The Drinker (1995)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The drinker |
| Country of production | Germany , Austria |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1995 |
| length | 99 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Tom Toelle |
| script | Ulrich Plenzdorf |
| production |
Martin Wiebel Harald Müller |
| music | Jürgen Knieper |
| camera | Achim Poulheim |
| cut | Karin Nowarra |
| occupation | |
| |
Der Trinker is a German-Austrian literary film adaptation from 1995 directed by Tom Toelle . The script written by Ulrich Plenzdorf is based on Hans Fallada's autobiographical novel The Drinker . Harald Juhnke , who took on the leading role in the television film, is said to have processed his own alcoholic illness with this role.
action
The food wholesaler Erwin Sommer and his wife Magda are a married couple for nearly 15 years. Together they run the business that Erwin Sommer inherited from his parents. Business setbacks after reunification , caused by the competition from large grocery chains, whose conditions he cannot offer his previous customers, gnaw at his low self-esteem. He wanders around aimlessly after the unsatisfactory conversations. Later, when Sommer shows up for lunch every day, he nags around, but doesn't address his real problem. He behaves strangely when he eats with his wife and, contrary to usual practice , demands wine with lunch. When Magda briefly leaves the room, he tumbles down the remaining wine in the bottle like water, but does not forget to fill the almost empty bottle with water.
When Magda comes back, she forces him to lie down. When Erwin wakes up again and learns from Else, the maid, that she has gone to the shop, he follows her there. Magda now knows for sure how the company is doing, it goes through his head. She will definitely find a way out to stop the financial ruin. When he sees his wife through the window on the phone, he sneaks away ashamed and ends up in the country inn, where Elinor, whom he secretly admires, works as a waitress. Elinor serves him a large beer and later also schnapps. When the young woman briefly leaves the room, he takes the opportunity, grabs the schnapps bottle and fills a water glass almost three-quarters with the clear and empties it in one go. When he pays, he adds a large note as a tip for Elinor and leaves the restaurant. Then he sits down on the edge of the platform immediately in front of it. Elinor follows him and takes him to her room. As she lies naked in bed, he kisses her exposed breasts, but then turns away and climbs through the window without shoes. At the embankment he takes a strong drag from his liquor bottle.
When he arrives at home with bleeding feet, he doesn't pay any attention to his disappointed-looking wife, but looks for all possible bottles of alcohol and brags about them in front of Magda, who watches him wordlessly and resignedly. Magda is also silent about his monologues, she even helps him bathe his bleeding feet in a bowl. The next morning, Sommer is ashamed. Meanwhile, Magda tries to save what can be saved in the business and, through skillful negotiation, actually manages to get the business going. When Erwin arrives, he assures his wife that his absence yesterday was a one-time affair and asks Magda how they are going to proceed together.
Later in a pub, however, Erwin cannot resist when the barman pours rum into his Coke and greedily empties the glass in one gulp. In the supermarket he buys more schnapps and toilet paper as a camouflage. He brings the toilet paper into the bathroom, but only to be able to hide his schnapps there at the same time. At Magda's request while eating, her general practitioner Dr. Erwin reacts very gruffly to visit Mansfeld. There is an ugly conversation that ends with Erwin leaving the house angry and showing up at Elinor's. Elinor pretends that the night in question never happened. Suddenly, Dr. Mansfeld in the restaurant. Summer is running away. As he walks along the embankment, the doctor stands in his way again and compliments Sommer in his car, where his wife is already waiting for him. With a meaningful look, she hands him his shoes, which he recently left with Elinor. When the car has to slow down because of a cyclist, Erwin runs away and ends up in a terrible bar, in which he rents. The dubious landlord smells a deal and mercilessly exploits Sommer's situation.
Erwin Sommer is now completely addicted to alcohol and drinks to excess, even if his stomach turns over in between and he doubles in pain. Lobedanz, as the landlord is called, is becoming increasingly greedy and demanding ever higher prices for the room. He also wants Erwin to go to the bank and raise more money, even though he has already given him his valuables. He forces Sommer to "break into" his own house and gives him a pistol, which he claims is just a "blank gun". Erwin finds little money in the cash box at home, but packs his savings account, cashier's checks and all the silverware in a suitcase, which falls to the floor and pops open and the drawer rumbles right afterwards. Startled by the noise, Magda stands in the door and the maid Else also appears. Magda asks Else, Dr. To notify Mansfeld. Sommer, however, harshly pushes his wife aside. Magda asks him to be sensible, together they will find a solution. Summer, however, is beside himself, attacks her and chokes her. When Else cries out in horror, he shoots the pistol he had brought with him. A bullet hits the wall not far from his wife. As he runs away, he hears Else shouting excitedly into the phone: "He wants to murder his wife!"
