Horst in Translation ([email protected])
"Otto - The Movie" is the first of 5 Otto films where actor Otto Waalkes plays basically the same character and being from summer 1985 it is almost as old as myself. It was directed by Xaver Schwarzenberger who got in the film industry by being Rainer Werner Fassbinder's cinematographer on several works and this is his first directorial effort for the big screen. Fassbinder was already dead at this point. Schwarzenbergwer worked on another Otto film afterward and his maybe most known work then is as a cinematographer again on Dietl's Oscar-nominated "Schtonkh!". Anyway, back to Waalkes. He is in his 60s by now and still one of Germany's most lauded and respected comedians. He is also still active in the movie industry and has given us his approaches on Snow White and Ocean's Eleven in recent years. In this film here, he does not only play the central character, but also many minor characters such as his own parents. But not the naked woman in the window. Looks like in the 80s you could already show that kind of stuff, at least for a short moment without getting everybody upset.There is one scene in here which is really politically incorrect. It is prank with a black guy and modern slavery included and I found it really funny. And about how he drinks his coffee. Very provocative yes, but exactly my kind of humor. Shameless. The main plot, though, is a man who gets in trouble with a ruthless investor, but is lucky enough to save the life of a young woman with very rich parents. Sadly the desired reward does not happen. The film features some actors who very very popular 30 years ago. The almost immortal Johannes Heesters appears in one scene. And so does Günther Kaufmann, also a Fassbinder collaborator. One of the main antagonists is played by Sky du Mont, who was already quite a star back then, also internationally, and then again rose to fame almost 20 years later by being the antagonist again in the successful Bully Herbig movies. The audience must have enjoyed all the word-plays in this movie as it was a crowd magnet and truly successful at the box office in 1985. It won the Golden Screen and also a Bambi which is usually given to films relevant to culture. Otto also shows us his musical talent and uses quite a few classics including the Comedian Harmonists "Mein kleiner grüner Kaktus". And it seems not only audiences enjoyed it, as occasionally I felt that some of the characters were laughing out of character just because they found Otto so funny in his role.However, let me warn you that this film is entirely different compared to today's (German) comedies. Humour was simply something else in the 80s. The alarm button scene was just the weirdest thing ever and so was the Heino song parody. Other than that, you can enjoy the film for Otto's frequent changing of costumes and maybe also for the action sequence at the end. Guess they really wanted to include one for the sake of it. Solid movie and I had a fun time occasionally watching this. Recommended.
silvan_prefetzky
In 1985, people got, for what they were waiting for more than 10 years: Germany's most popular comedian, Otto Waalkes, finished his first feature film, after several stage programs, TV shows and LPs. And even the critics had to admit: it was a very funny film. Okay, you should be German from the Seventies and Eighties to understand this sense of humor, but this mixture of pure slapstick, verbal jokes, absurdities, satirical side gags, visual ideas and Marx-Brothers-like drive is a little bit genius. Written by some of Germany most popular satirical playwrights, is "Otto- Der Film" nothing more than a skeleton of a plot with an endless stream of shorter or longer comedy episodes attached to it. Otto is a young man from East-Frisia (which is in north-western Germany), arriving at hamburg, with no job, no money and no plan. He loans some money from a loan shark and now has to pay back the sum of 9.876,50 deutsche Mark. Whean he steals some cement, he accidentally saves young heiress Sylvia from death and gets in contact with her family, the super-rich "von Kohlen and Reibachs". Already in love with Sylvia, who wants to marry the snob Ernesto, he try to get the money, the woman and everything he wants. In 85 Minutes an endless stream of funny or not-so-funny episodes roll down from the screen and Otto is always the center. His best scenes are definitely the arrival in Hamburg, a visit in the rich family's house, a hunting party for a hare ("dead or not living"), his search for Sylvia's evening dinner in the "Creme de la Creme" which leads him accidentally to the biker joint "Chrome de la Chrome", where he saves the day by knowing right joke answer ("What's invisible and smells like a hare? - A Rabbit's Fart?"), his entry an the evening dinner and the hilarious scene on a cemetery at night (somethat inspired by Michael Jacksons "Thriller" where a heck of "Heinos" (Germanys famous "folk singer" with white hair and dark glasses), coming out of their graves. In other episodes, he sells a slave (an American soldier) to an old woman and then returns and cashes the registry fee or he try to entertain some seniors, which are not amused. A running gag is the sum of DM 9876,50, which turns up every time he don't need it: the hunting trophy's worth, a jewel and finally his lifesavers present: a bottle of old wine. Otto is always silly, and if not, he pretends to be clever (what is silly again), ending in another catastrophe. But nearly 90 Minutes, you can laugh really hard, if you like his style, because his timing is always right this time. Enjoy it - but if you are not German, there will be some difficulties to understand the hilarious wordplay.
Karl Self
Otto Waalkes is essentially the smallest common denominator of German humour, and a strange concoction: Waalkes himself a talented performer with a tendency to become irritating quickly if left without direction, constantly yodelling and grimacing with a Tourette syndrome - like permanence; on the other hand, much of his material was written by some of Germany's foremost satirists and poets such as Gernhardt, Knorr, Eilert.His first feature movie shows Waalkes at his best by balancing his goofyness with a good story line, great actors and excellent camera work -- the kind of movie I enjoy watching time and again when I am in the mood for some light entertainment.Unfortunately, most of Otto's other work is not really up to the standard he set with his first movie, especially the atrocious sequel "Otto, der neue Film".
andreas_bruderer
After a bunch of stand-up live programs, it was the time for Otto Waalkes, a popular comedian in the late 70's and early 80's to move to the big screen. The result is a film without the smallest amount of acting ability but with a huge lot of gags and parodies. Even though I think "Otto-der Liebesfilm" is better than the first one, I like it and can it see over and over again.
