MY NEIGHBOUR ADOLPH - Jewish Film Festival
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Date Reviewed: 24/10/2022
Several critics have panned My Neighbour Adolph and I am at a loss to understand why?
It is billed rightly as a comedy/drama if such a thing exists. This film is more psychological than suspense-driven in nature, which is admirable, and ultimately satisfying in the end. Instead of escalating to a dramatic and potentially violent confrontation, it seeks to offer its protagonists some respite from the trauma each has experienced and to bury the past. Would that life were so simple.
A Jewish family are taking a photographic portrait in the garden before the outbreak of the Second World War. They will soon be exterminated, with one exception. Now Polsky (David Hayman) lives in Columbia and it is May 1960. Adolf Eichmann has just been abducted from Argentina and flown to stand trial in Israel. At the same time, a mysterious new neighbour, Mr Herzog (Udo Kier) moves into the house next door and Polsky suspects that the belligerent German who’s just moved in next door could be none other than der Führer himself.
The film unfolds like an imitation of “Rear Window,” with Polsky spying on Herzog from his upstairs window through a telephoto lens, collecting evidence for the no-help authorities. After his neighbour breaks out a chess board, Polsky suggests that they play together again. These sessions bring the two strangers closer, resulting in an uneasy kinship that complicates their dynamic, while giving both actors additional dimensions to explore.
Director Leon Prudovsky has kept the action to a minimum and focussed on the two actors who more than capably fill the roles.
Director of photography Radek Ladczuk’s palette for the film is reduced nearly to black and white, right down to Polsky’s prized roses: rare beauties with petals the colour of pure carbon adding to the barrenness of the landscape and the loneliness of the two men.
Veteran British character actor David Hayman enjoys a rare leading role as Polsky, a seventy-ish gentleman living quietly in an unidentified South American country in 1960. Hayman plays Polsky as a ‘grumpy old man’ with a score to settle. His gradual transition to a caring friend is wonderful to watch.
Udo Kier, famous for Flesh for Frankenstein, Blood for Dracula, The Story of O and My Own Private Idaho makes every second of his screen time count as the mysterious Herzog: at times a bullying hothead, at other times a vulnerably ageing individual keen to forget a turbulent and difficult past. He is a study in character acting and mesmerising to watch with his steel blue eyes.
The film’s pace is quiet and almost thriller like till the unexpected climax.
One highlight that could have disintegrated into comedy instead results in pathos occurs when Polsky after reading up on Hitler’s defining characteristics, determines to check whether Herzog has just one testicle, as Hitler reportedly did.
My Neighbour Adolph is a lesson is character acting that is a must see for anyone interested in character development and a satisfying film on all fronts!
Reviewed by Barry Hill