Daniel the magician
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Daniel the magician |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 2004 |
| length | 78 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK from 6 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Ulli Lommel |
| script | Ulli Lommel |
| production | Peter Schamoni |
| music | Robert Schulze |
| camera | Manuel Lommel |
| cut | Angelica Capricorn |
| occupation | |
| |
Daniel the Magician is a semi-documentary German film about the casting star Daniel Küblböck , who plays himself. The film is often cited as one of the worst films of all time.
action
The successful singer Daniel Küblböck is "loved by millions, hated by many" (so the subtitle). The two teenagers Rike and Tom finally make the decision to kill Daniel. They are supported morally, but not directly, by Baltazar. Daniel, on the other hand, is supported by his dead grandfather Johnny, who usually carries a tenor horn and a magic wand with him, sometimes only has one arm and wears a cap under his top hat.
A first attempt to assassinate Daniel fails when the teenagers are discovered and scared away by Daniel's singing teacher. Daniel is supposed to take part in a screen test for Hollywood . Johnny and Baltazar talk to each other. Baltazar is suddenly transformed into a cockroach by Johnny and only gets after the sentence “ I'm a star - get me out of here! “Back to his human form.
Later Daniel visits the girl Petra, who previously contacted Daniel in a fan letter and works in Daniel's hometown Eggenfelden in the café of his grandfather (Grandpa Winter). He can't stand Daniel's music and is encouraged by his guests. Daniel tastes a few cakes with his finger, buys them and gives Petra two tickets for his last concert of this year, which takes place in Passau .
Daniel is said to be shot on stage at this very concert. Instead, Rike just kidnaps him and takes him to her house. A little later, Tom arrives there too. Baltazar encourages him again to kill Daniel. The two teenagers want to film the execution in order to become “superstars” themselves. When Daniel is alone in the room, he is visited again by his grandfather, who encourages him for his most difficult test. Rike and Tom, however, fail to kill Daniel. Instead, they talk about their difficult childhoods, and Tom admits that Daniel's new song is not bad. Rike leaves and Daniel and Tom agree to be released and not to betray the two in return. So Daniel returns to his concert. Grandpa Winter is convinced by Daniel and is ultimately a fan who behaves “like a teenager”.
In the evening Johnny appears again. When Daniel asks about his Christmas present, the answer is that he has forgotten Rike and Tom and should give them his guitar. Daniel does not agree with this at first, but then he does it, whereupon the three become best friends.
Daniel finally finds a wand under the Christmas tree with the remark "from the one-armed man". Daniel's grandmother says that her husband only had one arm. This was a musician at the Oktoberfest . She shows a picture of him and learns that he had appeared to Daniel several times. She also says that Daniel can only use the wand to help people.
Johnny and Baltazar meet again. Baltazar says that Johnny won the battle, but the war is not over, and the new wizard does not know how to use his wand properly.
History of origin
Ulli Lommel stated in an interview that he was first made aware of Küblböck by his American girlfriend, who had seen him on television. Therefore, they attended a concert by Küblböck in the Circus Krone. Lommel said:
- “From the very first moment that Daniel performed, I felt an atmosphere in Circus Krone, I have never experienced anything like it in my entire life. It's the relationship he builds with 3000 people in a second - it was so intimate, real and authentic. It just took me away. The combination of my experiences with the Daniel phenomenon and Germany made me invent a story almost overnight. "
At first Lommel didn't know that Küblböck had emerged from the casting show Deutschland sucht den Superstar or that he had "created a polarity between hate and love". Lommel described the way in which one met Küblböck as "absolute madness" and tried to explain it with the words:
- “There are no real explanations for such irrational behavior. I know from my childhood that in Germany you were brought up that way, you don't do certain things there. One has to behave. And now Daniel comes and is not ready to take on these fixed, civil roles. He creates his own role. He breaks taboos, puts on make-up, puts on girls' clothes. He's crying, he's silly, he's hysterical. In short: he does not behave. And because he does that on a public level, I believe that some see it as salvation and love him, and the others cannot bear it and hate him. "
Daniel Küblböck stated that he had never heard the names Lommel and Schamoni. About the time with them he said:
- “And suddenly I was in a world that is completely different, where you don't talk about all this superficial. And I enjoyed it, thought to myself, it's good when these two worlds collide. "
Küblböck also commented on the relation to reality. In relation to the hostility he encountered, he confessed:
- "After the first day of shooting I cried, everything came up."
criticism
The response to the film was largely disastrous from both critics and audiences.
