New DVDs: 'The Counterfeiters' on Blu-ray

"The Counterfeiters" tells its tale of privileged death camp inmates without apology. While the ghastly churn of Hitler's Holocaust continues unseen, but only yards away, a group of printers and forgerers does its work trying to destabilize the economy of Britain.

This unusual Austrian film about a band of skilled death camp survivors won the 2007 Oscar for foreign-language film.

Austrian director Stefan Ruzowitzky ("Anatomie") says his movie's descriptions of events that actually took place near the end of WWII "are so preposterous that you couldn't invent them -- not to mention write them."

"I did my utmost to use authentic material because it was so good," the director says in the DVD extras for "The Counterfeiters." He wrote the movie using the memoirs of Adolf Burger, a 90-year-old printer depicted in the film. Burger gets co-writer credit and served as an active adviser. As a result, much of the factual information in the special features seems duplicative of the film.

"The Counterfeiters" plays as solid drama and downbeat entertainment. It took some heat for not including the usual ghastly depictions of the Nazi camps. It is, as the marketing took pains to point out, another kind of movie, one that begins and ends on the gold-speckled beach of Monte Carlo. Its soundtrack relies heavily on the tango.

Sony's "The Counterfeiters" Blu-ray proves something of an upgrade from the DVD (upconverted), but the high amount of grain in the images (from low-light shooting) tends to even out things. The audio is OK on both versions, nothing special.

Part of the film's success undoubtedly is due to the talented Austrian actor Karl Markovics (top photo), possessed of an unfamiliar face that seems made for the cinema.

Markovics plays the con man/forgerer Salomon Sorowitsch, "the most charming scoundrel in Berlin." A cop who busts him in Berlin resurfaces as a camp commander charged with producing a sea of bogus English pounds. He remembers "Sally" and has him transferred to oversee the money-making operation, called Operation Bernhard.

The forgerer gladly cooperates to save himself, but finds his deeds harshly questioned by a fellow inmate (the Burger character), who sets about sabotaging their efforts. Sally refuses to squeal on his moral friend, but continues trying to produce bogus American dollars for the Nazi war effort.

The extras feature Burger doing his road show about the WWII event before a group of students. He shares with viewers his "historical artifacts" about Operation Bernhard and fills in some missing pieces. Burger was one of only two characters in the film identified by their real names.

Director Ruzowitzky says in his solid, well-paced commentary that he tried to film inside a still-standing camp site, but was refused. He was angry because, "We were on the right side." But after touring the site, he felt relieved he had not brought his filmmaking operation inside to disturb its peace.

Ruzowitzky, who speaks English, also appears in video from an AFI screening of the film in late 2007. He talks about basing the film's Monte Carlo bookends on "rumors and stuff" about Sally. He says the master forgerer ended up in Argentina, duplicating paintings by old masters.

Of filming in Monte Carlo, he says, "Just for asking you have to pay millions and millions."

Other extras include a couple of deleted scenes that show off Sally's con man skills, a decent making-of docu and additional interviews. There is a lot of duplication across the extras, so I'd recommend starting with the commentary and the Burger material.

The Blu-ray has Sony's new menu set-up, which my player doesn't like much. Menus are quite good-looking, especially in HD. The standard DVD has a straightforward menu.

Also circling the DVD blog's players this week is Paramount's DVD release of "Star Trek: The Original Series -- The Complete Second Season". The package and execution are quite similar to the excellent HD DVD release of season 1 last year. Some of the old special effects are upgraded, impressively and with restraint. Highly recommended.

Also, "I Got The Feelin': James Brown in the '60s" from Shout! Factory; the Salvador Dali docu "Decoding the Mind of a Genius" from MVD; and Genius' rerelease of the original "Lonesome Dove."

New and notable:
The Counterfeiters (also Blu-ray, Sony)
The Executioner's Song: Director's Cut (Paramount)
Family Ties, season 4 (Paramount)
The Five Doctor (Warner)
Get Smart, season 1 (HBO Home Video)
I Got The Feelin': James Brown in the '60s (Shout! Factory)
Joy House (Koch Lorber Films)
The Killing of John Lennon (Genius Products)
Lonesome Dove Collector's Edition (also Blu-ray, Genius Products)
Nim's Island (also Blu-ray, Fox)
Pete Seeger: The Power of Song (The Weinstein Co./Genius Products/Miriam Collection)
Route 66 (Infinity Entertainment)
Salvador Dali: Decoding the Mind of a Genius (MVD Visual)
Star Trek: The Original Series, season 2 (Paramount)
Starship Troopers 3: Marauder (direct to video, Sony)
Wire in the Blood: Prayer of the Bone (Koch Vision)

Complete list of this week's releases on my pal Harley's site, onvideo.org

Comments

[Liz]

This movie sounds amazing. Love these "truth is stranger than fiction" stories. I've got to get ahold of it.