My brother's name is Robert and he's an idiot

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Movie
Original title My brother's name is Robert and he's an idiot
Country of production Germany ,
France ,
Switzerland
original language German
Publishing year 2018
length 174 minutes
Rod
Director Philip Groening
script Philip Gröning,
Sabine Timoteo (co-author)
production Philip Gröning,
Matthias Esche ,
Philipp Kreuzer ,
Emmanuel Schlumberger
camera Philip Groening
cut Philip Groening,
Hannes Bruun
occupation

My brother's name is Robert, and is an idiot is a feature film by Philip Gröning from the year 2018 . The drama, with Julia Zange and Josef Mattes in the leading roles, is based on an original script by the director who also produced the film. The focus of the plot is 48 hours in the life of a teenage pair of twins who are about to separate. Their relationship with one another soon takes on incestuous forms and the weekend spent together leads to murder.

The film premiered on February 21, 2018 in the competition at the 68th Berlinale .

action

Southern Germany, in summer: 19-year-old Elena prepares for her oral Abitur examination in philosophy over one weekend . She is supported in this by her dizygoti twin brother Robert, who receives beer in return. An idyllic meadow with a view of the Alps at a petrol station serves as a learning location. They both spent a lot of time in the rural gas station during their childhood. The siblings share a love-hate relationship. Elena is intelligent and commanding and describes her brother as stupid or stupid. Robert, who stayed in school, longs to leave the German provinces. The relationship between the two is made even more complicated by Robert's love for Cecilia, Elena's best friend. Elena is jealous and asks Robert if he slept with Cecilia. He refuses to answer. Rituals, twin games, betting, outbursts of hatred and affectionate closeness, shared baths in a forest lake, a visit to the younger brother Florian and a philosophical discourse, especially on Martin Heidegger's and Augustine's understanding of time, alternate over the two days. Both Elena and Robert are aware that the previous stage of life will soon end and their ways will part.

Elena provokes Robert and suggests that a bet should be made to have sex with a man this weekend. Should Elena lose the bet, she gives Robert the car that she should get when she passed her school-leaving exam. If she wins, he must want something from her. No matter what, except objects. Elena starts flirting with gas station customers. Attempting an overweight man in the gas station toilet almost resulted in rape. Elena can free herself on her own, while Robert stands idly and becomes an ear-witness at the door. During the night Robert is so drunk that he vomits and falls asleep. Elena goes on a trip with the petrol station employee Erich on the moped, who has a fatherly relationship with the two of them. A first attempt to seduce Erich fails. Robert, who was left behind, is trapped in the gas station and witnessed how Cecilia appears with friends and kisses a boy.

Events precipitate when Elena and Robert accidentally injure Erich in their youthful recklessness and then tie and gag him. They extort the gas station's cash register code from him. Elena has sex with Erich in front of Robert's eyes and wins the bet. Robert finds a loaded pistol in the cash register and uses it to shoot cars driving by. Finally, the two siblings undress and have sex together at the gas station. When the tied up Erich Robert admonished that it was "enough" he handed the gun to his sister. Elena plays Erich her favorite song, the French chanson La javanaise by Serge Gainsbourg , and then kills him with the gun in the toilet. The siblings pretend that the pistol is not real and take turns shooting at each other in the gas station until the magazine is empty, but miss each other. The next day, Robert steals a sports car from a gas station customer and disappears. Elena appears overtired for her oral Abitur exam, in which she lectures on the subject of "What is a melody?" And the concept of time.

Production history

script

With My brother's name is Robert, and is an idiot realized Philip Gröning his sixth feature film. As with almost all of his previous works, in addition to directing, he was also involved in the script, production, camera work and parts of the editing. Gröning wrote the script together with the Swiss actress Sabine Timoteo , to whom he had entrusted the leading role in his road movie L'amour, l'argent, l'amour (2000). Gröning summarized the plot as "a story about twins and time". He was also inspired by the time theories of the philosopher Martin Heidegger from his main work Being and Time (1927).

Search for locations

The preparations for the film (original working title: My Brother Robert ) can be traced back to the end of 2007. The beginning of the shooting was delayed, among other things, by the months of searching for suitable locations. "I think we looked at almost every country road in Baden-Württemberg ," said Philip Gröning, who was looking for a unique, secluded place. After the Kleine Wiesenthal below the Belchen and the community of Hasel were discussed as locations, the decision was made instead to use Leipferdingen , a district of the city of Geisingen , as the main location . Gröning had the choice between the plateau near the wind turbines on the district road 5926/6129 to Engen-Stetten or the Breitental in the direction of Tengen . “Two very different places. One high up with a view of the Swabian Alb and the Swiss mountains and one right down in the valley, ”says Gröning. He opted for the more impressive view from the plateau, as there would have been a “completely different atmosphere” in the valley. For this, in August 2012, the Avia filling station that appeared in the film had to be built from plywood as a backdrop on the district road to Engen-Stetten near the wind turbines . For Gröning, the gas station symbolized “freedom” and he referred to it as a popular meeting place for young people in rural regions. “You don't believe how much is going on at a gas station on Saturday evenings,” says Gröning. Because of this use of the landscape and agriculture, the production company involved the Leipferdinger local council in its deliberations in advance. In addition, the regional council of Freiburg had to certify the local farmers that they would not suffer any disadvantages in terms of subsidies if they made land available.

