Zettl (2 Stars)

The Bavarian chauffeur Max Zettl desperately wants to become a reporter. He already knows the top politicians and celebrities in Berlin, so he thinks he's the best person to write gossip columns about their hidden secrets. He convinces the publisher Urs Doucier that he's qualified, but the job that he's offered exceeds his wildest expectations. He's made the chief editor of a new magazine, The New Berliner. He's expected to find scandals for the first edition.

The first thing he does is create his own scandal. The German Chancellor is seriously ill in hospital. When the Chancellor dies he persuades the doctor to keep it secret. Government officials find out, but they don't tell anyone because they're afraid that the coalition government will collapse. Three days later he reports that Germany is being governed by a dead man.

The second thing is to cover up a scandal that the Bild Zeitung is about to publish. They've found out that the woman mayor of Berlin is really a man who has wanted a sex change operation for years, but it wasn't allowed in East Germany. To stop this story being printed, or at least to stop it being believed, he persuades the mayor to tell the press that she's his mother.

As I've often said, modern German films are of consistently high quality. The exception is comedies. The trouble with "Zettl" is that it just isn't funny. The film tries hard, but it misses the mark. Not even the superb acting of Karoline Herfurth, who plays the German Chancellor's lover, can save the film.