Friendship - Blu-Ray

Film: 1989. The wall falls. For many people in the East there is only one destination: off to the West. But while the West of Germany is already enough for most, Veit (Friedrich Mücke) has bigger goals. He wants to go to San Francisco, the westernmost point of the world. At least that's how he sells his trip to the USA to his best friend Tom (Matthias Schweighöfer), not knowing that Tom will pack his bags and come with him. This is not really right for Veit, as he actually wants to look for his father in America, who emigrated there when Veit was still a little boy. With hardly a penny in their pockets, the two friends make it to New York and must now try to travel across the USA with their barely existing knowledge of English. An undertaking that will bring many more problems - culture shock included!

"Friendship!" is loosely based on the experiences co-producer Tom Zickler had with his best friend Veit in the US in 1989. Together with screenwriter Oliver Ziegenbalg ("13 Semester", "1 ½ Ritter") and the producers of "Das Leben der Anderen", director Markus Goller has turned Zickler's experiences into an extremely entertaining road movie that scores points with likeable characters, beautiful images, successful gags and a great soundtrack.

Admittedly, at times the story and humour move along very well-trodden paths, which have already been trodden enough in quite a few other comedies in which a meeting of different cultures was the focus. Nevertheless, Goller always manages to vary the old familiar with fresh-looking wit and nice ideas in such a way that "Friendship!" never seems dusty, boring or unoriginal.

A big part of this is also contributed by the two main actors, who complement each other perfectly in their completely different ways. The chemistry between Matthias Schweighöfer, who it is clear how much fun he had with this role, and Friedrich Mücke is perfect and gives the film exactly the form of authenticity that sets it apart from other comedies. This is not to say that "Friendship!" is a perfect film. There are just too many hangs in the story for that, and some gags are also put in the sand. But the overall picture is just right. And that presents a nice, entertaining cinema fun, which spices humor with a pleasant portion of drama, romance and life. And that at least guarantees that friends of German comedy fare will be satisfied to turn off the TV. Exactly therefore also applies: absolutely worth seeing!

Picture + Sound: Good color mixing, a good overall sharpness and a very clean picture overall ensure that the visual implementation of the disc may well be called successful. When it comes to the sound, the soundtrack and dialogue dominate the proceedings, but the well-mixed ambient sounds also ensure that some spaciousness and depth are achieved.

Extras: In addition to the extras that can also be found on the DVD, the Blu-ray has a little more bonus material to offer. The audio commentary by the two leads, which can be found on both discs, is additionally available on the Blu-ray as a picture-in-picture video commentary. The whole thing is quite superficial, but every now and then the two actors reveal interesting or even amusing details from the filming.

Both the making of, which is quite short at 14 minutes, and the one to two minute short features on the shooting in America, the strip scene, the guest appearance by Matthias Schweighöfer's parents, the casting, an English course of a somewhat different kind and a laughing fit during the recording of the commercial are to be found on the DVD, as well as on the Blu-Ray. All of these extras are quite amusing, but unfortunately come up far too short.

Exclusively on the Blu-Ray, there are just under 5 minutes of outtakes and the item "Self-Shot" to be found, which is footage the cast and crew shot with their camcorders during the shoot in America. Five videos can be found in this menu item: a trip through New York (approx. 5 min.), a somewhat longer look at the strip scene (approx. 3 min.), the amusing attempt by Friedrich Mücke to dub Matthias Schweighöfer (approx. 2 min.), as well as a look at the filming (approx. 10 min.) and impressions from the set (approx. 8 min.). Since these videos are completely commercial-free, unlike the other featurettes, they give a good impression of the atmosphere during the filming and are very entertaining to watch.

The theatrical trailer as well as a program preview with three additional trailers round out the bonus package.

Conclusion:"Friendship" is an entertaining culture-crash comedy that is a pleasant breath of fresh air in the German cinema landscape. On Blu-Ray, the film also pleases with its good picture and sound quality and entertaining extras. For lovers of young German cinema with a high fun factor, this disc is absolutely recommended!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp