Lügen haben kurze Beine: A relic from a different era

Is it worth the watch?

If you have a soft spot for the silent era, Lügen haben kurze Beine is a fun enough way to kill an hour. It’s light, it’s fluffy, and it’s undeniably old-fashioned. If you require modern pacing or anything resembling a complex plot, you’ll probably be bored within the first ten minutes. It feels like a stage play that wandered onto a film set and never quite figured out how to leave.

Paul Heidemann is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. You can see him working through these physical beats, and sometimes it feels like the camera is just trying to keep up with his frantic energy. It reminds me a bit of the frantic spirit in It's a Boy, though with a different kind of desperation behind the eyes.

There is a specific moment where a character tries to hide a lie, and the way the frame lingers on his face is just exquisite. It goes on a few seconds longer than you’d expect, and you can almost see the actor thinking, "Is the director still rolling?" It’s that kind of unpolished charm that makes me appreciate these old films.

Odd observations:

• The lighting in the interior shots is aggressively flat. It feels like they were filming in a department store window display.
• I spent way too long looking at the wallpaper patterns in the background. They are incredibly distracting.
• The slapstick feels very rigid compared to later stuff like So This Is Paris, but there’s a certain sincerity to the clumsiness.

The whole thing doesn't really try to be anything other than a trifle. It doesn't aim for the gravitas of Kreuzer Emden, and thank goodness for that. It just wants to exist. Sometimes, that’s enough. 🎞️

Don't look for hidden meanings. There aren't any. It’s just people running around in suits, getting into pickles, and looking very worried about it. Sometimes, the simplest lies really do have the shortest legs.