Product Details

• Actors: Josef Bierbichler, Monica Bleibtreu, Jeanette Hain, Elfriede Irrall, Margit Rogall
• Directors: Jan Schütte
• Writers: Klaus Pohl
• Producers: Jan Schütte, Gesche Carstens, Hendryk Romanovski
• Format: PAL
• Number of tapes: 1
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00005RKRP

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Superb acting is the primary reason to see The Farewell, an incisive portrait of playwright/poet Bertolt Brecht. As directed by Jan Schütte, this German domestic drama is not a dry, documentary-like profile but rather an elegy of Brecht spanning one single day, just three days before Brecht's death in the summer of 1956. The once-towering giant of German theater (played to perfection by Josef Bierbichler) is preparing to leave his lakeside cottage in the East German town of Bukow and return to Berlin for the new theater season, but a storm is brewing on the home front: Having maintained no fewer than three mistresses at any one time during his adult life, Brecht is now in the midst of dissent among his extended family of women including his wife, daughter, current and former mistresses, and a political reformer who shares his wife with Brecht in a personal arrangement that's starting to unravel at the seams. With German secret police poised to arrest two of Brecht's houseguests for high treason, the idyllic cottage becomes a setting for petty jealousies, violated trusts and the final remnants of hope and tenderness in the writer's circle of intimates. It's a sad but moving film of an artist in decline, not for all tastes but rewarding for anyone who's curious about the eccentric lives of artists and Brecht in particular. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bertold Brecht's Farewell to an existencial existence, March 11, 2008

By 

W. T. Hoffman "artist and musician" (Pennsylvania, United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Farewell (DVD)

First off, this is a love story, about a man who just might love his hat, more than his wife, daughter, mistress, or ex mistress/washed up actress. Of course, that's not fair, but is one of the darkly comic motifs in the film. Bertold Brecht is one half of the revolutionary team, who gave us MAHAGONY, and THREE PENNY OPERA, with his ex-partner Kurt Weil. Whereas Weil "sold out" and moved to capitalistic Hollywood, and wrote musicials like ONE TOUCH OF VENUS, Brecht stayed in Germany (only leaving during the Nazi reign), and remained true to his communist beliefs. The film takes place during one day, in the Dacha, or cabin, that the East German Government gave to Brecht, in gratitude to the "artistic integrity" he gave the oppressive dictatorship of the DDR. Altho Brecht seems to remain true to his philosophy of Communism as opposistion to the bourgeious life of money grubbing capitalists, his only REAL loyalty isnt to Politics, or Country, but rather, the artistic Expression of a truly free Human Spirit, and how great drama can allow us to realize our own spirit's corruption by materialism, and social statis greed. I liked the movie, but, if i didnt know Brecht's work, or Marxist philosophy, or German post WWII history, I'd be a little bit lost. The film shows us Brecht at the end of his life, broken by his lack of loyalty to family, questioning his art, realizing he's in league with a government that isnt what he idealizes it as, and actually being killed (spiritually, with the physical heart as metaphor) by the people he hurt during his wild days as a communist "beatnik". In this film, a reflective old man, Brecht's "existencial" views have not served him well. He has a bitter wife, who has to put up with his open womanizing, a daughter who passive aggressively hates him for his treatment of her mother, a young mistress who is using him to further her career in the Theater, an old ex-mistress who's a total nut case, and an assistant who's spying for the Stazi. (East German Secret police.) Since the film occurs in one place, this Dacha, on one day, with only a handful of actors, it can be a little bit slow, if you are used to lots of action, lots of scenery, and casts of thousands. This film is a meditation piece. What if you devote your life, to art, to philosophy, and other esoteric beliefs, only to find that you doubt the correctness of your decisions, when you are dying? Brecht wanted to be the free thinker, the intellectual, the idealist, the sexually liberated man, but paid a price in the end. If this film is about anything, it's about how each of us pay for our choices in the end. The acting is incredible, just superb. And, you do end up feeling sadness for Brecht's wretched life, as he reflects on the lost potential of the world around him. The tragidy here, is that of Post WWII Europe, and especially Germany itself. Just as the continent was divided by the Iron Curtain, so was Brecht, and just as the promise of social equality thru communism ended with dictatorships, and cruel restrictions on human relationships, so too has Brecht found himself a victum of the "Free Love" anti-middle class restrictions he had revolted against as a young writer. I found this film overflowing with weltschmertz, and a menagerie of broken spirits. A great artist's life and heart become united, so that a broken spirit IS a broken heart, and leads to the only outcome it can...death. Here's a film that unites so many universal themes: of the artist in society, of betrayed love, and of youthful dreams unrealized. Please dont think this is a dramatized biography, or a propaganda story for Marxism. ITs about a very sensitive, intelligent man evaluating his gifts, and his life, as it comes to an end. A hidden gem in world cinema, to be sure, but not for everyone.

1.0 out of 5 stars SEEMS LIKE TYPICAL INDIE MOVIE, September 9, 2011

By 

sakara (hillbilly penntucky) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Farewell (DVD)

A german movie, but comes across as typical American indie movie.

The usual suspects: a home in the country, at the water; could just as well be the hamptons. With a bunch of women subservient to some great, but nasty, writer. Throw in some nudity, leftie politics, a real person for a docudrama, and cliched dying.

I paid $3.63 for this, including postage, so it was worth it for the price.

The biggest surprise is that this movie is under 90 minutes long----that's a major break with indie movies that must be an hour 45 or two hours long.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Let the Art Be..., October 5, 2010

By 

Dragon Irish "Canny Celt" (Boulder, CO, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Farewell (DVD)

Two reviews here that praise the film also come down on moral hobnail boots. This is an excellent film. All the moral dicta mentioned are present, but the art is finally art and let the morals be. This is a strange thing to say concerning a film about Brecht who never let the socialist morals be, indeed, made them his art's core. But when this film is over, you have experienced it and taken it inside. You shouldn't feel sorry for Brecht or above him. We all owe God a life that is done with the tools we have, as we owe God a death, and we all are fairly pathetic at the end--Willy Loman, Bertholt Brecht, you and I. (God here = useful fiction.) Well, that's a bit of moralizing, too, isn't it? Moral aestheticism? Aesthetic moralism? Anyway... Acting is brilliant. Editing if good. Story is whole.