He's back (movie)
He is back is a German comedy film by director David Wnendt from 2015 . The literary film adaptation is based on the bestselling novel of the same name by the author Timur Vermes . The film premiered on October 6, 2015 in Berlin and opened in German cinemas on October 8. It has been seen by more than 2.4 million moviegoers. On June 10, 2018, the free TV premiere was shown on ProSieben .
action
In 2014, 69 years after the end of the Second World War , Adolf Hitler woke up in excellent health in Berlin. Due to the changed environment and people, he is initially quite disoriented and confused. A kiosk owner gives him temporary shelter. While reading the newspaper in the kiosk, Hitler is confronted with a completely changed Germany that is contrary to his ideology and therefore does not particularly appeal to him. In addition, everyone he meets thinks him only an impersonator .
Not far from the place where Hitler wakes up, the freelance employee of the MyTV channel , Fabian Sawatzki, is filming a documentary about children in a Berlin hot spot . But since this does not go down well with those responsible at the station, he is dismissed. Sawatzki sees the video he shot again and discovers Hitler in the background. When Sawatzki was able to track down Hitler in the kiosk soon afterwards, he proposed to him to produce a television program with him, not least in order to be taken back to MyTV . The two go on a trip to different places in Germany, during which Hitler is filmed talking to the population.
After her return to Berlin, Sawatzki presented Hitler and the footage to the station bosses. Enthusiastic about Hitler, chairwoman Katja Bellini decides to let him perform for his first assignment in the already established show Krass, Alter . In the broadcasting office he is given a secretary who explains the Internet to him with some difficulty . Hitler gradually finds his way around the present and makes his first stage appearances. He also takes up his old plans to usurp world domination again, but instead more or less unintentionally worked out the role of a great comedy star, who a little later is in demand with all the major media. However, the first doubts about the supposed actor now arise, as no one has experienced him other than in his supposed role.
When Frank Plasberg confronts Hitler with a video in which Hitler shoots a small dog, his show is canceled and he initially loses his still fresh popularity. Because of this incident, Katja Bellini also loses her job at the broadcaster and has to cede the executive chair to her silent rival Christoph Sensenbrink. In parallel to his other television appearances, which he completed to polish up his reputation after the dog video, he wrote a book about the time after his reappearance. With the help of Katja Bellini, it becomes a bestseller. Soon afterwards, the book was even made into a film, in which MyTV and Sensenbrink took part due to the drop in ratings after Hitler's loss of image.
When Hitler moved out of the hotel in which the broadcaster had accommodated him, he found accommodation with his secretary Franziska Krömeier, with whom Sawatzki was now together. When Franziska's demented grandmother moved in, she recognized the actual Adolf Hitler. After Hitler and Sawatzki left the apartment, Sawatzki angrily realizes that the supposed actor will continue to play his role after this event. Surprised by this, and because of the reaction of Franziska's grandmother and the doubts that now exist about this man, expressed by employees of the station, Sawatzki begins to investigate.
In front of the film studio, Hitler, who is also mistaken for a comedian by neo-Nazis , is beaten up by them. Admitted to a hospital, he is therefore hyped up as a kind of martyr of democracy. While Hitler is in the hospital, Sawatzki sifts through the video footage from the day Hitler appeared in Berlin. He notices that it simply appeared out of nowhere, only a light indicates the incident. When Sawatzki finds burned leaves in the same place where he saw the light on the tape and also a sign indicating that the Führerbunker once stood there, he realizes that this is the real Adolf Hitler must act. Shocked by his knowledge, he storms into the hospital, from which Hitler has since been released. Only Bellini is still in the room, but she doesn't believe Sawatzki, who is completely dissolved. Sawatzki, who is now furious and rioting, is taken to a closed psychiatry by hospital staff.
The film adaptation of the book is completed, and Hitler already thinks he is on the road to victory. He is more popular than ever and sees Germany in a state where it seems ready for its return to power, but the people still believe it is just an actor. The film ends with Hitler's words “You can work with it”, while the viewers get to see images of actual politically motivated right-wing violence and demonstrations, among other things.
