Lonely Hearts Club

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Movie
Original title Lonely Hearts Club
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 2019
length 90 minutes
Rod
Director Christine Hartmann
script Christine Hartmann, Gerlinde Wolf
production Florian Deyle , Philip Schulz-Deyle , Telenormfilm GmbH
music Fabian Römer
camera Peter Nix
cut Cosima Fast
occupation

Lonely Hearts Club is a German tragic comedy by Christine Hartmann with Hannelore Elsner , Jutta Speidel and Uschi Glas in the leading roles of three friends, whose broken friendship is renewed after 45 years. The film premiered on June 8, 2019 on Das Erste .

action

Kiki: “The other day I read - somewhere - it was probably in the newspaper, it doesn't matter that people are happiest when they get into a flow . This happens when you are so busy with something that you forget everything around you. I also remember exactly how it feels when you're really happy. Completely blown away, out of sheer longing. "Helga:" But it becomes more and more difficult as you get older. Because these moments never exist. Most of it is known anyway, because most of the people you used to know are never there anyway. "

Helga Kreitmann and Maria Brenner, both almost 70 and widowed, who live in the tranquil town of Landshut , unexpectedly meet their former friend Kiki Kröschel again during a painting course, who is presented there as a model. It's been a long time since the three of them saw each other. Helga and Maria bear against Kiki that they let them sit 45 years ago with a lease agreement that had already been signed for the local dance café. Kiki learns that Maria, who has meanwhile handed over her jewelry business to her son Jakob, goes to every funeral in town and that Helga, who lives in an old row house, is still mourning her husband. When an over 30s party is held in the former dance café “Düll”, Kiki can persuade Helga and Maria to go there. That evening, Kiki suggests to the friends that they take over the café, which is due to close shortly, and let the dream come true after all.

Since Helga and Maria do not want to know anything about it and believe that nobody needs Kiki in Landshut, she decides to end her life and jump off a bridge. Fortunately, it fails and Helga, who had a premonition of what it would be like in Kiki, tells her friend beaming with joy that she has decided to buy the dance café and reopen it. So she sells her home and buys the café. Her daughters Sabine and Riccarda, who wanted their mother to sell the house but had their own plans with the proceeds, are appalled. Maria is also involved in the project by both of them, her son Jacob behaving as selfishly as Helga's daughters. Together they plan to put their mothers in a retirement home. Renovating the café is turning out to be more difficult and costly than the three women had hoped, and a burst water pipe puts the undertaking even more at risk. So Maria decides, together with Kiki, to take her jewelry from the safe of the family jewelry store. The two women witness the adultery by Jakob Brenner with Helga's daughter Sabine, who sleep together in the shop.

Helga and Maria impressively make it clear to their children that they have a right to their own life and its design, which makes Jakob Brenner and Sabine and Riccarda Kreitmann rethink their behavior. An old friend of Helga, Lothar Wessel, leaves his provincial wife Josefine and confesses to Helga that she has always been his great love. On the day of the opening, the old-style café is filled to the last seat and Kiki is nervous about her appearance behind the stage. The formerly successful singer performs the chanson "I want to turn the wheel of time and last forever" for which she receives ample applause and is celebrated by those present.

production

Production dates, shooting

The film was produced by telenormfilm GmbH for ARD Degeto Film . Florian Deyle and Philip Schulz-Deyle acted as producers . Claudia Luzius and Sascha Schwingel were responsible for editing.

The filming for Club of the Lonely Hearts took place from July 23 to August 23, 2018 in Munich and Landshut , there mainly in the old town, in the pedestrian zone, around Dreifaltigkeitsplatz and in Ländgasse. Christine Hartmann, who wrote and directed the script, was born in Landshut.

background

Nobody on the film set suspected how seriously ill Hannelore Elsner was at that time and that she only had a few months left due to her cancer. Uschi Glas said that the colleague “stood in front of the camera with so much energy” and “shot a lot until the very end”, “because working in front of the camera, the film, was her life”. "Hannelore never once gave the impression that she was not doing well," said Uschi Glas and added that she was as always: the delicate woman with the unique, stunning smile and the wonderful voice. She felt herself fully into her role. “Hannelore shot with energy and joy. She was there 100 percent. ”They had a lot of fun and talked for a long time in the hotel in the evening. When they broke up, they agreed to see each other more often and to shoot another film together. The death of the colleague shook her deeply, says Glas. According to his own statement, Glas can understand that Hannelore Elsner did not make her illness public because it was an intimate matter and her right.

Christine Hartmann said that it was downright absurd when she saw the film that Hannelore Elsner was no longer there and was deeply shaken by the actress's so quick death. They planned to watch the film together. That it never happened again hurts her soul. She will keep the laughter of Hannelore Elsner in her heart and her words that you have to have awe and humility before every project. It was a great honor for her to be able to shoot this film with this actress.

publication

The film, which was broadcast for the first time on June 8, 2019 on ARD in the program Das Erste , was released on DVD on November 1, 2019 by Studio Hamburg Enterprises GmbH. The international title of the film is Club of the Lonely Hearts ; in Russia the film was released under the title Клуб одиноких сердец (Club odinokikh serdets) .

reception

Audience rating

When it premiered on TV on June 8, 2019, the film was first seen by a total of 4.11 million viewers and achieved a market share of 16.1 percent. For the young audience of the “14 to 49 year olds”, the quota meter recorded a value of 0.33 million, since Hannelore Elsner, Uschi Glas and Jutta Speidel had “no fascination” with this audience.

criticism

Tilmann P. Gangloff described the television film in the Frankfurter Rundschau as “a film that obviously doesn't want to hurt anyone” and “far too good to be really angry”. "It's a shame" is "especially the potential of the three leading actresses". "Successful" is "at least the song selection".

