Falco - Damn it, we're still alive!
Falco - Damn it, we're still alive! is a biographical film drama from 2007. It is about the life of Johann "Hans" Hölzel, better known as Falco . The script comes from the Austrian director Thomas Roth . The film title Damn we live still relates to a song and a posthumous album by the musician.
action
The film is about Falco's life from childhood in Vienna to his death in the Dominican Republic in 1998. It describes Falco's career from his start at the Hallucination Company , his interim success with the band Drahdiwaberl to his one-off breakthrough in the music business. He also shows Falco's personal life with women, family and drug addiction.
The film opens on February 6, 1998, the anniversary of Falco's death. In a parking lot in the Dominican Republic there is an off-road vehicle with loud music playing. The waitress in a bar near the parking lot watches the car and wonders who willingly stand in the blazing sun in this heat. Falco sits in the car, drunk and high, listening to his new album Out of the Dark .
A leap in time to Vienna in the early 1960s: little Hans Hölzel impressed with his musical skills at a school performance. His self-sacrificing mother allows him to listen to the radio and encourages him to practice, but also expects him to focus primarily on school. One day, Hans meets Billy Filanowsky, who becomes his best friend. Together they skip school and go to the cinema (this is how they see Mozart , among other things , which Hans is very impressed with) or get to know Vienna's red light district. His mother is not thrilled when she learns from school that her son is constantly skipping. He then explains to her that he wants to become a pop star, schooling would not be necessary for that. When Hans' father Alois left the family shortly afterwards, the already strong bond between Hans and his mother continued to grow.
A few years later, Hans is active as a bass player in several bands, including Drahdiwaberl and the Hallucination Company . Band leader Stefan Weber gives him the opportunity to sing himself. For example, Hans, now announced for the first time as Falco, performs his song Ganz Wien at a performance in the Sophiensaal . The music producer Markus Spiegel recognizes the potential in the young artist and immediately signs him. The songs "Der Kommissar" and "Ganz Wien" that were created as a result, however, did not appeal to the Viennese broadcasting corporations, as the texts were too incomprehensible and delicate for them.
Spiegel referred Falco to the German manager Horst Bork, who received this new kind of music very benevolently and managed to get Falco's songs to be played by the local radio stations. In the course of the Neue Deutsche Welle , “Der Kommissar” was a huge success and the album Einzelhaft also sold well and reached high chart positions. Falco tours extensively through Europe, and in doing so, he is deprived of alcohol and other drugs . When Billy visits him, Falco reveals to him that he lacks ideas for lyrics because he has already processed all of his feelings on his first record. The following album, Junge Roemer , received high praise from the press in advance, but it was not a commercial success.
Spiegel and Bork come to the conclusion that there has to be an artistic change. Instead of Robert Ponger , they commission Bolland & Bolland to produce the new album. Falco is initially not enthusiastic about the idea, as he is afraid that if he fails again, he will remain an eternal one-hit wonder , and does not believe that "two worn out child stars" could write songs for him. After a lot of persuasion by Bork, Falco finally recorded the single Rock Me Amadeus , which was an immediate success. The following work on the album Falco 3 turns out to be extremely difficult, as Falco is very eccentric and is constantly drunk, so that Bork has to mediate here again. After a concert in Graz, Falco meets the married Jacky in a club, with whom he starts an affair and who soon leaves her husband because of him. They move into an apartment in Vienna together.
The song Jeanny , which was also released on Falco 3, caused a sensation. The media saw it as a glossing over of kidnapping and rape, but at the same time took first place in the charts. In addition, "Rock Me Amadeus" reached first place on the Billboard charts, the first and so far only German-language song. This success saddened Falco, however, as he now saw the climax of his career and, in his opinion, could only follow the deep fall. However, its international popularity initially continued, followed by tours of North America and Asia. But his family life in particular suffers from this; Mrs. Jacky and the newborn daughter feel neglected, as does Falco's mother.
Falco is becoming more and more addicted to alcohol and other drugs. Jacky leaves him several times and often comes back to him. It soon turns out that the daughter is not Falco's birth child at all. The albums cannot build on previous successes either. At the Donauinselfest in 1993, Falco appeared heavily drunk, but with the help of a doctor he was able to put on an acclaimed performance. In order to distance himself from his previous life, Falco buys a villa in the Dominican Republic. Here he is working on a new album and in the mid-1990s he was able to post some successes again. Falco celebrates his 40th birthday with many old companions and presents new songs there. Falco no longer witnesses the release of his album Out of the Dark : On February 6, 1998, Falco leaves the parking lot of a bar in his off-road vehicle and is hit by a coach.
You don't see the actual collision. The film ends with the song Out of the Dark , during which information about the further lives of the people is given.
background
In 2006, the production of the strip was announced on the occasion of the 8th anniversary of Falco's death. At the end of the same year the cast became more specific. Initially in conversation for the lead role was Robert Stadlober , who however disagreed with the producer. In mid-2007, Mondscheiner singer Manuel Rubey was introduced as Falco's actor at a press conference.
