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...Und Äktschn!

...Und Äktschn!

Österreich/Deutschland 2013 - with Gerhard Polt, Gisela Schneeberger, Maximilian Brückner, Robert Meyer ...

The Frankfurt-Tipp rating:

Movie info

Genre:Comedy
Direction:Fredrick Baker
Cinema release:06.02.2014
Production country:Österreich/Deutschland 2013
Running time:Approx. 99 min.
Rated:From 6 years
Web page:www.undaektschn.de/

The financial crisis has not stopped at the Bavarian province. Many of the citizens of Neufurth have seen better days, such as the passionate amateur filmmaker Hans A. Pospiech (Gerhard Polt). Abandoned by his wife and financially on the brink, Pospiech finances his passion only by selling World War II memorabilia from his father's estate over the Internet. But then the tide seems to turn. In order to get his balance sheets back to where his boss wants them to be, local savings bank director Faltermeier (Michael Ostrowski) comes up with the grandiose idea of bringing cultural funding to Neufurth. A film competition is to take place, but the winner has already been secretly decided: the heavily indebted Pospiech. However, Pospiech is thinking less about reducing his debts than about finally being able to write film history. Together with his nephew Alfons (Maximilian Brückner), the innkeeper Grete (Gisela Schneeberger) and the music dealer Fleischbauer (Robert Meyer), the amateur filmmaker embarks on an ambitious as well as controversial project: he wants to make a film about the private man Adolf Hitler.

.Und Äktschn! finally brings the universal artist Gerhard Polt back to the screen after eleven years. Together with director Fredrick Baker he has written the script for a comedy about the power of mediocrity, as he calls it himself. A film about banks, Hitler and the love of cinema. Some social satire, a little poetic melancholy and a pinch of cabaret are some of the ingredients this film is made of. As a result, it can no more be pigeonholed than Gerhard Polt himself. But what has worked really well in the course of Polt's almost 40-year career leaves a somewhat bland aftertaste in the case of .Und Äktschn!"

If you think of the terrific Mai Ling sketch from Da schau her from 1979, then you know with how much bite and political incorrectness Polt can put his finger in the wounds of our society. Here and there this also comes through in his new film. But exactly at the moments when the script could have used a lot more satirical bite, Polt suddenly becomes tame and serves up relatively stale humor, where the timing also comes across as a bit heavy-handed. In addition, there are some moments that fizzle out completely in the end. In the course of the film, protest signs are shown again and again, which point to the problem of aircraft noise. But in the actual story this topic doesn't play a role anymore. It may be that this is meant to highlight the general situation in the community, but as often as allusions are made to the aircraft noise protest, as a viewer you just expect this to play a more central role.

A lot of potential is also wasted in the filming of the movie about Hitler the private man. There are good beginnings, revealing intelligent cleverness and also a pleasing amount of bite. But in the end, these scenes mostly fizzle out in limp punchlines that at best evoke a tired smile from the viewer. Only now and then does the humor hit the mark and reveal what could have been a cryptic social satire .Und Äktschn! Certainly, in the moments when Hans A. Pospiech films himself and speaks directly to the audience, Gerhard Polt is in his element and often shows the class one is used to from him. But all in all his cinema comeback seems too indecisive and too reserved to meet the expectations of his fans. Since .Und Äktschn! has become more a tired provincial farce with some small highlights than a satirical fireworks, it is in the end only enough for one: with deductions for Polt lovers quite still worth seeing!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp

Media:

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Cinema trailer for the movie "...Und Äktschn! (Österreich/Deutschland 2013)"
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