The Berliner Morgenpost rated the television film as "harmlessly amusing", although it lacks the "right bite"; especially the dialogues are classified as "amazingly tame". The fact that "the tragicomedy still touches [e] is due to Elsner, Glas and Speidel, who are passionate about the matter". “A soft melancholy” permeates “the 90 minutes of film, which is also about fear - of loneliness, of ailments and death”. For example, “'The Lonely Hearts Club' is a wonderful farewell present for a great Hannelore Elsner”.

On the Golden Camera page , the film is the TV tip with a rating of four out of five possible cameras, “because ... Uschi Glas, Jutta Speidel and the recently deceased Hannelore Elsner can see the fun of this funny and sad best-ager story . An entertaining comedy with a lot of sensitivity. A worthy TV farewell to our award winner Hannelore Elsner. "

Prisma wrote about Hannelore Elsner's performance: “Without wanting to posthumously praise: Hannelore Elsner's Kiki is the best in this film […]. In her downright desperate role as a motivator, she is a warning symbol of the joie de vivre from times long past. ”Elsner's appearance at the end of the film was also praised, in which she as Kiki“ the new old dance café in a black dress with a wonderfully sentimental song behind the 1960s microphone ”. With her dark girl's voice she sings: "Time flies - who's holding it up, but my eyes are still the same - young and alert, ready for more."

In the Star the question was asked whether the switching of the film worthwhile. The answer was: “Yes, because it's a very nice role for Hannelore Elsner in an entertaining film. And her film partners also let their comedic and tragic talent run wild. ”The other actors and the music in the film, which put people in a“ good mood ”, were also praised. "Speaking of which: For the end, real Elsner fans should have their handkerchiefs ready ..."

Axel Weidemann from the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung didn't like the film and said that for “Hannelore Elsner in one of her last roles” as well as for Jutta Speidel and Uschi Glas one would have “wished for a worthy, romantic comedy”. However, it turns out differently. "The attempts of the film are topics that many productions struggle to deal with" - "Love and sex in old age, dealing with death or the question of whether relationships inevitably come to an end", "when certain limits are exceeded "Would, -" to negotiate, honorable. But if all the promisingly beginning scenes with their consistently experienced actresses had to plunge into the gorges of punchlines ”,“ those who were born after 1920 would lose their fun, then it would [become] tragic ”.

Jan Freitag from the Stuttgarter Zeitung also drew a negative conclusion for the film. He wrote: “Hannelore Elsner, Germany's last true film diva, plays Kiki with noticeable devotion. It deserves a better script than that of the experienced 'Tatort' director Christine Hartmann. "Jutta Speidel looks in her role" 90 minutes like a frightened deer, while Uschi Glas always puts a little too much bitterness in her stubborn Maria " cant. One wished "already halfway through the film, therefore, that Hannelore Elsner wouldn't watch the 'Club of Lonely Hearts' from above" again. "

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Shooting for the ARD film "Club of the Lonely Hearts" on Dreifaltigkeitsplatz See wochenblatt.de
  2. ↑ a b "Club of Lonely Hearts": A homage for Hannelore Elsner see page goldenekamera.de.
    Retrieved November 18, 2019.
  3. ↑ Philipp Seidel: Christine Hartmann on "Club of Lonely Hearts" In: idowa , June 7, 2019.
  4. ↑ Club of Lonely Hearts Fig. DVD case (in the picture Jutta Speidel, Hannelore Elsner, Uschi Glas)
  5. ↑ The “Club of Lonely Hearts”: The entire audience can be attracted with female star power.
    See page quotenmeter.de
  6. ↑ "Club of Lonely Hearts": Nothing left to lose. In: Frankfurter Rundschau , June 8, 2019.
    Retrieved November 18, 2019.
  7. ↑ Hannelore Elsner's last role: “Club of the lonely hearts” In: Berliner Morgenpost , June 8, 2019.
    Retrieved November 18, 2019.
  8. ↑ Wilfried Geldner: Hannelore Elsner in a homeland film of the homeless see page prisma.de.
    Retrieved November 18, 2019.
  9. ^ "Lonely Hearts Club". Charming tragic comedy with Hannelore Elsner In: Stern , June 7, 2019.
    Retrieved November 18, 2019.
  10. ^ Axel Weidemann: Film with Hannelore Elsner. Mein Gott, Walter In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , June 8, 2019.
    Retrieved November 18, 2019.
  11. ↑ Jan Friday: "Club of Lonely Hearts" in the first. A dance café for cheerful seniors In: Stuttgarter Zeitung , June 7th, 2019.
    Accessed on November 18th, 2019.