For our initiative “German cinema is (still) great!” Every month we choose a German film that we particularly liked, inspired or fascinated, to editorially accompany the cinema release – regardless of its size – as a blockbuster! This month the choice is “Girl you know it’s true“, which can be seen in several German cinemas from next Thursday:
And that is what the successful director’s new film is about Simon Verhoeven (“Welcome to the Hartmanns“, “Nightlife“): Milli Vanilli – those were the ones that didn’t really sing, right? Yes exactly, but of course there is much more to it! In the late 1980s, dancers Fabrice “Fab” Morvan (Elan Ben Ali) and Rob Pilatus (Tijan Njie) experienced a meteoric rise to become the most famous pop idols in the world! They owe this partly to the hit compositions of their producer Frank Farian (Matthias Schweighöfer).
But what (almost) no one knows: the two superstars do not sing themselves, but Frank Farian insists on recording the songs with his own musicians and singers – while Milli Vanilli simply has to move her lips on the concert stages and in the TV studios. But it’s not just the sudden fame that goes to the duo’s heads – there’s also incredible pressure on Rob and Fab, who see themselves as singers but still have to keep the portrayal a secret…
The director in the podcast – a more open conversation than ever!
If you ever an open and honest conversation about filmmaking, apart from the usual marketing blah If you want to hear it, we definitely recommend the latest episode of our podcast Canvas Love. In it, Simon Verhoeven not only reveals the budget of “Girl You Know It’s True” in response to the second question – other than that, only normal language is spoken to each other during the half hour. You don’t experience something like this every day – and that’s why it’s an absolute must for anyone interested in German cinema:
For us, “Girl You Know It’s True” is a real highlight – with absolute blockbuster qualities and an extremely high fun factor! This is also the conclusion of our 4-star review: “A visually impressive, extremely entertaining and at times even downright funny biopic about the ‘culprits’ in one of the biggest scandals in the history of pop music. Matthias Schweighöfer is sensationally good as a harmonious mix of genius and devilry.”