First, let's get a few things out of the way. Max is an historical drama/thriller filmed in German and French, among other languages. If you are uncomfortable with subtitles, this may not be for you - but I recommend getting comfortable. For Americans, the cast will be unknown to you, unless you are a cinephile you might be familiar with Jean-Hughes Anglande and Silvia Testud. Lastly, at least in my experience Germany has not had a strong track record in the motion picture arts, although I've seen some things recently on big on small screen that were quite good.
I ran across this series some time ago on Starz, which I subscribed to temporarily on occasion to catch up on a few things. Their Philippa Gregory series have been ok, although fall a bit on the soapy side. Needless to say, I'm a lover of history and historical fiction, so this caught my eye. Still, I was hesitant as it was a German production rather than say Brit or French, so I did not come back to it for a couple of years.
But I started watching the first episode the other night, and man, this one is very very good. Excellent production values, acting, dialogue, with strong dedication to the source history it is based on. No soap involved - down and dirty drama and action.. What is really striking, ,though obviously a very minor point when talking about lesser known historical figures from 500 years ago, was how closely the actors resembled their counterparts.
If you like history at all or period pieces, heck, if you like Game of Thrones, I encourage you to watch this series. Max does a really great job making you feel the history here, the grittiness of the time, with some surprisingly sharp details to the keen eye....such as homage to peripheral figures and events to this particular arena like Mathias Corvinus and the Black Army of Hungary.
I have a particular interest in this period of history, but most of my background was Brit and French focused from college, but I studied up later on the rest of Europe at the time. I'd guess for most Americans there's little knowledge of these events and characters, maybe none at all. The two young main characters here, Max of Austria and especially Mary of Burgundy, would probably seem quite minor or insignificant to history. However, there are a couple of important things to consider when going into this. The death of Charles the Bold of Burgundy (Mary's Father) - basically the first scene of Max - is one of the most pivotal events in European history that most aren't even familiar with. It was the catalyst for the fall of and soon disappearance of a major European power for all time, and the rise of one of the most powerful dynasties in European history, whose progenitors happen to be Mary and Max. I think it is important to know that, if not learned in the area, and do a little research, before going into it to understand the weight of the events and characters portrayed here. This is heavy stuff and it is well done and very exciting, and at times quite moving.
