In the great German tradition of political cabaret, this briskly staged revue is a satiric survey of the nation's history from 1913 to the 1950s. Two popular stars of the Berlin musical stage, Wolfgang Neuss and Wolfgang Müller, narrate the life stories of a pair of representative characters: a self-serving opportunist who makes a fluid transition from Nazi party member to prominent businessman, and an earnest journalist whose idealism is mostly ineffectual. In a series of bright, inventive vignettes, director Kurt Hoffmann (who was an assistant to Ernst Lubitsch in prewar Hollywood) delivers the disturbing message that, from the Nazi era to the economic miracle, it's still the same old song and dance. If the example of the characters wasn't enough, the script makes the moral perfectly clear: “We warn the living.”

Co-winner, Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film, 1960.

Aren't We Wonderful is repeated on Sunday, February 2.