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 Jakob The Liar (DVD) Movie DVD
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Jakob The Liar (DVD)

 

Description: Genre: Drama / Theatrical Release: 1999 / Director: Peter Kassovitz / Actors: Robin Williams, Hannah Taylor-Gordon ... ... more
Jakob The Liar (DVD) ... / DVD released 08 March, 2004 at Uca Catalogue / Features of the DVD: Dubbed, PAL, Widescreen / Jakob the Liar has a hard road to travel, since--Roberto Benigni's Life is Beautiful aside--milking the Holocaust for laughs is a dangerous game. Even the blackest, most therapeutic humour turns queasy in the shadow of such monstrous evil: it's like dancing on a mass grave. Here the eponymous schlemiel plays out his semi-farcical adventures in the mean streets of the Warsaw Ghetto circa 1944. The skies are always leaden over Jakob's hometown, reflecting the comic climate that pervades this mostly unfortunate adaptation of Jurek Becker's autobiographical book (first filmed in 1975). Jakob Heym (Robin Williams in overbearingly earnest mode) gets tangled in a string of self-perpetuating lies about a hidden radio, supposedly broadcasting news that the victorious Red Army is nearing. His desperate attempts to convince a clutch of insistently idiosyncratic friends (clichés to a man: Liev Schreiber, Bob Balaban, Michael Jeter, Alan Arkin) and obligatory Nazi bad guys that the radio doesn't exist are complicated by the fact that he's stashed a fugitive kid (a dead ringer for Anne Frank) in his attic--and by abundant evidence that lies are the best medicine for the ghetto's skyrocketing suicide rate. Copious unfunny misunderstandings and pratfalls abound in this Holocaust rendition of Fiddler on the Roof (you expect Williams to break into "If I were a funny man... "). Ultimately, Jakob the Liar loses its way for good in some very ugly violence and a rather nasty final twist: the film's ending might just be rubbing our noses in another feel-good lie. --Kathleen Murphy, Amazon.com

Newest Review: ... news bulletinwhich speak of Soviet military victories against the Germans. He spreads the news among his friends and sees how ... more

 ... their spirits lift. A rumour starts that Jakob has his own radio. He continues to relay fictitious news reports to the community after he notices the general lift in moral. This gives the people hope and optimism for the future but when the Germans learn about the non existent radio broadcasts they start an all out search for the operator. The screenplay was written by Peter Kassovitz and Didier Decoin and produced by Marsha Williams, Steven Haft and Robin Williams himself. Directed by Peter Kassovitz (co-wr...more

Knor
Premium Review Jakob The Liar (DVD): Excellent, surprisingly. (470 words)
by Knor - written on 12.08.00 (Very useful, 31 readings)
Rating:

'Hitler asks a fortune teller, when will I die? The fortune teller says: "On a Jewish holiday." "How do you know?" replies he. "ANY DAY you die on, will be a Jewish holiday!"' When I borrowed this, obviously I thought it would be good. But I didn't think it would be this good. I was slightly dubious about Robin Williams in this role. That was silly of me. Very silly. This is all about a man called Jakob who lives in a Jewish ghetto in a Polish town. Everyone is seriously depressed, commiting suicide and all. Jakob was a man who helped keep everyone's morale up a bit, like the joke above. Then, one day, he come to ...

janharper
Premium Review Something you will remember! (408 words)
by janharper - written on 11.11.01 (Very useful, 62 readings)
Rating:

Jakob the Liar make quite an impact on me. There are incidents, some seemingly trivial, throughout the film, that stay in your mind and may even bring a lump to your throat. Robin Wiliams plays Jakob, a Jewish Cafe owner, in Nazi occupied Poland. At the start of the film he is chasing a single newspaper sheet, which is blowing in the wind, so that he can at least get some news of life outside the Ghetto. He gets caught by a Nazi guard and told to report to officer on duty. This is where the real story begins. Jakob overhears a forbidden news bulletinwhich speak of Soviet military victories against the Germans. He spreads the news among his friends and ...

pineroad
Premium Review Jakob The Liar (DVD): Hope, when it was most needed (325 words)
by pineroad - written on 19.07.00 (Very useful, 24 readings)
Rating:

I was actually quite surprised that I enjoyed this film as much as I did. The best film about the Holocaust by far was "Schindler's List", and I don't think that any film will be able to top that one. While this one doesn't come close (and it doesn't try), it is still an entertaining movie. Jakob Heym (Robin Williams) is a man living in one of the many Jewish ghettos of the time. While outside the ghetto, he hears a newscast on the radio which tells him the Russians are about 400 kilometers away from his home there. This starts a chain of events which lead the occupants of the ghetto to believe he has a radio hidden in his apartment, ...

 
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Jakob The Liar (DVD)