Other reviewer is right: this is pretty poor. One wouldn't mind a modernizing version if it were done intelligently, but this is trivial and shallow. Watch the East German (DEFA) version from 1958 instead - it isn't ideal, but is generally on a much higher level. (I was interested in film versions since I teach this play to German literature students quite often, and wanted a film to accompany the reading.) I suspect German reviewers and viewers may have thought similarly, since this director has never done anything since. The 1913 version by Friedrich Feher (a significant director) looks intriguing, but do not know if this is available anywhere.
Reviews
3 Reviews
Jadup und Boel
(1988)
Much better than other review thinks
21 August 2012
Jadup und Boel was very consciously modeled on other European art films, including Andrzej Wajda's MAN OF MARBLE with its Citizen-Kane-inspired flashback investigative structure. The dreamlike quality of its flashbacks is also often typical of Bergman. To castigate Simon for "glacially slow tempo" is asking this film to be something it isn't trying to be: namely a Hollywood mainstream picture. Antonioni's L'AVVENTURA also doesn't solve its main mystery, nor does BLOW-UP, nor do many other art-house films: this is deliberate in them as it is in Simon. This film is one of the most poetic and understated films ever made in East Germany, and repays careful re-watching. Simon imparted mythological qualities to the film that aren't in the original novel (which I have read), such as the film's beginning in dark depths and ending on the illuminated heights of a church tower, symbolizing the main character's progress toward self-knowledge. The main actor, Kurt Boewe, was called "The Columbo of the East;" watch it and you'll see why: he's winningly earthy as Peter Falk. Boel's mother was played by a famous actress who was Bertolt Brecht's last mistress; the great Polish actor Frantiszek Pieczka is also in this film. Be patient and your viewing will pay off.
Lissy
(1957)
Director wasn't Maetzig!
16 May 2012
Previous reviewer is not off mark, but the director was NOT Kurt Maetzig, but rather Konrad Wolf! Indeed, the film is full of heavy underlining of its messages - the use of music, the voice-over as a pedagogical-didactic omniscient commentary, the heavy-handed closeups of swastikas. Interesting as a document, but not on the level of Wolf's work from STARS (1959) onward. Also interesting as a belated re-run of a lot of cinematic and iconic clichés familiar to viewers of Weimar film (the reflections in display windows, used in Lang's M and Pabst's Threepenny Opera). The melodramatic style of the film owes too much to UFA, however. The problems with the film, as Klaus Wischnewski has noted, are with its dramaturgy (compare Staudte's ROTATION for a similar film).
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