the 40's I was very eager to see a new homage to that timeless era.Oscar winning director Steven Soderbergh and Oscar winning actor George Clooney team up yet again (Out of Sight, Ocean's Trilogy) and put their spin on the black and white character driven yarns of the old movie days.I have to say that I really enjoyed it although it was certainly not a great film.
All of the Allied forces currently in the city have their own separate sector and agendas, as we quickly find out.George Clooney plays a military journalist who just set down in Berlin and who quickly stumbles upon a juicy story which ends up directly involving him, a down on her luck (or so it seems) German dame, with a past, played by Cate Blanchett, and his driver (the dame's boyfriend) played by a miscast Tobey Maguire.As you may assume, since it takes after old school film noir, there are plenty of twists and turns involving the main trio of characters and a murder investigation on the eve of the Potsdam Conference which may shake the new hope of peace down to it's feet.
I liked the way it was made and the way it looked and how I felt watching it, more than the plot of the film itself which was shaky at times but still entertaining overall.All in all, not a film homage to the likes of "Grindhouse" but still a lot of fun for those fans of film noir and classic movie making.7/10.
***SPOILERS***You get a headache watching "The Good German" not just because of its confusing and mindless story but worst of all its super-high contrast and at the same time overly washed out black and white photography, this gives what's meant by film-noir a whole new meaning.
Jake Geismer, George Clooney, is sent by his news agency to war-torn and divided Berlin to report on it.Geismer getting a young GI to drive him around the city later finds out that his driver Cpl.Patrick Tully, Tobey McGuire, is having an affair with his old flame back in the prewar days Lena Brandt, Cate Blanchett.
So as a film noir project, this is a good one.The story itself is at times interesting, but I often found myself losing a bit interest.
Soderbergh's homage to Casablanca and The Third Man. Steven Soderbergh attempts to recapture 1945 Hollywood with the use of black and white film, studio sets, dramatic music, and camera techniques used back then in "The Good German," a 2006 film starring George Clooney, Cate Blanchett and Jeff Bridges.In 1945, a journalist, Jake Geismer, arrives to cover the Potsdam conference.