Girl, You Know Its True (5 Stars)

A true story about a fake music group. In 1988 the German producer Frank Farian met the two dancers Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan and promised to make them stars. They didn't need to waste their time with things like recording music. Frank had professional singers for things like that. All the two boys had to do was lip sync.

Released in June 1988, the pair’s first single, "Girl You Know It's True", went to the top of the charts in several European countries. Their success lured the ears of Arista Records. As Farian worked away at a record for the company, Rob and Fab made nothing more than photo-op appearances at the studio.

After their first album was released in America, success rushed in. Everyone kept their mouths shut about the lip-syncing charade, with employees at their label signing confidentiality agreements. Rob and Fab later said they felt pressured into staying quiet. The album scored three number one US hits and sold millions of copies to fans who adored the duo, their looks and their dancing.

Stateside media was wary, with the singers' respective French and German accents seeming suspiciously thick for men who sang flawless English. At one fateful live performance on the Club MTV Tour in summer 1989, the lyrics track started to skip and repeat, with Rob running off stage in embarrassment. But since there were no smartphones or social media to instantly share that debacle with the world, the incident didn’t make it far.

While fans remained hopeful that nothing was wrong, reporters started pushing for the truth. But the rumours weren’t enough to keep Milli Vanilli from winning three American Music Awards and a Grammy Award for best new artist by February 1990. They then hit the road and performed more than 100 shows.

By November 1990, however, the tape of the Club MTV performance had leaked and their producer could no longer fend off the frenzied press. On 14th November Farian openly admitted that Rob and Fab had not sung on the album or in live shows. The disgraced performers said the men who sang on their album should get the Grammy that they'd won, but it was revoked by the Recording Academy, the only time in its history it has done so.

While nothing they had done was actually illegal, it was a scandal of immense proportions. Fans destroyed their records in the streets. Parents tried to sue the band because their children had been traumatised. It's true, lip syncing has been prevalent in the music industry for decades, but this was different. Other musicians lip synced their own songs, whereas Milli Vanilli lip synced the songs of other performers.

My praises go out to Matthias Schweighöfer, who plays the devious music producer Frank Farian. He's the film's bad guy, who clearly took advantage of the two young men, but we can't help feeling sympathy with him.

The cinema showing today was an almost-premiere. The director Simon Verhoeven has presented the film in three cities, Berlin, Munich and Stuttgart. He became involved with the film after other projects to make a film about Milli Vanilli fell through. He's glad that it fell on his shoulders, because he doesn't think that American studios would have done such a good job. I agree. Milli Vanilli were a German group, so a German is best suited to make a film about them.

I'm happy to say that the film was almost sold out. There were only a few free seats left in the first row. It's possible that it would have been completely sold out if a rail strike hadn't started today.

This is one of the best films of 2023. I strongly recommend it, whether or not you like the music.