Differences from the novel
- The novel is set in 2011, the film in 2014.
- Sensenbrink, Sawatzki, Krömeier and Bellini work for the television station MyTV . In the novel, they work for the Flashlight agency , which represents Hitler and produces his show on behalf of the broadcaster. The competition between Sensenbrink and Bellini for the top of the company is missing in the novel.
- In the novel, Hitler met Sawatzki and Sensenbrink by chance at the kiosk. In the film, Sawatzki is specifically looking for him after discovering him while looking through his video footage he shot with the children playing soccer.
- In the novel the children are alone and nobody sees Hitler's arrival.
- Sawatzki and Hitler drive through Germany at their own expense and interview people on political issues in order to have illustrative material for the station and to get Sawatzki's re-employment. This aspect is completely absent from the book.
- In the novel, even after Hitler became known, the kiosk is one of his regular places to go. In the film he no longer appears after his departure with Sawatzki.
- In the book, the presenter of the show Krass, Alter , in which Hitler made his first television appearance, is called Ali Witzgür . Since he is portrayed in the film by an actor of German origin, namely Michael Kessler , the name was changed to Michael Witzigmann .
- The first names of the characters Sawatzki, Sensenbrink, Krömeier and Bellini have also been changed. While these characters are named Joachim, Frank, Vera and Carmen in the novel, the actors' first names were used in the film.
- In the book, Hitler visits the party headquarters of the NPD and has a conversation with (then) chairman Holger Apfel . This is named in the book; in the film his name is Ulf pear , but otherwise it is based on the real apple. In contrast to this, Apple was no longer the chairman of the NPD in 2014.
- The meeting with Krömeier's grandmother is far more peaceful in the novel than the argument in the film.
- In the book, Hitler does not shoot a dog.
- In the film, Hitler is presented as the author of the novel. This aspect is also missing in the book. A possible film about his time after waking up is also not included in the original.
- In the novel, Sawatzki met a happier fate. There he marries Vera Krömeier and the couple are expecting a child who will probably be named Adolf .
- In contrast to the film, nobody finds out in the novel that it is about the real life Adolf Hitler.
- The last sentence of Hitler's “You can work with it” is quoted in a far less drastic context in the novel.
Reviews
- Jörg Albrecht wrote on the Deutschlandfunk website that the film, as media satire, could hold a candle to Schtonk . The laughter could quickly fall silent, however, when you see that “the German welcoming culture also applies to Adolf Hitler”.
- In the online edition of the Frankfurter Rundschau , Daniel Kothenschulte wrote: “At first it's not really funny, and then it's not painful enough.” The bestseller film adaptation gives away great documentary moments to a staid media satire.
- Michael Hanfeld at FAZ.NET described the film adaptation of the novel as "the most stupid and perfidious film that has been in the cinemas for a long time" . The film wants to be a satire, in truth it is "an experimental arrangement and a pamphlet".
- The German Film and Media Assessment (FBW) awarded the film the title “particularly valuable”.
Awards
- 2016: Civis - Europe's media award for integration
- 2016: four nominations for the German Film Award (film, director, leading actor - Oliver Masucci, supporting actor - Fabian Busch)
- 2016: Nomination for the European Film Award (Best Comedy)
- 2016: Bambi in the Film National category
Others
- At the end of the film, a film-within-a-film scene appears in which Sawatzki apparently escapes the nurses (the scene is a film quote from 12 Monkeys ), places Hitler on the roof of a skyscraper and shoots him, whereupon he falls into the depths. In the style of a twist, the end of the story changes again: Hitler suddenly reappears alive behind Sawatzki and confronts him with the fact that he cannot get rid of him. It becomes clear that this is only the shooting of the final scene of the film, which is played by a Sawatzki actor wearing a face mask.
- In the film, a scene from the Hitler film The Downfall is re-enacted in detail: The scene in which Hitler reacts to the news that an ordered relief attack ("Steiner attack") could not take place with a fit of rage, which also rants about the Internet phenomenon Hitler advanced. Here, however, it is Sensenbrink who is enraged by company problems.
