Signis

Hotel Lux

(JPEG)

Germany, 2011 Michael Bully Herbig, Jurgen Vogel, Thekla Reuten, Directed by Leander Haussmann

Hotel Lux is a euphemism for the rather dingy hotel in Moscow 1939. The film opens with a voiceover of the central character, a cabaret comedian from Berlin, Hans (Michael Bully Herbig) perched on the Red Star shining from the hotel roof. That is certainly different. So are the flashbacks when we see him and his Communist friend, Meyer (Jurgen Vogel) performing their act, a send-up of both Hitler and Stalin. Well, perhaps it is not so different insofar as many in the audience will think Mel Brooks and The Producers. I think Mel Brooks would be quite a fan of this film - especially since it veers into the territory charted by Jack Benny during World War II in To Be or Not to Be, mocking Hitler and the Nazis, a film that Mel Brooks and his wife, Anne Bancroft, remade in the 1980s.

As the film goes on and Hans grows a moustache, he could easily pass for a young Mel Brooks.

It is 1933 and, we remember from Cabaret, the night clubs in Berlin catered to a wide range of clients (including the Nationalist Socialist police) and it was still possible to imitate Hitler, his look, his voice and his mannerisms quite freely. That we are familiar with. It is the satire on Stalin that is new - and tellingly effective. Meyer is Hitler, Hans is Stalin.

It couldn’t last too long as ideology tightens in Germany and some anti-Semitic routines are introduced. Meyer is a Communist with his friend, , and they go underground. Hans survives until 1938 when the friendly dresser at the club gets him a fake passport. He is on his way to Hollywood. Well, not exactly. He has to escape in a hurry and finds himself in Moscow where he is mistaken for Hitler’s personal astrologer whose passport he has.

We don’t see much satire on Stalin on our screens, so this film is welcome. Hans becomes Stalin’s adviser (meeting in the toilet with the tap running for security) and finds himself with many privileges, though the KGB want to expose him. Meyer turns up again as does and Hans is in love with her.

How will they manage? How did Hans find himself stranded on the Red Star? That is part of the enjoyment of this comic excursion back into a very serious past.

Peter Malone