Is what, Chancellor?
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Is what, Chancellor? |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1984 |
| length | 89 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Gerhard Schmidt |
| script |
Jochen Busse , Gerhard Schmidt |
| production |
Marius Müller-Westernhagen , Hans H. Kaden , Gerhard Schmidt |
| music | Manfred Schoof |
| camera | Wolfgang Dickmann |
| cut | Dagmar Rijnders |
| occupation | |
| |
Is what, Chancellor? is a German film satire published in 1984 with Tommi Piper , Constanze Engelbrecht , Günter Lamprecht in the leading roles and a wealth of prominent German cabaret artists in guest appearances.
action
Germany, end of September 1982. The top representatives of the CDU / CSU and the FDP met for a conspiratorial meeting to prepare for the overthrow of SPD Chancellor Helmut Schmidt . As the new Chancellor, Helmut Kohl wants to follow in the footsteps of Konrad Adenauer - CSU leader Franz Josef Strauss from the off: "Now he's going megalomaniac" - and initiate a political change. What nobody knows: the allies are secretly listening in, because the USA, represented by a CIA wiretapping specialist , naturally wants to be the first to know where the journey with the new federal government is going.
Meanwhile, the BKA in Wiesbaden is calling on a young, alert man who has a blow with women. You can find him in Erwin Reinke. His targets are the two Germans Rosi Heller, a secretary at the Union, and the foreign language correspondent Vera Hattenhofer. Both work in their "second job" as informers for the Americans. Reinke's boss, whom he always mockingly calls "my leader" and who has taken on a disguise as the operator of a porno club, wants Erwin to track down the two women. Vera and Rosi are said to have stolen a video cassette with politically explosive material and forwarded it to the CIA.
At the same time there is a conference in Washington. There the two “Men in Black” with sunglasses, Ehrlichmann and Igelburger, are sent on an ultra-secret mission to Germany. As soon as they arrived, the two of them made contact with Confident Rosemarie Heller. When she gets on a train, Reinke jumps in at the last moment and immediately starts flirting with the attractive blonde. Later both end up in bed - and Ehrlichmann promptly taps them.
Soon after, Reinke was called to a murder: A dead person was found in a Bonn swimming pool - of all places in the pool of Bodo Hillermann, the personal advisor and advisor to the future Federal Chancellor. The man looks a lot like the new head of government Kohl. But who will be sworn in as the new Chancellor in the Bundestag? Reinke followed Hillermann to the Bundestag and in the toilet room there witnessed a secret transfer of money between two people in the quiet place. Then Rosi Heller, with whom Reinke has fallen in love in the meantime, also disappears. He then takes her colleague Vera Hattenhofer to prayer.
The situation is getting more and more precarious. Is Rosi Heller already dead because she stole the video cassette, passed it on to the Americans and generally knew too much? Have the most important politicians in Bonn been eliminated long ago and exchanged for US-friendly doubles ? And who is behind this gigantic deception? When Reinke suddenly sees Rosi Heller brightly again, she tries to flee from him. She has the long-sought VHS cassette with her. Rosemarie explains to Erwin that the Americans wanted to kill her and that Erwin's boss, who also wants to eliminate her, is also their boss. He also instigated her to steal the video she was looking for. While the two are arguing on the roof of the CDU party headquarters, a professional killer shoots them from the opposite roof, but misses both. Rosi flees, and Reinke also escapes. He finds refuge with Vera and tells her about his suspicions. This confirms that the most important German politicians were exchanged for doubles as part of an "Action Marionette" devised by the Americans.
