Bye bye Berlusconi!

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
German title Bye bye Berlusconi!
Original title Buonanotte Topolino
Country of production Germany , Italy
original language Italian
Publishing year 2006
length 89 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Jan Henrik Stahlberg
script Lucia Chiarla
Jan Henrik Stahlberg
production Martin Lehwald ,
Michal Pokorny
music Phirefones, Rainer Oleak
camera Nicolas Joray
cut Nicola Undritz
occupation

Bye bye Berlusconi! (Original title: Buonanotte Topolino ) is a political satire about the reign of the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi . The feature film was made in 2006 as a low-budget production in a German-Italian collaboration. The director was the German actor and young director Jan Henrik Stahlberg . He wrote the script together with the screenwriter and actress Lucia Chiarla.

action

The Italian actress Lucia is following the dubious machinations of the Prime Minister, who has been in power since 1994, with increasing anger, which she records in a diary. One day she decides not to just watch it go on, but to do something about it. Your plan is to kidnap the controversial statesman and to expose in a show trial how dubious the methods he uses are. The director Jan is supposed to capture the whole process together with his small film crew from Genoa .

However, Lucia is instructed by a lawyer that films about actually living people are legally problematic and would bring nothing but trouble. The lawyers of the producer Roberto advise the team not to call Berlusconi by his name in order to prevent a possible lawsuit. Lucia and Jan decide to declare the project as satire. So the decision was made to name the main character Topolino, the Italian name for Mickey Mouse (in the German version “Micky Laus”). The film store is located in Hühnerhausen, where Topolino is mayor and runs the soccer club "AC Hühnerhausen". He also sells melons on a large scale and is the owner of the private television station "Tele Melon". He has become very rich through his cooperation with the Mafia . Falsified accounts , tax evasion , kickback payments , perjury and bribery are all on his account . To force a trial, he is kidnapped by a radical group of left-wing artists, namely Daisy, Kater Karlo and the dog poop. The increasing hysteria on the set, especially with Lucia, reflects the mood during the shooting of the film in the film. The team that makes the film about Berlusconi is constantly threatened by the Italian authorities.

The residents of Hühnerhausen are now called upon to decide whether Topolino is guilty and if so, how long he has to atone for his actions in prison and, above all, they have to decide whether he can continue to act in the center of power. In a public trial transmitted via the Internet, the verdict was given: 90 years in prison.

production

Production notes

The film was produced by Schiwago Film in cooperation with HR , distributed in Spain by Paycom Multimedia, in Germany by Jetfilm and on DVD by Kinowelt Home Entertainment.

The film was originally shot in Italian, which was intended to prevent possible accusations that Germans would interfere in Italian affairs.

background

Maurizio Antonini is a double of Silvio Berlusconi . For legal reasons, it was decided not to portray real people in the film. The critic Frédéric Jaeger wrote of the two levels on which the film moves that they increasingly mix in the course of the film, which makes the confusion perfect in the end. Although the film “does not have the necessary explosiveness to evoke real awareness”, it still manages to “describe the limitations and states of fear that result from the undemocratic conditions in the middle of Europe”, precisely because it refrains from polemics.

Anne Wotschke from Programmkino.de wrote that the film “despite its satirical character” orientated itself strictly to reality in the “legal details”. All of the charges raised in the film are real allegations, as Berlusconi and his staff were involved in numerous criminal proceedings. These were about proximity to the Mafia, falsification of accounts, tax evasion and bribery. Berlusconi was not convicted in any of these cases, and a large part of the proceedings was statute-barred. In addition, charges have been dropped because the Berlusconi government has since changed laws in Berlusconi's favor.

About Silvio Berlusconi

Silvio Berlusconi (2015)

Silvio Berlusconi (* 1936) is an Italian politician and entrepreneur. He was Italy's prime minister four times (from 1994–1995, 2001–2005, 2005–2006 and 2008–2011) as well as interim foreign, economic and health ministers. He is the owner of the Fininvest group and, according to Forbes' 2015 list, one of the richest men in Italy with a fortune of just under $ 8 billion. He is known not only for his political offices, but also for affairs and so-called bunga-bunga parties . Several proceedings are pending against him in Italian courts. In August 2013, he was convicted of tax fraud, including a two-year ban on holding public office.

reception

Publication, DVD

The film was presented at the Berlinale on February 10 , 2006, and was shown in German cinemas on March 30, 2006. On June 3, 2006 it was screened at the Alba Regia International Film Festival in Hungary. On September 4th, 2009 it was released in Spain.

The Italian distributors refused to release the film in Italy . The matter was too hot for all major distributors. At the premiere of the film, Maurizio Antonini, the Berlusconi double, was present and was partly believed to be real. At the premiere of the film in Berlin there was a demonstration against Berlusconi in front of the cinema. An Italian music group belonging to the film team started the Internationale in the cinema .

The film was released on DVD under the number 3/2006 Der deutsche Film as part of the two-thousand-one edition. The film was released by Studiocanal on May 2, 2008 with a German soundtrack on DVD.

criticism

Jakob Nienstedt criticized on stern.de that interviews with the actors were integrated into the plot, which would seem “confusing” and “frightening”. He described the film as not humorous enough and boring. Nienstedt praised the “perfect presentation” by Maurizio Antonini […], but criticized the fact that the “occasionally interspersed, pseudo-documentary interviews with the actors” caused final “confusion” because they “had the same first names as the members of the Film crew in the film ”, which means that cinema-goers never know“ who is actually speaking their comments into the camera ”. [...] “In particular, the audience who are not very familiar with the history of Berlusconi” would […] “tend to be confused and scared”.

