"Die Fälscher": Oscar, the Genre Question, and a Chance for Austria

A few weeks ago, Austrian Film Die Fälscher (The Counterfeiters) won the award for Best Foreign Film at the Oscars. I hadn't seen any of the nominees, but was understandably happy to witness an extremely public triumph of German-language cinema (though I understand there was a bit of an uproar over the exclusion of the Romanian film 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days, among others, from the nominees).

I jumped on the opportunity to see the film last week at the Lincoln Plaza Cinema in New York City, and was surprised by what I saw.

Sony Pictures Classics summarizes their film here.

SPC provides a detailed and accurate summary, yet it is one that nearly obviates viewing of the film. Stefan Ruzowitzky's film, though it brings Operation Bernhard to light for the viewing public, fails to offer anything new to the way the Holocaust is portrayed and thought about on film. The color scheme is blue and gray, washed out -- a technique many of my colleagues also found troublesome in Das Leben der Anderen. The youngest, sickest, most sympathetic inmate is shot by a guard for "being contagious" mere seconds before his medicines arrive (emphasis on the tragic irony). The Nazi superintendent who appears to be helping the inmates turns out to be not so nice and steals thousands of counterfeit dollars for his personal use (Never trust a Nazi). Sally, the main character, finds himself on the verge of a new life in Monte Carlo after the war, briefcase full of the money he himself falsified, and gambles it away on purpose out of guilt. I was not surprised or turned thoughtful by any of these or countless other moments.

The film opens and closes with the Monte Carlo scenes, removing any suspense we might have had during the touch-and-go Sachsenhausen scenes regarding Sally's future. The final moments especially contain what the New York Times acidly -- and accurately -- deems a "queasy touch of romanticism." The ironic one-liner as final line, which I thought worked well for Das Leben der Anderen, here left me with a bad taste in my mouth. "All that money!" gasps Sally's new love interest after he has thrown away thousands at roulette as casino guests read papers with the headline "La guerre est fin!"

"That's alright," Sally assures her. "We can always make more."

Much of my discomfort and disappointment comes, I suspect, from a personal ambivalence toward the development of what the New York Times review acknowledges as the "Holocaust genre." Indeed, one of the first colleagues I spoke with about the film responded to my negative review by saying perhaps we should just look at it as a genre, like we would at a Western. This seems inescapable with Die Fälscher, but it is only an inevitability, not an excuse or a solution. The teaching of the Holocaust to middle-, high-school, and college students as an independent and mythically large and tragic event risks perpetuating the idea that it could never happen again. It is a weighty responsibility to impart the importance and gravity of such an event without simplifying it, making it somehow singular. In the same way, the development of an entertainment genre around a historical genocide mythologizes the tragedy and makes it nothing more than a collection of tropes. Films about the Holocaust are bound to become less effective and and less useful, and audiences less understanding and less responsive.

Die Fälscher was well made as a film , but I grew impatient as it closed and left the theater wondering why it had won best foreign film. Surely in 2007 there was another film somewhere in the world that brought something new to an old subject, found a new subject, made audiences think critically, made them change their minds, or pioneered some new technique. It is my hope that before this "genre" grows much larger, filmmakers working on the Holocaust will focus less on counterfeiting a genre film and more on breaking the press altogether.

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On a more positive note, the press the film has been getting is a big deal for Austrian cinema. Austria's chancellor is hoping that European politicians will start increasing support for European film. Ruzowitzky hopes that Austrians will become more interested in films from their own country. Read the AFP article here.