Alicia I love this movie so much

Clevercell Very disappointing...

Dirtylogy It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Francene Odetta It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

edwagreen No wonder this won the Oscar for best foreign film of 2007.Amazing that a Jew was operating in Berlin counterfeiting money as late as 1936. It was also amazing that he didn't suffer the same fate of the rest of his people.Sure he did not. The Germans used him and others to make phony pounds. This was done to flood the British country with the money so as to create an extreme inflation. Once they succeeded in this, the Nazis turned their attention to the good old American dollar.These counterfeiters were given the "best" of conditions in concentration camps including soft beds.The film shows the cohesiveness of these men who worked, while outside death ran supreme.Naturally, there is a vicious guard whose cruelty goes unmatched.The film shows how the men deceived the Nazis by stalling with the phony dollars.

omkar1984 1.After a long hiatus, I was back to watching WW-II movies and I picked this one - was nothing but GLAD !!! 2.The best part about the movie is it's focus - it doesn't try to target too many things and focuses on the grass-root of 'Operation Bernhard'(normally, a director and the screenplay writer would be tempted to cover the past life of Sorowitsch, Bernhard Krüger etc.) 3.Primarily, the movie revolves around ONE character - that of Salomon Sorowitsch. Since I haven't read much about 'Operation Bernhard', I can't comment on the validity of the footage given to Sorowitsch's character and it's correctness.Nevertheless, it has not dampened, rather amplified, the movie's appeal 4.The persona of Sorowitsch is an intriguing one ! The best part - his composure !!! He says his family was arrested and killed, yet he harbours no grudge(at least, it isn't shown). He's also quite indifferent to the persecution of Jews by the criminal Nazis, in fact, he goes to the extent of saying ' Jews don't try to fit in'(the same was the allegation of Adolf Hitler against the Jews). He is also a consummate criminal of forfeit - a fact he doesn't gloat! While at the Mauthausen concentration camp, his defiance against the SS warden or someone appeals a lot ! At the same time, he also uses his skills to appease and flatter the Nazi officials by drawing portraits and at the same time, stealing good food. Given all these fox-traits, his humane and compassionate side touches a lot - his defending of Burger in spite of his dangerous antagonism, his fatherly feelings for 'Kolya', his defiance against Zilinski when he insists on exposing Burger - the movie is packed with such incidents that endear the character of Sorowitsch !!! 5.The movie' background score isn't very noticeable but it hardly matters - the characters are played strongly and the flow is suave, hence, the absence/low presence of background score hardly matters ! 6.Finally, the memorable scenes in the movie :a.While at the Mauthausen concentration camp, Sorowitsch's threatening SS warden of stabbing him if he hits him(Sorowitsch) b.Sorowitsch handing his soup to a wounded and weak Kolya c.Sorowitsch's discovery of the English using rags in manufacture of the Pound d.Sorowitsch making Kolya eat food like a father feeding babies - 'A spoon for Expressionists, A spoon for Avantgardists', a way that suits Koyla who often speaks about his academics e.The BEST scene - an unbeatable gambler, Sorowitsch, deliberately loses all the counterfeit money at the casino and is later shown resting on the beach 7.Over all, I include this movie in the list of 'MUST-WATCH' ...

laurance-oneill I only discovered this film while showing my dad how to watch films on his pc using the BBC iplayer. As yet I have not yet even watched it. I will and I fully expect it to be a very good and interesting film. Having browsed through most of its reviews not once (as far as I can see) has any one even hinted at the wonderful 1981 BBC mini-series Private Schultz staring the late and sadly missed Ian Richardson and Michael Elphick. Surely I can't be the only person to notice that both deal with the same story. Albeit that the BBC version has a lighter dark comedy treatment?Private Schultz is now at long last available on BBC DVD. It has only relatively recently been released. Prior to its release on DVD some very silly over sensitive people believed that it showed Jews during the war to be forgers, thieves etc...what absolute rubbish, and thank goodness the people in control of this matter have seen sense. As I've said even without seeing The Counterfeiters I'm sure I'll enjoy it...But I really must recommend Private Schulz to anyone who enjoyed this film Laurance O'Neill

trimmerb1234 In many films the dialogue leads, action follows and from this we understand the situation. In The Counterfeiters we understand the situation just as the characters do, share their dilemmas and wait to see how they will react. We get to know their individual characters, their loyalties and urge for self-preservation so fully appreciate their silent struggles with themselves. There is such assured writing and direction that the revelation of the reward for producing enough money to wreck a nation's economy appears to the audience as grotesquely pitiful in its meanness as it might have done to the real life forgers. So too the scene where the master forger with the weight of the world on his mind meets the pretty, innocent and dim Nazi wife who talks to him as if he were her husband's work-colleague brought home for a meal. We experience it as he experiences it. It is all the more involving because it almost entirely lacks violence, gun-play, music or exaggeration. Less is much much more.