Mr. Kuka's recommendations (film)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
Original title Mr. Kuka's recommendations
Lekcje Pana Kuki
Country of production Austria / Poland
original language German , Polish
Publishing year 2008
length 94 minutes
Rod
Director Dariusz Gajewski
script Roland Gugganig
Dariusz Gajewski
Radek Knapp
production Prisma Film
Opus Filmproduktion
music Michał Litwiniec ,
Tomasz Sikora ,
Paweł Czepułkowski
camera Wojciech Szepel
cut Jarosławaw Barzan
occupation

Mr. Kuka's recommendations (Polish original title Lekcje Pana Kuki ) is the film adaptation of Radek Knapp 's novel of the same name from 2008. This Austrian-Polish production was directed by Dariusz Gajewski . The main character of Waldemar, who has decided to spend the summer in the west, is played by Łukasz Garlicki. Supporting roles are occupied by August Diehl and Nadia Cameron-Blakey.

action

The dream of the young Pole Waldemar is to get to know the world from an early age. Now he wants to spend the summer in the west first. His western neighbor Kuka, who worked as a seasonal worker in various western countries, recommends a trip to Vienna and also gives him tips for staying there. His first rule is, “It doesn't matter where you go, because west is everywhere, it just matters how you get back.” His second lesson, which he explains at length, is the wisdom: “Western poop and Eastern poop are identical. ”He then explains verbally why Waldemar must never admit that he comes from Poland, even if he is tortured, and explains this as his third lesson. In Vienna, Mr. Kuka remarks that two million museum attendants live together in a very small space and talk about death all the time, but there are not only suicides there, but also a lot of delicacies, such as the pastry "Lippizaner" and sights are of course there also. By chance he knew someone who had an excellent bus company that could bring Waldemar to Vienna.

However, Mr. Kuka's recommendations are not proving particularly useful. Already on the bus trip to Vienna Waldemar had his doubts as to whether reality and what Mr. Kukas recommended to him match. Even the bus Waldemar is traveling in doesn't look very trustworthy, and the occupants don't look like ordinary tourists at all. Their only endeavor seems to be to smuggle large quantities of cigarettes, sausages and vodka across the border.

When he finally arrived in Vienna, Waldemar discovered that Mr. Kukas had used him to smuggle a valuable coin across the border into the West. The hotel "Vier Jahreszeiten", which was recommended to him, turns out to be a park bench with a view of the Belvedere-Schlosspark-Hotel. Waldemar is not deterred by this, however, not even when money problems lead him to the working class, where, to make matters worse, he is ripped off by his Polish compatriots. The thing with the woman that his mates offer him as a birth present is more problematic, without Waldemar knowing it at first. They wrote their congratulations with ballpoint pens on their backs.

When Waldemar meets the former German pianist and petty criminal Lothar, who thinks he is a modern Robin Hood , he tries to persuade him to rob a bank. Waldemar also reacts to this calmly, but at the same time curiously and with his own naivety, a certain impertinence and a dose of charm. He sees everything that happens to him as an adventure that life and the city he has visited hold ready for him. At some point, however, Waldemar wonders why he actually came here.

He receives the answer to this in the form of a mysterious lover.

production

Filming

Was shot Mr. Kuka's recommendations , subtitles The best thing about the West is what you make it , in autumn 2006 in Łódź and in Vienna . The production of the film produced by Prisma Film- und Fernsehproduktion GmbH was funded by the Vienna Film Fund and the ORF film / television agreement . Further funding came from the Polish film institute Eurimages. The film was co-produced by Opus Film, Poland. The film was awarded by Filmladen , Austria.

The film had a budget of 1.8 million euros.

background

Director Gajewski, born in Warsaw in 1964, the same year as author Radek Knapp, said that immediately after reading the book, it was clear to him that he wanted to make a film. "Finding a novel that describes my own experiences was a stroke of luck for me," he said, adding that the story could have come from him too, if he could only write halfway as interestingly as Radek.

Łukasz Garlicki said about the project that for various reasons it was very special for him. First, because he had the opportunity to work with Dariusz Gajewski, which was a greater challenge and a great pleasure at the same time. His great role also gave him the opportunity to "depict a finished figure made of flesh and blood". He likes such difficult roles very much. Another reason was the work on set, which was "mostly exhausting, but very creative and inspiring". In addition, it is “a pleasure” to work with actors such as Andrzej Grabowski. Since the film was mostly shot in Vienna, a side effect was that people, as we know, stick together when they are in another country together. The opportunity to work with actors from other countries and to observe their approach to the roles is also enriching and to play in a foreign language is always "an experience that expands your horizons and makes you a better actor".

Film music

The film has two dominant styles of music:

  • the modern one, composed by the band Kormorany
    (Michał Litwiniec, Paweł Czepułkowski and Tomek Sikora), who are friends with the director .
  • classical compositions by Erik Satie and Gioachino Rossini ,
    interpreted by the Debussy Trio Munich.

