Farewell performance
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Farewell performance |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1986 |
| length | 108 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Peter Weck |
| script | Curth Flatow |
| production |
Otto Meissner for novafilm |
| camera | Igor Luther |
| cut | Helga Olschewski |
| occupation | |
| |
Farewell Performance is a German television film by Peter Weck from 1986 .
action
A number of formerly successful actors and singers live in the artist retirement home Ewige Rampe , which was once donated by Erna Schulze-Beiersdorf. You are preparing the birthday of actress Beatrice Roemer the next day. Only the roommate Eva Berger is not invited. She confronts Beatrice about it before lunch and Beatrice clearly shows her how much she despises her. In her eyes, Eva Berger is at most a little extra, and due to her many years of activity as a gossip columnist Beatrice is a thorn in the side anyway. Eva threatens to make things from Beatrice's past public. A little later, Eva is dead and, like the first treating doctor, Dr. Schroeder found that it was poisoned with hydrocyanic acid because it smelled of almonds.
Chief Inspector Richter and Assistant Löffler from the homicide squad take on the case. Eva died at lunch, which besides her only Beatrice attended. Both had left the room in between to make a phone call. When Beatrice came back into the room from her phone call, Eva had already passed away. Beatrice passed out and has not been accessible since then. We had almond pudding for lunch, but one of the two pudding bowls smells more like almond than the other. Richter has her examined. Home manager Renate Werner had received an envelope from Eva ten days before her death in which Richter found a notebook, among other things. It shows that Eva regularly received money from some residents. Richter assumes that these people were blackmailed by Eva. After reporting to the residents of the home about Eve's death, he begins the individual interviews.
Former dancer Frank van Doorn admits to having paid Eva. He had once stolen groceries and was given a short prison term for it. Since, according to the statutes, people who have stolen are not allowed to be admitted to the home, Frank paid Eva for her silence. The former soubrette Rosi Hargitay paid Eva because she had secretly made herself a few years younger and otherwise her comeback as Dolly in Hello Dolly would have been endangered. Peter Paulsen always claimed to be a chamber singer and to have sung in Bayreuth. Neither was true, which Eva knew, so that she also received money for her silence. Singer Elisabeth Wisotzki was not blackmailed by Eva and rather shows pity for the woman in conversation. Eva had once been enthusiastic about Elisabeth's reports on the trips around the world that she had undertaken with her twin sister, pianist Gertrud. When Gertrud committed suicide, Elisabeth lost her voice and has never performed again since. However, Eva, like the sisters, wanted to travel around the world shortly and was eager to save up for it. In her room there were various brochures about travel destinations all over the world.
The former actor Benno Behrmann keeps his secret and pretends to have voluntarily given the money out of gratitude. He didn't get along with the founder Erna Schulze-Beiersdorf, who founded the home at Eva's suggestion. After Erna's death, it was Eva who campaigned for Benno to be accepted. He regularly has strong coughs, which he fights with cough syrup. Richter quickly realizes that Benno is actually an alcoholic - one reason why one is expelled from the home - and that there is pure cognac in the cough syrup bottles.
Richter makes a few phone calls while Löffler reads the autobiography Farewell Performance by Beatrice Roemer. Eva wanted to blackmail her over incidents that took place in the early 1950s. She also left out this time in her biography. While Löffler is absorbed in the book in the reading room, Elisabeth and Peter appear. Peter makes sure that the police have not discovered Elisabeth's secret: she is actually the pianist Gertrud Wisotzki, who after her sister Elisabeth's suicide assumed her identity at her request. Elisabeth's income was significantly better than Gertrud's. Peter knows about Gertrud's secret because he heard her play the piano. Gertrud, on the other hand, knows Peter's secret, but both are in love with each other and do not reveal their knowledge to anyone. Löffler also keeps it to himself. Together with Richter, he interrogates Beatrice, who admits she is indirectly responsible for Eva's death. After Eva's threat to give her secret to the press, Beatrice wanted to kill herself in front of Eva's eyes. She poisoned her own pudding with hydrogen cyanide, which she had received from her nephew years ago. However, she lost heart. She gathered herself together, then called her nephew to say goodbye and then returned to the room. Eva had phoned shortly before her and returned pale. After Beatrice's return she was dead because she stole Beatrice's dessert, as she regularly did. Richter thinks that Beatrice could at least be charged with negligent homicide and Beatrice is now trying to take her own life with the rest of the poison ampoule. However, the poison does not work because her nephew had filled the ampoule with a harmless liquid from the start. Richter has also long known that Eva died of a heart attack. He also knows the reason for this: Eva wanted to go on a trip around the world and withdrew her entire fortune for the purpose a few days ago. Your tour operator Weite-Welt-Reisen turned out to be fraudulent and the manager had disappeared with her money. She found out exactly that in the phone call Eva made shortly before her death. The excitement that followed led to a heart attack.
Beatrice's nephew appears and tells the inspector about the ominous weeks in the 1950s. Beatrice was supposed to take on a leading role in a play, but in the end the role went to another actress. After two failed suicide attempts, Beatrice found herself in the psychiatric ward, although she had only faked both attempts. However, she did not get out of the institution anytime soon and she wanted to keep this shame to herself. The case that wasn't one is now resolved. In the end, only Löffler has a problem: He flirted with the home manager Renate and invited her to the theater, but he has no tickets for the performance.
production
The farewell performance was filmed in the Berlin Union Film studios. Beatrice Kothe created the costumes . The film had its television premiere on March 17, 1986 on ZDF.
Director Peter Weck fondly remembered the shooting: “The subject matter and the circumstances were simply wonderful. [...] All these unique masters and comedians not only wanted to 'give their monkey sugar', but also revealed the human side and vanities of actresses with great devotion and self-irony, ”Weck said in retrospect in his memories .
Web links
- Farewell performance in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Farewell performance at filmportal.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Peter Weck: Is that it? Memories . Amalthea, Vienna 2010, p. 256.