Sunday 6 October 2013

Whisky with Vodka (4 Stars)


Otto Kullberg, played by Henry Hübchen, is a famous German actor. He's starred in over 50 films. His main problem is alcohol. His last film had to be abandoned after six months of filming, because he was unable to continue. Now he's been given another chance. He has the lead role in a film called "Tango for three", in which he has an affair with a mother and her daughter. After Otto collapses drunk on the set of the film the studio panics and makes a drastic suggestion: all the scenes in which Otto appears have to be filmed twice, once with Otto and once with a replacement actor. This isn't just so that the film can be salvaged if Otto bombs out again, it's to motivate Otto to try harder. A much younger actor is chosen, Arno Runge, an experienced theatre actor who has never made any films.

The effect on Otto is dramatic. Seeing a younger man playing his role reminds him of his own age. "We don't become old, we wake up one day and we're old". The competition between Otto and Arno continues off screen. The film's leading lady, Bettina Moll, is the director's wife, but also one of Otto's many ex-lovers. Otto rekindles his relationship with Bettina, but Arno also makes advances to her.


This is a film by Andreas Dresen, a director who impresses me more with every film he makes. His fims might be boring to Anglo-American audiences. Rather than overwhelming the viewer with action, he astonishes us by his portrayals of people, real people that we can relate to. A statement that the director in the film makes to explain the film's meaning can be interpreted as Dresen's explanation of all his films:

"I don't make a film because I'm certain of something, but because I want to discover something. A film is just an assumption. It's about finding new ways to portray things that keep repeating themselves, the great phenomena in life: love, death and the weather".
The film has only been released in Germany, but like all of Andreas Dresen's films the DVD contains English subtitles. I strongly recommend it to anyone bold enough to discover a film different to what he usually watches. In fact, I can recommend all of his films.

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