User Reviews

"Das Spinnennetz" or "Spider's Web" is a West German German-language film from September 1989, so this one came out shortly before the Fall of the Berlin Wall. However, it deals with a completely different era in German history, namely the roughly years between World War I and World War II. The director and also one of the writers who adapted Joseph Roth's novel is Bernhard Wicki. The other writer is Wolfgang Kirchner. Wicki lived more than 10 years afterward still and acted in some minor productions, but this one here was his very last effort behind the camera. It featured some of the finest acting talent German film had to offer during that time. People like Armin Mueller-Stahl and Klaus Maria Brandauer were among the biggest stars from Europe that were also fairly successful in Hollywood. Ulrich Mühe, however, was in his mid-30s at that point and entirely unknown outside Germany, probably also inside Germany as he appeared mostly in television productions since then. But this film was certainly one of his breakthrough movies before his career culminated in "Das Leben der Anderen" much later. But back to this one here. Mühe received a German Film Award nomination and won a Bavarian Film Award, while the movie itself also received several honors. It's pretty bizarre how Mühe, considered a huge talent at that point, died way before his two much older co-stars here, the ones I mentioned earlier.

Sadly, I cannot really share the praise. I thought the acting was definitely the film's biggest strength and Mühe and Brandauer elevate the material considerably. But at easily over three hours, the script and plot had way too many lengths in my opinion that left me hoping on several occasions for the film to be over quickly. Yes there are some good moments in here and the way the characters were written and how they transformed throughout the film offered some positive achievements, but even this was mostly thanks to the actors and only partially thanks to the script. But even the best actors, to me, could not make up for the many very forgettable scenes in here. This film may have been a success at two hours runtime. Then again, I am probably a bit biased as this time in German history has never really interested me that much. But nonetheless, you can also see it from a different perspective and say that Wicki did not succeed in sparkling my interest in an important chapter in German history. I believe this was definitely a missed opportunity, because looking at the actors he had here, this could have turned out a really great film. I am not sure if Wicki (or Kirchner) is to blame here or if it is Roth's fault as the base material just isn't interesting enough. I have never seen his novel. But I also have no interest in it after watching this film. There is really nothing memorable in here except a handful moments of very convincing acting from the cast. I do not recommend the watch. thumbs down.