The Harmonists

The Comedian Harmonists formed in Berlin in 1927: five male voices and a piano. Within a few years they were the best-selling act in Germany, touring Europe and turning up in films. Then the Nazis came to power, and the fact that three of the six were Jewish finished the group; by the mid-thirties they were forbidden to perform. Joseph Vilsmaier's film covers the eight years from the day they met to the day they came apart. The rise is buoyant and the fall is heavy. The songs carry it, and anyone who knows the group's actual recordings will get more out of it. Few people now remember how famous they once were, and this is one of the films that brought that back. Ben Becker, Heino Ferch and Ulrich Noethen star.