Filming

The shooting was originally scheduled to take place in summer 2012. Due to the illness of an employee, however, the set could not be completed in time. Gröning then decided to postpone the shooting to the summer of 2013, as fields ready for harvest were a prerequisite for recording the story set in the summer. Since my brother's name is Robert and he plays an idiot on a single weekend, the nature and surroundings were not allowed to change obviously during the shooting. The gas station backdrop remained with the approval of the city of Geisingen, the district office and the local farmers and was secured with a tent for the winter of 2012/13. Gröning praised those involved for the "good cooperation". After the scenery had survived the winter well apart from minor repairs, the shooting took place for eleven weeks from August 5 to October 25, 2013 in Leipferdingen and North Rhine-Westphalia . Because of bad weather, the recordings could not start in June as originally planned. Several hectares of winter wheat and triticale were grown around the gas station backdrop . In return, the local farmers had to be compensated for their ceded land with 3.5 hectares of silage maize as fodder. Gröning worked in Leipferdingen with a film team of around 15 to 20 people. In May 2014, a scene was shot at night on the Wertachsender in Ettringen, Bavaria .

The production costs for the film were put at three million euros . Originally a theatrical release was planned for 2015/16, but Gröning needed a lot of time for post-production as with his previous feature film Die Frau des Polizisten (2013) and did not finish the film until the beginning of 2018. My brother's name is Robert and is an idiot was funded with 457,000 euros by the Filmstiftung NRW . In addition to Philip Gröning Filmproduktion and the French L Films , Bavaria Film , WDR and Bayerischer Rundfunk were co-producers .

reception

Gröning's directorial work received 2.8 out of four possible stars in the international critics of the British trade magazine Screen International and took 5th place among all 19 Berlinale competition films.

Awards

With my brother's name is Robert and is an idiot Philip Gröning competed for the first time at the Berlin International Film Festival for the Golden Bear , the main prize of the festival. The film received no awards. In the same year, Gröning received the New Visions Award for best director at the Sitges Film Festival .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b My brother's name is Robert and is an idiot at crew united (accessed on January 14, 2018).
  2. ↑ Full Cast & Crew . In: Internet Movie Database (accessed January 15, 2018).
  3. ↑ a b c d e Limberger-Andris, Stefan: Blumberg: Die Sehnsucht nach der Ferne In: schwarzwaelder-bote.de, August 16, 2013 (accessed on January 14, 2018).
  4. ↑ a b c d Kleibauer, Dieter: Gröning shoots in Leipferdingen . In: Heuberger Bote , August 16, 2012, p. 1.
  5. ↑ Haug, Paul: Last flap for film project . In: Südkurier / Donaueschingen, January 11, 2014, p. 26.
  6. ↑ a b Two competition films sponsored by the Filmstiftung at the Berlinale . In: filmstiftung.de, December 20, 2017 (accessed on January 14, 2018; original article version via Internet Archive ).
  7. ↑ Nassoufis, Aliki: Film with a fundamental question . In: Westdeutsche Zeitung , September 9, 2013 (accessed via the Wiso Presse database ).
  8. ↑ Philip Groening . In: the daily newspaper , December 24, 2007, p. 36.
  9. ↑ a b c Fröhlein, Christina: Filming location survives the winter break . In: Südkurier, May 13, 2013, p. 26.
  10. ↑ a b c d e f Kübler, Lisa: Film set in hibernation . In: Südkurier, December 14, 2012, p. 19.
  11. ↑ a b Stegen, Reinhard: When Ettringen suddenly lies in the Black Forest . In: augsburger-allgemeine.de, May 27, 2017 (accessed January 14, 2018).
  12. ^ "Lore 'comes to light . In: Heuberger Bote, December 24, 2012, p. 23.
  13. ↑ a b c d Dreyer, Franz: Refueling is not possible here . In: Südkurier, August 28, 2013, p. 29
  14. ↑ My brother is called Robert and is an idiot at filmportal.de (accessed on January 14, 2017).
  15. ^ Dalton, Ben: 'Isle Of Dogs' tops Screen's final Berlin Jury Grid; Golden Bear winner 'Touch Me Not' scores low . In: screendaily.com, February 26, 2018 (accessed March 8, 2018).