Code name Dennis
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Code name Dennis |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1997 |
| length | 98 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 6 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Thomas Frickel |
| script |
Matthias Beltz , Thomas Frickel |
| production | Thomas Frickel |
| music | Dietmar Staskowiak |
| camera | Thomas Frickel |
| cut | Thomas Frickel |
| occupation | |
| |
The code name Dennis is a mockumentary by Thomas Frickel from 1997.
action
A detective, whose name remains unknown, is given the job of posing as Dennis Mascarenas' reporter from the US television station DDC Denver and exploring Germany to find out how dangerous the Germans are.
Mascarenas travels through Germany and interviews people to find out more about Germany. He deliberately holds back during the interviews and lets people explain their sometimes extreme views, which are often right-wing extremists .
In between, Mascarenas meets his client to report on his results. His final report reads that " the left is undermining the economy and the right is brainwashing". Besides, the Germans would know everything about the American plans. That is why Mascarenas suggests equipping the garden gnomes, beloved by the Germans, with eavesdropping technology in order to monitor the Germans. His client thinks this is nonsense and advises him to take a few days off.
The film ends with Mascarenas walking away with a garden gnome under his arm and believing that "the age of the garden gnome begins".
background
The film features interviews with the board of directors of the APD , Klaus Beier , Günter Deckert , Norbert Geis , Heinrich Lummer , Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann , Reinhold Oberlercher and the then CSU chairman Theo Waigel . Other contributors were the Coburg Convent and the artist Thomas Nicolai. An excerpt from a speech by CDU politician Wolfgang Schäuble can be seen at a party event .
In the end credits of the film, after a list of the people who were involved in the film (“With”), there is also a list of people who were not involved in the film (“Without”). On this stand, among other things, "Ameisenheger Bernhard Dorn", the world champion in letter opening, the German Institute for pure beer, the butchers' guild , Ernst Jünger , the State Hunting Association of Hesse, Cardinal Friedrich Wetter , the editors of Junge Freiheit and the politicians Gila Altmann , the then Federal President Roman Herzog , Herbert Hupka , the then Federal Chancellor Helmut Kohl , Rudolf Scharping , Friedrich Schorlemmer , Sahra Wagenknecht and the feminist party Die Frauen . Below the list is the sentence "and some others who got away with it ..."
In a podcast interview in July 2012, director Thomas Frickel stated that he was unable to show many interviews in the film because otherwise the film would have become too long. Frickel explained his approach to the film as follows:
“The thesis with which we went to the first film was this east-west , this east-west contrast, which has stabilized society for a long time, is gone , society crumbles into many small groups, the all fight each other to the knife and therefore the drivers there fight against the cyclists and the men against the women and one area that ended up in the outtakes under the code name Dennis was that the butchers also fight against the vegetarians [... ]. "
From 2005 to 2010 Thomas Frickel produced a sequel under the title The Moon Conspiracy , which premiered in June 2010. Also in this film reporter Dennis Mascarenas travels through Germany, the film is also in the documentary style like the code name Dennis. Thomas Frickel wanted to find out what it looks like ten years after the code name Dennis and noticed that above all the political ambitions are disappearing and the groups are concentrating more on their own perfection.
DDC TV
According to Thomas Frickel, Dennis RD Mascarenas is really an American journalist and the station DDC-TV ( Denver Documentary Channel-Television ) actually exists in America, but the station has only existed as a website since the license fee increased there . Originally, DDC-TV wanted to bring Americans of German descent closer to the countries of their ancestors. Dennis Mascarenas is listed as “Program Coordinator” and “Chief Reporter for European Affairs” on DDC-TV. The domain ddc-tv.com was rented for the first time in 2005 and is now registered with a cameraman from JuRiFilm, who is listed as "Technical Director" at DDC-TV. The American address and fax number is also identical to the address and fax number of JuRiFilm, only the addresses of the branches in Berlin of both companies differ.
Reviews
“A film about goldfish, traffic jams, male limbs cut off, World War III and the fourth Reich. A real satire about the deformed German self-confidence - as grotesque and biting as one might expect when the cabaret artist Matthias Beltz is partly responsible for the script. "
"Thomas Frickel's ethnological journey through his own country is an illuminating collection of material from the volkish hustle and bustle, a terribly comical real satire and a truly gruesome freak show."
“The result is a small, mean and very funny mirror of the current state of mind in Germany, a real satire with great entertainment and informational value. From 30 kilometers of exposed material and 45,000 kilometers traveled during a year, Frickel cut the “cover name Dennis” to size, with funny, logical or even associative interfaces. Otherwise, the documentary trip across Germany presented at the Berlinale and also received very positively at various festivals remains true to the naive questions posed by its cozy hero, who is actually a TV journalist, in its tone. The grin can also freeze the viewer at the daring statements of some protagonists. "
publication
The film was released as a VHS cassette and is now only available at high prices due to its rarity. Frickel ruled out a DVD release in 2012 because the film was shot on 16 mm film and post-production was too expensive for DVD quality. He suspects there won't be enough DVD sales to cover these costs.
Web links
- Code name Dennis in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Code name Dennis - cinema trailer
- Denver Documentary Channel
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e Holger Klein : WR087 Holger calls: At Thomas Frickel (because of the moon conspiracy) . WRINT.de. Retrieved July 15, 2012.
- ↑ The company . DDC TV. Retrieved July 15, 2012.
- ↑ The team . DDC TV. Retrieved July 15, 2012.
- ^ Domain Whois . Domaintools.com. Retrieved July 15, 2012.
- ↑ Thomas Rist . JuRiFilm. Retrieved July 15, 2012.
- ↑ Contact . DDC TV. Retrieved July 15, 2012.
- ↑ Contact . JuRiFilm. Retrieved July 15, 2012.