The Nürnberger Zeitung writes, for example: "The strip, shot almost entirely with a shaky hand-held camera, defies any evaluation criteria with its rudimentary story and dialogues that don't even reach porn level." The website FILMSTARTS.de gives a consistently negative review: "The film is unbearable for non-Küblböck fans. But even among the following of the jolly good-mood clown, only the very fanatics will enjoy 'Daniel - The Magician'. ”Because of the participation of Lommel and Schamoni, the site only speculates:“ Maybe this was a last cry for help, finally to be noticed again. ”In the end, she compares the film with a home video and only ascribes it a“ right to exist ”in“ Küblböck's living room ”. From this the page concludes: “Fortunately, very few - like Küblböck - have the means to actually bring their self-adulation to the movie theaters .” The Standard disparagingly describes the film as “semi-documentary grotesque”.
In the film service it was said that the action was implemented in an "amateur way" and "amateurish entertainment". The film fails to shed light on the "Küblböck phenomenon" and instead "merely multiplies its media clichés".
One of the few positive reviews can be found on filmkritiken.org : The film is staged like an "off-off play", they say, but Küblböck seems "just as fragile and unfinished as the teenage souls it sings about." The film celebrates the “trash culture, it cultivates the level of the camp ”. Küblböck has become "something of its own" and has "pushed the boundaries of the RTL horizon."
"Worst Film Ever"
The film is often referred to as one of the worst of all time: In the Internet Movie Database , Daniel, the magician , ranks among the worst films of all time, and in some phases he even took first place. On the movie rating platform Moviepilot , it even got an average rating of 0.4 out of 10 possible points from around 3,500 ratings; so it was voted the worst film of all time (as of September 2018).
In the Markus Lanz talk show in February 2013, Küblböck also rated the film as “terribly bad” and stated that Daniel the magician was “only recently voted the worst film of all time in America.” However, he himself took it with humor: “And not everyone can do that! "
On August 26, 2016, the film was shown in the series The worst films of all time on Tele 5 .
Financial failure
Daniel - The Wizard flopped in theaters. It had a total of 13,834 viewers with 107 copies and was canceled in most cinemas in the first week.
Trivia
- When Daniel has a nightmare, scenes from the RTL show Ich bin ein Star - Get me out of here! in which Küblböck had participated. Towards the end of the film, headlines are shown that document, among other things, Küblböck's traffic accident with a pickle truck.
- When Rike asks what's on TV, Daniel replies: " Germany is looking for the superstar ".
- Baltazar acts as a devil , Johnny as a god . While Daniel is doing the screen test, a female fan tells him that he saved his father from drowning in Lake Starnberg by appearing to him as an angel.
- In addition to Daniel, other members of the Küblböck family can be seen, with Daniel's father Günther Küblböck playing the most important role. Other members of the Lommel family can also be seen.
- Initially, Peter Schamoni couldn't understand Lommel's idea of shooting the film. He later financed the film and became a producer. His role in the film alludes to: He embodies Grandpa Winter, who is changing from a "Daniel hater" to a "Daniel fan".
Web links
- Daniel, the wizard in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Daniel, the magician at filmportal.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ moviepilot Charts: Daniel - The Magician as the worst film of all time , accessed on June 6, 2014
- ↑ a b c d Criticism and interview with those involved . nordbayern.de. Archived from the original on August 18, 2013. Retrieved September 2, 2014.
- ↑ In "Daniel, the Magician" Küblböck fights against his enemies (handelsblatt.com, August 5, 2004)
- ↑ Film review at FILMSTARTS.de
- ^ Director and film producer Peter Schamoni died on June 14, 2011
- ↑ Daniel the Magician , Film-Dienst website , accessed Dec. 4, 2018
- ↑ Film review at filmzentrale.com
- ↑ IMDb Charts: Daniel - The magician in the Bottom 100 list ( Memento from February 21, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ moviepilot Charts: Daniel - The Magician as Worst Film of All Time , accessed on October 29, 2013
- ↑ - ( Memento from June 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) accessed June 6, 2014
- ↑ Kino.de: Daniel - The Magician