Anne Wotschke from Programmkino.de found that the German actor Jan Henrik Stahlberg impressed "in his first directorial work [...] with an exaggerated satire that nonetheless sticks closely to reality". Wotschke continued: "Not only the skilful blending of fiction and reality is convincing in Stahlberg's directorial debut, but also Maurizio Antonini as Berlusconi's perfect doppelganger."

In his remarks for critic.de, Frédéric Jaeger was of the opinion that in Italy it “was anything but easy to make a film against the Prime Minister. Even if he [is] financed out of his own pocket, the fear of reprisals and lawsuits is inevitable. […] The dividing line between satire and slander [will] also be in Bye Bye Berlusconi! thematized. ”It was also said that Stahlberg relied on a“ documentary-looking form ”in his first film as a director. Using hectic handheld cameras and interview situations with the film team, he suggests closeness to reality. ”And further:“ The guerrilla shoot that he stages provides little more than a framework, although it is caused by the reprisals of the law enforcement officers and the constant latent danger says more than the colorful farce about the melon manufacturer. But beyond the theses represented, the situations around the shoot remain very simple and the characters are only described one-dimensionally. On the other hand, the repeatedly broadcast advertising from the television program of the melon broadcaster seems almost awesome. As a criticism of the senseless sexualization of advertising, it is more pointed than the condemnation of Topolino as a criticism of the still fundamentally missing trial against Berlusconi. "

Dina Maestrelli from Skip - Das Kinomagazin wrote: "Satirical means are to be used to convince the Italians to retire the Berlusconi government in the next elections."

Kino.de was of the opinion that the “complex nested film-in-film real satire” required “some concentration” from the viewer, even if it was “simple”. It was also said that “while the references to the comics seemed rather silly”, the “second level was all the more explosive”. "Consistently" plays "Stahlberg the two narrative levels against each other". Since he “doesn't make the levels recognizable”, one has to “orientate oneself again and again with every change of scene”.

For Cinefacts .de it was an “eager, brave, cheeky anti-Berlusconi film” in which a lot “improvised”, a lot seemed “wildly original” and some had “its length”. “In fact, the story of the film team that [had to] circumvent legal hurdles, also the story of Stahlberg and his co-author, actress and partner Lucia Chiarla, who ran into legal and financial difficulties when designing their anti-Berlusconi film “Advised. The film is "more than pure Berlusconi bashing". Bye Bye Berlusconi is “cinematically strongest” when he relies on “his clear satirical power” and thus drives “a clear single track”. “Linking Berlusconi's empire with Duckburg” is “a brilliant idea”.

Barbara Schweizerhof wrote for epd-Film that the recordings got their “particularly irritating charm” from the fact that “whenever the name Berlusconi is mentioned” there is “a beep while a grinning Berlusconi double is sitting at the table as a crew member” . Among the “satirical highlights” of the film, Schweizerhof counted the scenes that show what the television station Tele Melon is sending “into the air”. There is "advertising with lewd-acting young women, the stupid, one-sided reporting on the kidnapping and above all the insanity of the tapes constantly scrolling through the screen", which called for "downloading the song of the kidnapped mayor as a ringtone for your cell phone" .

The film expert Marek Bringezu wrote at Zweiausendeins .de : “When the actor Jan Henrik Stahlberg wrote his satire 'Bye bye Berlusconi!' Presented at the Berlinale in February 2006, Silvio Berlusconi is ruling Italy for a second time. The first term of office lasted from 1994 to 1996, the second from 2001 to 2006. When Berlusconi lost the parliamentary elections in April 2006 and resigned on May 2, 2006, the film dream came true in a strange way. But only two years later the politician was back in power and it wasn't until November 12th last year that he resigned from his post as head of government, now for the third time. ”Bringezu also wrote that the film was a“ courageous experiment ”[... ] and thanks to the “amazing Berlusconi doppelganger Maurizio Antonini in the lead role”, “the boundaries between reality and film fantasy are ingeniously blurred”.

Award

Yasmin Khalifa and Carola Gauster were awarded the Femina Film Prize for equipment at the 56th International Film Festival in Berlin in 2006.

More films of this kind

  • 2005: Viva Zapatero! , Film satire about Berlusconi, attracted more than 300,000 viewers to Italian cinemas.
  • 2006: The Italian
  • 2006: Quando era Silvio, DVD supplement to a left-wing weekly magazine

When asked about the films by Le Monde, Berlusconi is said to have said: "I am the Jesus Christ of politics, a patient victim who endures everything and who sacrifices himself for everyone."

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Berlusconi, Goethe and the lawyer in the cutting room - Berlusconi and his scandals sS dw.com
  2. ↑ a b c Frédéric Jaeger: Bye Bye Berlusconi! - Criticism sS critic.de, March 1, 2006. Retrieved March 13, 2018.
  3. ↑ a b c Anne Wotschke: Bye Bye Berlusconi! sS Programmkino.de, June 2006. Retrieved on March 13, 2018.
  4. ↑ a b c Bye Bye Berlusconi !: Satire-political drama mix against Berlusconi by the “Muxmäuschenstill” author / actor.
    sS kino.de. Retrieved March 13, 2018.
  5. ↑ a b Bye Bye Berlusconi - Zweiausendeins Edition Deutsche Film 3/2006. sS zweiausendeins.de. Retrieved March 13, 2018.
  6. ↑ Bye Bye Berlusconi Fig. DVD case
  7. ↑ Jakob Nienstedt: Bye, Bye Berlusconi! - A film wants to overthrow Italy's head of government,
    see p. stern.de, March 30, 2006. Retrieved March 13, 2018.
  8. ↑ Dina Maestrelli: Bye Bye Berlusconi! sS skip.at. Retrieved March 13, 2018.
  9. ↑ Barbara Schweizerhof: Bye Bye Berlusconi - Filmmaking in Protest sS filmzentrale.com. Retrieved March 13, 2018.