Reinke finally wants to know what can be seen on the video and plays it back in Vera's VHS device. There tumultuous scenes can be seen and heard during the CDU / CSU meetings, and you can see how Kohl is overwhelmed so that he can be exchanged. Suddenly Reinke felt a blow on the head and fell to the ground. His own boss has struck him down and flees with Vera and the cassette to a waiting helicopter. The CIA agents Igelburger and Ehrlichman have already arrived there and are demanding that the cassette be handed over. Only then should the BKA boss and Vera Hattenhofer leave. Finally, Vera hands over the coveted cassette to the two Americans, who tell them that the idea of a politician exchange originally came from the Soviets. Then "my leader" admits that Hillermann is behind the whole matter because he trained the doubles. When the two Americans confront Hillermann at gunpoint, he confuses the two CIA men by claiming that neither of the two can be sure of actually being who he claims to be. Perhaps, according to Hillermann, both had long since been exchanged. Fed with distrust, the two aim at each other with their revolvers. Two shots sounded ...
... and Reinke falls out of bed in a room in which Rosemarie Heller is also staying. One reads in the newspaper that Hillermann crashed with Vera in a small plane, but Rosemarie is sure that it is guaranteed to be one of Hillermann's feint to disappear forever with his lover. Rosi and Erwin kiss, but then Rosi turns his body towards the window and moves away from him. Reinke already has a stranger in his crosshairs from a building opposite.
Production notes
Is what, Chancellor? was created in mid-1983 a. a. in Bonn and was premiered on March 16, 1984. The television premiere fell on October 15, 1994.
A large number of representatives of the West German cabaret scene met with this early cinematic settlement with Kohl and Genscher's political turnaround . So complete Dieter Hildebrandt , Lore Lorentz , Rainer Basedow and Dieter Hallervorden guest appearances. Old mocker Wolfgang Neuss , who already felt fatally reminded of the Adenauer era at the beginning of the Kohl era (1982/83) - "Here they are again, the 50s!" - dressed in a blonde wig, a short, bizarre performance as SPD Bundestag Vice -President Annemarie Renger .
The film structures were designed by Norbert Scherer . Ute Ehmke was in charge of production, Hans H. Kaden was in charge of production. Kaspar Heidelbach was an assistant director. The two actors Günter Lamprecht and Claudia Amm , who play Reinke's boss and his lover Vera, are also a couple in real life. In the tradition of a morality singer, Konstantin Wecker sings the song “You have to pay for everything in life” in several scenes, based on a text by Jochen Busse . Dieter Hallervorden has several short appearances with the chanson "I really believe every bullshit, just not that pear is Chancellor", based on text and music by him and Kai Rautenberg .
There are a number of allusions to circumstances and events that reflect the time of its creation, but also the politics of the years immediately before. These are the names of the two CIA agents, dressed like a caricature of the two Blues Brothers in the film of the same name , Ehrlichmann and Igelburger - hidden allusions to the political professional John Ehrlichman , who was involved in the Watergate scandal (1974) and to Lawrence Eagleburger , who was involved in several US governments held a number of important roles up until the 1983 shooting period.
Reviews
"Comedy about the change of government in Bonn in October 1982 , poor in comic ideas. Satire , number cabaret , grotesque and the like - a mixture of mostly blind ideas and motifs."
“… The laughing success is guaranteed like in the best“ Asterix ”magazines: subtle allusions for the educated stands, for the audience without Latinum huck-rucksack. So that everyone understands the moral of the film history, Konstantin Wecker pangs through the plot with a drum: “ After all, the change is a promise to pay. / And it costs the respect of the liberals / You have to pay for everything in life. ”But such contributions remain foreign objects in a film that is after fun. The German present has never been shown so unrestrainedly silly on the screen (although the strangest are still the original overlay by Helmut Kohl): Schmidt abandons the Bonn scene to sheer ridiculousness. It doesn't kill, but it can certainly dismantle something ... "
Web links
- Is what, Chancellor? in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Is what, Chancellor? at filmportal.de
- Pear plot. A new German film comedy turns the Bonn turnaround into a subtle slap in: Der Spiegel from March 12, 1984
Individual evidence
- ↑ Kay Less : The film's great personal dictionary . The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. Volume 5: L - N. Rudolf Lettinger - Lloyd Nolan. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 654.
- ↑ Is what, Chancellor? in the lexicon of international film