The quarter liter class

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Movie
Original title The quarter liter class
Country of production Austria
original language German
Publishing year 2005
length 100 minutes
Age rating JMK 14
Rod
Director Roland Düringer , Florian Kehrer
script Roland Düringer
production Danny Krausz , Kurt Stocker ( Dor Film )
music Erich Buchebner , Christian Eigner
camera Thomas Short
cut Ingrid Koller
occupation

The quarter liter class is an Austrian film from 2005 with Roland Düringer in four leading roles. However, the actual main actor is alcohol, as all four characters are serious alcoholics. Her alcoholism also shapes the embarrassing, comical and tragic acts in the film. The tragic comedy is based on the cabaret piece of the same name from 2001.

action

The first part of the film deals with the current life of four alcoholics in different situations, told in four successive sections. These persons, Mr. Frust, Mr. Fear, Mr. Stress and Mr. Anger, are named according to their essential character traits. The viewer gets an insight into the everyday life of the four main characters, accompanied by the narrative voice of the person concerned. All four people, who are fundamentally different in appearance, language style and appearance, are represented by Roland Düringer. Mr. Frust, the warehouse worker who always drinks beer, Mr. Angst, the actor on the wrong track, Mr. Zorn, an angry cell phone buyer, and Mr. Stress, the company owner, for whom time is money.

After the four people have been introduced, their stories gradually come together. It turns out that Mr. Frust is a warehouse worker with Mr. Stress. This in turn engages Mr. Angst as a star guest for his Christmas party in the company. And Mr. Zorn ultimately also finds Mr. Stress, as his company is responsible for ensuring that his cell phone never works as it should.

In the course of the Christmas party, everything starts to get out of control - due to excessive alcohol consumption. While Mr. Frust unabashedly drinks one beer after the other, Mr. Stress gleefully downs one glass after another in his office. Mr. Angst always carries his alcohol with him, camouflaged in medicine bottles, and Mr. Zorn finds himself in his regular bar for hours every evening - but also reaches for the glass at home.

As the characters get drunk, the events begin to become more and more puzzling. Mr. Frust has a vision in the course of the evening: his son Kevin ( Samuel Kalakatroni ), who is also to be found at the Christmas party because his mother is unable to attend , suddenly becomes a few years older in every scene until he falls off the bar stool drunk. A little later he is led out of the building by his mother in a wheelchair. It is said that "the day after tomorrow in thirteen years" he will overturn his car several times after going to the disco and therefore sit in a wheelchair.

Just as mysteriously, there are different drinks in Mr. Stress's whiskey cabinet each time it is opened - and fewer and fewer. Mr. Zorn's life also remains a mystery. When the already heavily drunk Mr. Angst has drunk off his nervousness and is asked on stage by the seriously drunk and embarrassing company boss, Mr. Zorn raises a handgun and resolutely says "Access". A police detachment storms the premises and ends the "illegal alcohol party". The film now seems to be ending. "Mr. Zorn's Revenge" is displayed - including the names of the actors. But then it goes on. Mr. Angst now holds his reading, which is a source of general amusement due to his alcoholism, but which he considers to be great enthusiasm.

After finishing his reading, Mr. Angst believes he has drawn the interest of the secretary Sybille ( Eva Billisich ). Mr. Stress, who was sitting next to her in the audience area, and the warehouse worker Mr. Frust think the same. Each of the men now tells from his point of view how he wants to win the favor of Sybille for himself. Ultimately, everyone in the film is allowed to go home with her alone. In any case, the date with one of the drunks ends with a serious accident from Sybille, who can then be seen at the operating table. During the entire duration of the film, excerpts from the operation of an unrecognizable person were shown again and again. The viewer wonders what will happen and who the person on the operating table will be.

But the narrative perspective is changed again. Now Sybille tells her point of view of the dates. This time every date ends with a rebuff to the embarrassing attempts at conquering the drunken admirers. But even in Sybille's version, there is another terrible accident at the end of every date. After Mr. Frust has blown off, he pushes Sybille down the stairs in an act of affect, and after Mr. Angst is rejected, he angrily hits Sybille's head with a glass bottle. Only after being turned away to Mr. Stress, nothing happens for the time being. The friendly Indian taxi driver - who was previously the taxi driver on every one of the numerous taxi rides - accompanies Sybille to the front door in hopeful expectation. When she doesn't let him in, he says goodbye and then falls inattentively down the stairs in front of the house. He doesn't seem to have seriously injured himself and is getting up again, but he's the one who is being operated on in the hospital.

It turns out that he has suffered a collarbone injury that routine surgery aims to cure to avoid worse in the future. But complications arise during the operation. One of the surgeons attached the wrong IV. When the other doctors realize this, it is already too late to take countermeasures. The taxi driver dies. The surgeon who is responsible for this becomes recognizable as Mr. Zorn. Before the operation, which took place around 6:30 in the morning, he was in his local bar until half past two to get drunk. The ghost of the friendly taxi driver now accompanies him on his way home and tells him that he is not angry that he died of an unnecessary mistake, because he is Hindu and believes in rebirth. He also mused that he might be reborn as an animal - like a big cat, for example. Mr. Zorn has meanwhile arrived at home and is going to his balcony on the upper floor of a residential building. He stares forward cheerlessly and drops a bottle that he was just holding in his hand. The camera pans over the city ( Vienna ) until it arrives on Sybille's roof terrace. The film ends when a cat suddenly appears, which Sybille happily welcomes.

Reviews

  • Oberösterreichische Nachrichten of March 4, 2005: “The film technology should make the stage origin of the grotesque forget. But with the flood of images, the flashbacks and the possible variations on offer, one longingly thinks of the clearer stage version. Düringer draws the characters (especially the actor) well and offers a surprising ending. However, the film almost completely swallows an honestly meant abuse warning. "
  • kabarett.at : “As on the stage, Roland Düringer doesn’t do without comedic effects, but he does without acting out gags and placing wags. His grandiose art of representation draws four bitterly angry character studies and at the same time gives an idea of ​​the deeply tragic emotional disaster of his characters. But he keeps his index finger stuck in his pocket. And as so often in Düringer's stories, THE FOUR-LITER CLASS has a completely unexpected ending. "
  • skip.at : “The names - stress, frustration, fear and anger - are the reasons why people drink. All four main characters are played by Roland Düringer. But that is not the only reason that makes Die Viertelliterklasse an extremely unusual cinematic experience. 'We ignored all of the criteria that make up a normal film,' explains the commercial filmmaker Florian Kehrer, who helped Roland Düringer as co-director on his directorial debut. 'No classic main hero, no classic storyline, no classic happy ending, none of that is there - but that was the only way to get this story to the point in the cinema.' "

production

The film was shot between March and April 2004 in Vienna and Lower Austria. The film that is being distributed by “Luna” premiered on March 4, 2005 in cinemas. The quarter liter class was funded as a reference film within the framework of the film / television agreement with grants from the Vienna Film Fund and the Austrian Film Institute . The sound engineer was Walter Amann. The production design was designed by Hans Jager, the costume design by Martina List .

With 40,559 visitors (until December 31, 2005) the film was not particularly successful in Austrian cinemas.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Age rating for the quarter liter class . Youth Media Commission .