His band was also presented as the Hallucination Company . Another music group, Excuse Me Moses , can be seen as Falco's band Drahdiwaberl .
During the Jeanny video, the comment by Today Journal spokesman Dieter Kronzucker is reproduced, in which Kronzucker criticized the song. Tagesschau spokesman Wilhelm Wieben can also be seen in the same scene (as in the original) and reports on the television news about Jeanny's disappearance .
After shooting the film, Manuel Rubey had his head shaved to let go of the "intense time as Falco".
The film started on February 7, 2008, one day after the 10th anniversary of Falco's death in Austria. The film quickly attracted more visitors than the film Die Fälscher , which was relaunched a week earlier in the run-up to the Oscar awards in Austria , but fell behind after its Oscar award after a long, tough struggle to become the most successful Austrian film of the year . Ultimately, Falco reached 154,677 visitors. and is thus the 15th most successful Austrian film since the beginning of the complete count in 1981.
The Austrian distributor of the film, Constantin Film-Holding , received the Austrian Ticket 2008 (successor to the Austrian Film Prize) in March 2009 , which will be awarded from 2008 to every Austrian film that has reached over 75,000 visitors in Austrian cinemas .
production
The shooting of the film took place in summer / autumn 2007 in Austria ( Vienna ), the Netherlands , USA and in the Dominican Republic .
Original costumes were used in the film. One of Falco's suits went missing in Puerto Plata and never reappeared.
The film opened in Austrian cinemas on February 7, 2008 and in German cinemas on June 5, 2008. In Switzerland, the film was shown for the first time on April 29th at the North German Film Festival Mecklenburg-Vorpommern .
In Austria, the film received the rating "valuable".
|
Chart positions Explanation of the data |
||||||||||||
| Albums | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
Soundtrack
Manuel Rubey sang almost all of the songs that appear in the film himself. The song list spans Falco's entire creative phase. From his beginnings with Drahdiwaberl to his last album, the following songs were represented:
- America
- The commissioner
- rock Me Amadeus
- Night flight
- All of Vienna
- On the run
- Heroes of today
- Out of the dark
- Damn we are still alive
- Jeanny
- Young Romans
- Emotionally
- Vienna Calling
- Coming Home (Jeanny Part 2)
(The line-up corresponds to the track list of the published soundtrack and does not match the actual sequence within the film or the chronological order.)
For the film, some music videos (e.g. Jeanny or Rock Me Amadeus) as well as live performances (e.g. America or Vienna Calling) were shot with Rubey in great detail. Some of the songs can only be heard off-screen (e.g. Out Of The Dark or Nachtflug).
The song "Mother, The Man With Coke Is There" is shown as a video with Rubey in the film, but did not appear on the soundtrack. The numbers "Nur Mit Dir", "Egoist" and "Hoch Wie Nie", also sung by Rubey, can be heard in the film, but did not make it onto the final soundtrack either.
In addition to these songs, there are other pieces. The song that Drahdiwaberl play during their rehearsals is "Mad Cat Sadie" (which was originally released with Hölzel on bass on the album Psychoterror ). The song that young Hans plays on the piano during the school performance is An der Schöne blau Donau by Johann Strauss .
Reviews
“Very painful: How director Roth imagines everyday life and the conversations among musicians. Particularly painful: Sunnyi Melles as a Viennese whore. Extremely painful - no, crazy funny: Grace Jones as an accident witness with ridiculous convulsions. Just like in this movie, Falco looked and doesn't look like popular music. "
“This pop tragedy, but also this life in which everything is perfect, from the escaped father to false paternity - what a template! Thomas Roth failed because of this. That wouldn't be so bad, his hero was a great master of failure and could turn it into a wonderful spectacle. But Roth failed unspectacularly. "
“Thomas Roth has been accused of rejecting naturalism in Austria, where the film was released on the tenth anniversary of his death, and the reactions to it show how much Falco is still able to heat his fans' minds , of the furor with which they defend the film. A biography that doesn't imitate life is a rare pleasure. Cinema is not just about naturalism. The journeys through the rooms of a Falco museum, in which he theatrically yells at his wife, leaves room for that part that cannot be visualized. And maybe the right way to describe one that only consisted of staging. "
Web links
- Falco - Damn it, we're still alive! in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Falco - Damn it, we're still alive! at filmportal.de (with trailer and photo gallery)
- Official German website for the film
- Falco, we're still alive! Interview with Thomas Roth and Manuel Rubey
Individual evidence
- ↑ Release certificate for Falco - Damn, we're still alive! Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , April 2008 (PDF; test number: 113 881 K).
- ↑ Age rating for Falco - Damn, we're still alive! Youth Media Commission .
- ↑ Falco actor and moonlight singer Manuel Rubey in the "Ö3 breakfast with me" , Petra Jesenko, Ö3, September 28, 2007 (page accessed on February 20, 2017)
- ↑ Falco - Damn it, we're still alive! on filminstitut.at
- ↑ Chart discography Austria