By combining both musical styles, "emotionally and aesthetically the sense of the film" is expressed. The “gradual interpenetration of these styles, which form two separate worlds, and finally their coexistence” - is far more important “than truths expressed in words”. For this reason it took about a year to find the right music for Mr. Kuka's recommendations .

publication

The premiere of the film in Austria took place on September 5, 2008, as did the general theatrical release. The film was shown for the first time on September 10, 2013 on ORF eins , the premiere in Germany was on May 4, 2016 on 3sat .

On September 17th, 2008 the film was presented at the Gdynia Polish Film Festival in Poland and on October 17th, 2008 at the International Film Festival in Warsaw . From November 21, 2008, Lekcje pana Kuki was shown in Polish cinemas. The international title of the film is Mr. Kuka's Advice .

reception

criticism

“Adaptation of a cheerful novel that happily strings together East-West clichés in many small stories. An unexcited rogue story with eccentric characters and original twists. "

- Lexicon of international film

The press said, "[Director Gajewski's] teasing games with cultural platitudes fail the book's everyday cunning underbody, the film degenerates into an awkward juxtaposition of absurd situations that occasionally beautify great actors".

The Kronen Zeitung read: “Culture-critical situational comedy here with a wink meets many xenophobic prejudices. Little by little, our antihero becomes a European. How he 'slips through' and taps into every imaginable faux pas, is somehow touching and human. "

Cinema summarized its criticism in the sentence: "Amusing cultural clash with August Diehl."

The film service saw it in a similar way and spoke of the “adaptation of a cheerful novel”, the filming of which “happily lined up East-West clichés in many little stories. An unexcited rogue story with eccentric characters and original twists. "

ORF.at said that the novel and film are a “declaration of love to Vienna, the city of quirky characters”.

The Wiener Zeitung criticized the fact that the film adaptation of Radek Knapp's picaresque novel was "mainly due to its shallow harmlessness". Between “ Hans im Glück and Parsifal , the comedy is usually enough in a fairytale atmosphere”. The "opposites of two worlds" are "hardly socially critical or satirical", but there are "some migrant clichés". “Serious problems” would be dealt with “kindly and nicely. If that's enough ... "

On the side of the Deutsches Polen-Institut it was said that the comedy “did not become a drama” - “Gajewski gives the story a gentle touch of magic and irony, which elevates everyday history into the metaphysical”.

The criticism from Karoline Zobernig, youth department for the State of Styria , was devastating. She couldn't explain why the Valdemar story was made as a film. Presumably one wanted “more than actually succeeded”. “In view of the meager income”, “it is almost to be hoped”. The "story sick from front to back, dragging itself from minute to minute, and [is] not made more bearable by the not very sympathetic protagonist". Why the protagonist does this or that is a "good question". Her answer is - "Arbitrariness, just a ninety-minute study of arbitrariness."

Zobernig's criticism of the cast with the young Pole Lukasz Garlicki contradicted the statement at OE24 , which spoke of a “charismatic cast” and that the main actor had been found “who liked Waldemar's limitless naivety embody [e] without denouncing the figure as a complete fool ". Lukas Resetarits was also mentioned benevolently in a "concise scene as a border officer", Branko Samarowski as a puppet doctor Bernstein, Krista Stadler as a landlady, who in her role "lets you see into the abyss" and August Diehl, who "is the multi-layered figure of a spoiled German pianist, who tries to combat his inhibition of gambling with increasingly daring thieves ”.

Award

Film Festival The East and West: Classics and Avant-Garde in Orenburg :

  • 2008: Acting award for Łukasz Garlicki

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Mr. Kuka's recommendations see filmfonds-wien.at (production). Retrieved November 16, 2018.
  2. ↑ Mr. Kuka's recommendations see filminstitut.at
  3. ↑ Mr. Kuka's recommendations sS crew-united.com
  4. ↑ a b Vienna fairy tale - "Mr. Kuka's recommendations" sS oe24.at, accessed on November 16, 2018.
  5. ↑ a b Mr. Kuka's recommendations sS votivkino.at (PDF document)
  6. ↑ Mr. Kuka's recommendations sS filmfonds-wien.at (cinema, TV and festival)
  7. ↑ Mr. Kuka's recommendations. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  8. ↑ "Mr. Kuka's recommendations": East-West story without a sub-floor . DiePresse.com, accessed on October 4, 2008 .
  9. ↑ Christina Krisch: Vienna is different than in Mr. Kuka's recommendations . krone.at, accessed on October 4, 2008 .
  10. ↑ Mr. Kuka's recommendations sS cinema.de (including trailer and 6 film images). Retrieved November 16, 2018.
  11. ↑ Mr. Kuka's recommendations sS filmdienst.de, accessed on November 16, 2018.
  12. ^ Film: Mr Kuka's recommendations sS tv.orf.at, accessed on November 16, 2018.
  13. ↑ Mr Kuka's recommendations In: Wiener Zeitung, September 3, 2008. Accessed on November 16, 2018.
  14. ↑ Lekcje Pana Kuki / Mr. Kuka's recommendations see deutsches-polen-institut.de. Retrieved November 16, 2018.
  15. ↑ Karoline Zobernig: Film review: Mr. Kuka's recommendations see jugendreferat.steiermark.at. Retrieved November 16, 2018.
  16. ↑ Mr. Kuka's Advice - Dariusz Gajewski sS culture.pl (English)