Girl You Know It's True: A Review

GIRL YOU KNOW IT'S TRUE

Milli Vanilli is now a byword for fraud and deception. The rise and fall of the European dance duo became one of the greatest scandals in music history. Girl You Know It's True does not reinvent the wheel on disgraced people's biopics. It does, however, give us a very sympathetic view of the disgraced duo. It even is sympathetic towards the mastermind of this great deception.

Using a conversational style where our protagonists tell us their story, we begin with Robert Pilatus (Tijan Njie) and Fabrice Morvan (Elan Ben Ali) talk directly to us. Rob was the biracial German adopted by the Pilatus family. As the son of an unknown black American father, Rob finds life hard in Munich. Rob loves music and breakdancing, proving himself adept at least in the latter. Striking out on his own, Rob meets French choreographer and dancer Fab. They soon strike an immediate friendship owing to their shared dreams of stardom, dancing skills and how they are the only black people around.

After adopting long hair to stand out more, their exuberant dancing attracts the attention of German music journalist Ingrid "Milli" Segieth (Bella Dayne). She has been working with maverick German music producer Frank Farian (Matthias Schweighofer). Farian has had major success with the band Boney M. and now is looking for two attractive figures to front his new single, Girl You Know It's True. Rob and Fab believe that they are doing a cover version of the Numarx song and are puzzled over why the German music press is so hostile. Rob is eager to sign a long and to them, incomprehensible contract. Fab is more reluctant but agrees to anyway.

Girl You Know It's True starts getting major airplay in Europe. Fabian now imagines that he can rule the American market, which he has struggled to get into. Now as the musical act Milli Vanilli, Rob and Fab get a taste of la dolce vita in Los Angeles. While they do make an effort to sing, down to taking lessons, there are other issues to consider. Everyone, including Arista Records, has been led to think that Rob and Fab are the voices behind Milli Vanilli. Arista Records executives are surprised by Rob and Fab's strong German and French accents respectively. Moreover, Farian does not want to the actual session artist to appear, finding them less appealing. The actual voices behind Milli Vanilli are getting more irritated by Rob and Fab's fame. 

Things come to a head when Milli Vanilli receives a Best New Artist Grammy nomination, which they end up winning. There is an embarrassing technical glitch during the Club MTV tour when Girl You Know It's True starts repeating while they are "singing" the song. Rob and Fab refuse to return to Germany. They also demand to sing on the second album. Fabian attempts to prevent a Milli Vanilli world tour. The legal wrangling eventually causes the truth to explode onto the front pages. With everything out in the open, Rob and Fab's careers and lives take different turns. There is tragedy, but the film ends on a joyful and authentic note.

When a former friend saw Milli Vanilli interviewed on Good Morning America, I remember him commenting that he thought that their accents were very strong. It is, in retrospect, astonishing that no one else picked up on how Pilatus and Morvan spoke with heavy German and French accents but sang with perfectly solid American voices. It makes me wonder whether, as Farian tells our naive young men, "The people, they listen with their eyes". Perhaps people were dazzled by Pilatus and Morvan's admittedly good looks to wonder about such things. 

Girl You Know It's True does touch on this question. However, writer/director Simon Verhoeven does some wonderful things in the film. First, he allows Rob and Fab, and even on occasion Farian, a chance to tell their story and defend themselves. The film gives our trio at times fully aware moments. Early in Girl You Know It's True, we are given Rob's troubled background in a flashback. Eventually, we have Rob jump in, asking if he could at least move the story up. Later, we see Farian at the studio. He looks at us as he introduces the actual voices behind Milli Vanilli. As we see them, Farian makes quips about them. On vocalist Brad Howell, Farian comments that he is a star in the studio, but one with asthma and fondness for cake. Farian later pretty much mocks the viewer (and by extension the allegedly gullible audience) by asking that if we had known what the real Milli Vanilli looked like, would we have bought the music.

Girl You Know It's True gives us very solid performances. Tijan Njie brings a great pathos to Rob Pilatus. We can see why he was more willing to go along with the deception because the film built up his story. This was a man who was abandoned. He was loved by his adoptive family, but whose individual dreams were also not embraced by them. Njie gave us a character who found validation in the attention and fame. He was also shown as in some ways shockingly naive, almost innocent. At the soiree to welcome Milli Vanilli to America, Rob cannot get enough of a particular treat he has never encountered. We learn that it is sushi. Later on, when he is in his diva phase, we see him go in a tirade about not having sushi at the ready backstage.

Elan Ben Ali is Njie's equal as the more grounded Fab. While his background is not as well explored as Pilatus', we do get hints of it. There are many scenes of him on the telephone with his mother. This shows that Fab had a more stable childhood than Pilatus. He also was shown as the more reluctant of the two. He, for example, pushed to have lawyers read the complicated record contract dangled before them. He also was the one who finally left Rob after the scandal wrecked both their lives. Rob, clinging desperately to fame and hopes of a comeback, has sunk into lethargy and drug addiction. Fab, the more realistic of the two, begins looking for actual work.

Ali and Njie work well together as well as separately. We see the brotherly bond between Rob and Fab. Their ability to reveal the people behind the charade allows us to feel for them, knowing that they are bound for a spectacular failure. There are several moving moments in Girl You Know It's True. The joyful optimism that Rob has when he thinks that his long-lost father has found him soon becomes shattered when we see that it is an attempted ripoff. That is already sad in and of itself. Verhoeven films it in a brilliant manner, having "Dad" fade into darkness to reveal the fraudster on the other end of the line. 

We do also see moments of humor even in the worst of moments. Rob and Fab are at an elegant restaurant when Farian holds his press conference. The bartender cooly informs them, "The cat is out of the bag". As Rob keeps swallowing his beloved sushi, both of them look confused. "What cat?", they wonder, clearly not understanding the idiom.

Girl You Know It's True does not let us end on a sad note. Instead, despite how Robert Pilatus is no longer with us, the film gives us a joyful end. The film goes through Milli Vanilli's spectacular ascendence and collapse. It hits many standard musical biopic moments: the sex, drugs and rock & roll lifestyle. We see the diva moments. We see the great fall from grace. However, the film handles this story well. 

I was reminded of other musical biopics while watching Girl You Know It's True. It made me think back to the Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody and the Ian Curtis biopic Control. "Just give them what they want", Morvan tells Pilatus when they start their careers as backup dancers in a music video. Girl You Know It's True did just that and so much more. 

There are many moving moments in Girl You Know It's True. If you find yourself shedding a tear while watching, whatever you do, don't put the blame on you. Blame It on the Rain...

Robert Pilatus: 1964 or 1965-1998
Fabrice Morvan: Born 1966

DECICION: B+