An operetta of dramatic interactions in rhymes, sometimes sung, sometimes in recitative form. In short, fantastic fun. If the critic Moniz Vianna's favorite musical was "Love Me Tonight", (1932), and the critic J. L. Grunewald's favorite musical was "Maytime", (1937), I'm led to believe that neither of them got to watch "Viktor und Viktoria", whose premise is complex and certainly funny: a real woman falls into Skittish Susanne Lohr (Renate Mueller, adorable ) falls in love with one of the men she tries to pose as a man in front of vaudeville. ... him!
A sweeping musical - full of melodies sung in rhyming couplets. A reminder of the spirit of freedom and joy enjoyed in pre-III Reich Germany. The date of production, 1933, means that it passed through Nazi censorship, and yet it is still an example of innocence, mischievousness and high cinematic sophistication. There is absolutely no homosexuality there. Hermann Thimig's character, with all the quirks and for all intents and purposes, is straight. The gallant Adolf Walbrook (who would soon change his name to Anton to stop being the namesake of the Nazi dictator) has suspected all along that Viktor is really Viktoria. The film is seen as a time machine trip to the era of the Weimar Republic. Like contemporary René Clair's comedies, it's full of slapstick scenes. And specialists who appreciate cinematographic language will be especially delighted with the montage based on (technically so called) curtains (instead of cuts, fades or lightening, just like as in, for example, Kurosawa's 7 Samurai)
A sweeping musical - full of melodies sung in rhyming couplets. A reminder of the spirit of freedom and joy enjoyed in pre-III Reich Germany. The date of production, 1933, means that it passed through Nazi censorship, and yet it is still an example of innocence, mischievousness and high cinematic sophistication. There is absolutely no homosexuality there. Hermann Thimig's character, with all the quirks and for all intents and purposes, is straight. The gallant Adolf Walbrook (who would soon change his name to Anton to stop being the namesake of the Nazi dictator) has suspected all along that Viktor is really Viktoria. The film is seen as a time machine trip to the era of the Weimar Republic. Like contemporary René Clair's comedies, it's full of slapstick scenes. And specialists who appreciate cinematographic language will be especially delighted with the montage based on (technically so called) curtains (instead of cuts, fades or lightening, just like as in, for example, Kurosawa's 7 Samurai)