- The scenes filmed in the style of a documentary are partly real, partly recorded with actors. The scenes at the World Cup and the attempt to earn money as a portrait painter, which were shot with random passers-by, are, among other things, real.
- Two actors in the film have already played or parodied Hitler in earlier roles: Christoph Maria Herbst in Der Wixxer and Neues vom Wixxer (as Hitler parody Alfons Hatler ) and Michael Kessler in Switch reloaded . Herbst also recorded the audio book version of He's back there .
- The film shows excerpts from the work of various actors in the role of Adolf Hitler. Amongst others you can see Michael Kessler ( Switch reloaded ), Helge Schneider ( Mein Führer - The truly truest truth about Adolf Hitler ) , Bruno Ganz ( The Downfall ) , Charlie Chaplin ( The Great Dictator ) and Louis de Funès ( Sharp Curves for Madame ) .
- In one scene, Hitler discovered Wikipedia and was moved to tears that it was named after the Vikings and that it had “Aryan roots”. But that's wrong: in fact, the “wiki” in Wikipedia stands for “fast” and Wikipedia was invented in America.
- The television shows that Hitler attended after his appearance on Krass, Alter im Film, actually exist. Among other things, he is a guest at Circus HalliGalli . These sequences were shot in the real studios and the presenters have cameos . The show Frank Plasberg by the presenter of the same name, on the other hand, is only based on his real show, hard but fair .
- Some YouTubers , including Robert Hofmann , Dagi Bee , Joyce Ilg and ChrisTezz , have guest appearances in the film. In these appearances, they comment on Hitler's TV appearance on Krass, Alter . These comments were filmed in the style of their popular videos and presented as actual YouTube clips.
- The song He is back in the closing sequence is a new recording from 1969, sung by Katja Ebstein . The original dates from 1965 and was sung by the pop singer Marion Maerz .
- The song "Mr. Hitler ”was recorded in 1942 by folk and blues singer Leadbelly (Huddie William Ledbetter).
- The depiction of the violence and demonstrations during the final scene is underlaid with Henry Purcell's Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary , which is known in particular as the theme music to A Clockwork Orange by Stanley Kubrick . Another parallel to the film mentioned can be found at the beginning, where the same excerpt from the overture to La gazza ladra by Gioachino Rossini is played as an intro.
- In 2017, a remake called Sono Tornato was filmed. In the Italian remake by director Luca Miniero , Benito Mussolini wakes up in Rome and becomes a cult star. The DVD release followed in 2018.
Web links
- He's back in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- He's back at filmportal.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Release certificate for He is back . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , September 2015 (PDF; test number: 154 619 K).
- ↑ Age rating for He is back . Youth Media Commission .
- ↑ He's back. In: filmportal.de . German Film Institute , accessed on October 18, 2015 .
- ↑ The most successful German films since 1966. In: insidekino.com. Retrieved January 8, 2016 .
- ↑ He's back. 2014, accessed on June 10, 2018 (at).
- ↑ Jörg Albrecht: New Films - The Leader is Back. In: Deutschlandfunk .de. October 7, 2015, accessed October 18, 2015 .
- ↑ Daniel Kothenschulte: "He's back": Laughing at Hitler? Only when it's funny. In: Frankfurter Rundschau . October 7, 2015, accessed October 18, 2015 .
- ↑ Michael Hanfeld : The Adolf in us all. faz.net , November 3, 2015, accessed November 9, 2015.
- ↑ http://www.fbw-filmbeval.com/film/er_ist_wieder_da
- ↑ http://forward.com/culture/171112/rebooting-the-fuehrer/
- ↑ https://hitparade.ch/song/Katja-Ebstein/Er-ist-wieder-da-247283 He's back , sung by Katja Ebstein
- ↑ https://hitparade.ch/song/Marion/Er-ist-wieder-da-98896 He's back , sung by Marion Maerz