Erwin Sommer goes to the bank and withdraws 6,000 DM from his account. To his surprise, Lobedanz is already waiting for him in front of the bank and is determined to take the suitcase from him. When Sommer resisted and refused to give him up, Lobedanz dragged him into a train station toilet and, after a short fight, took the suitcase from him, which had cracked open after he had gathered everything up again. However, he overlooked some of the larger bills.
Erwin Sommer seeks refuge with Elinor again and tells her that he wants to run away with her. They drink champagne together, but then the police, alerted by the landlady, appear and lead Sommer away. He is asked about the weapon with which he shot his wife, and only now does he learn that it was not a blank gun, but a live weapon. Sommer is horrified to think that he could have met his wife. He is locked up. Magda has meanwhile reported Lobedanz, who is also being imprisoned and, as soon as he sees Sommer, rushes at him and bites off a piece of his nose. Sommer is transported away on a stretcher and later admitted to an addiction clinic.
When Sommer was released, his wife visits him for the first time. She tells him that the business is going better than ever before, and Erwin says that he wants to hand over the business entirely to her, which Magda likes very much. She now gets to the point and bluntly tells him that she will get a divorce because she has not only teamed up professionally with former competitor Liebl. Erwin Sommer takes this news apparently calmly. He doesn't want his wife to see what it really triggers in him. When Magda asks him what he intends to do after his release, he has no answer. Later alone in the doctor's room, he pours 96% alcohol into a glass, fills it up with tap water and empties it in one go. Then he collapses in the hallway. The last thing in his mind's eye is Elinor, before his suffering is over.
Production and Background
The drama was produced by Artus-Film in cooperation with WDR and ORF . The shooting took place in Berlin-Buch as well as in Nauen and Neuruppin in Brandenburg , furthermore in Wustrau-Altfriesack and Fehrbellin in Brandenburg. The equipment is from Götz Heymann , the mask from Karin Otto and Hasso from Hugo .
The drinker premiered on December 6, 1995 on German television on ARD . About 6.8 million people watched the first broadcast. The film has been available on DVD since March 28, 2008, provider: Universal.
Ulrich Plenzdorf adapted the autobiographical novel Der Trinker by Hans Fallada (1893–1947) , which was written in prison in 1944/45, for a film adaptation by Tom Toelle, moving the plot from the time it was written to the time of the fall of the Wall .
Fallada's novel The Drinker is told in the first person, which gives it extra depth. The book ends - unlike the film - with Erwin Sommer being incapacitated and declared insane. He is admitted to a closed sanatorium and nursing home. Since he is fairly free to move around in the institution, he secretly removes the small bottles from the tuberculosis sufferers, into which they spit their sputum, and drinks them.
Harald Juhnke confessed at the time that the film had changed him and that he had no longer wiped away his own alcohol problems, but had realized that it was a serious illness. Juhnke's performance in this film was consistently described as a brilliant performance, played with great precision and passion.
There is another film adaptation under the title Der Trinker from 1967 with Siegfried Lowitz in the title role of Erwin Sommer. Lowitz received the Golden Camera for his performance .
criticism
"Impressive, above all dramatically convincing adaptation of an autobiographical novel by Hans Fallada, which was credibly relocated to the upheaval after German reunification."
“The main actor Harald Juhnke shows one of his best acting performances in the role of the drinker Erwin Sommer. Perhaps it is because he was able to empathize with the protagonist - because he himself repeatedly made a name for himself with excessive alcohol. "
Web links
- The drinkers in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The drinker at filmportal.de
- The drinker at crew united
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Fallada - Der Trinker - Juhnke ( Memento from February 6, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) at sprechsaal.eobanus.de, accessed on February 6, 2016.
- ↑ Roman: The Drinker at dieterwunderlich.de
- ↑ The drinker. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ The drinker at prisma.de