My neighbors with the fat dog
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | My neighbors with the fat dog |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 2019 |
| length | 90 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Ingo Rasper |
| script | Kathi Liers |
| production | Uli Putz , Amelie Syberberg , Thomas Klimmer |
| music | Martina Eisenreich |
| camera | Eric Ferranti |
| cut | Nicola Undritz |
| occupation | |
| |
My Neighbors with the Big Dog is a German television film by Ingo Rasper from 2019 , which was produced by ARD Degeto on behalf of and for Das Erste and will premiere on July 3, 2019 at the Munich Film Festival in the series "Neues Deutsches Fernsehen" celebrated. The main roles act Steffi Kühnert , Zoë Valks and Theodora Tetzlaff , in supporting roles Katharina Marie Schubert , Johanna Gastdorf , Max Hegewald and Judith Hoersch .
action
Susanne Brendel, employee in a paleontological museum, denies in front of her colleagues out of shame that her husband Peter has separated from her after more than thirty years of marriage. Since then she has withdrawn more and more into the protective atmosphere of her apartment in a tenement house. But the private idyll is over when new neighbors move in with a big fat dog. Kim Hirschberger, the owner of the animal, is a single mother who has to combine her training as a cook and looking after her seven-year-old daughter Saphir. For the rest of the house, the “newcomers” are a nightmare. Susanne Brendel is happy when she doesn't have to meet them and the terrible Dogue de Bordeaux , which is also called “Frau Hirschberger”. Not only does the young woman communicate loudly with her daughter in the stairwell, she also turns half the night into day, which disturbs Susanne in her night's sleep. But since she is a very reserved person, she endures this without grumbling.
A ray of hope for the lonely woman is her son, with whom she regularly contacts via Skype , as he studies far away in Vancouver . He always tries to motivate her to get her life back under control after the breakup. But Susanne is of the opinion that she does, after all, she goes to work regularly, has nice colleagues there and does synchronized swimming, a passion in which she at least made it to the German champion in 1984 . She does indeed enjoy swimming a lot, but unfortunately she only has one swimmer who shares her passion - at least she thinks. However, the lifeguard then surprisingly announced to the women that they would have to give up the use of the large pool due to the low occupancy rate. It should be ten people. Maria, Susanne's best friend, says they have to fight and recruit everyone they know. But that turns out to be difficult, because there is hardly anyone in Susanne's boring life in which she herself, like her museum pieces, seems to have become a fossil .
Even if Susanne doesn't like her neighbor with the fat dog, she keeps catching herself looking out of her window into the neighboring apartment. Since it's vacation time, Saphir is often alone when her mother is doing her education, and so Susanne witnesses the child having an accident one day while playing. Immediately she informs the caretaker and together they enter the strange apartment. The ambulance is called and the girl is brought to the hospital for safety. Saphir's mother thanks Susanne, but is subject to a misunderstanding and abruptly explains to her that she does not want any further interference in her life.
Over time, Susanne becomes friends with Saphir and helps the child when his dog breaks off the leash and runs away in search of the animal, although she doesn't really care about dogs. She also stands up for the child when Saphir is caught stealing from a pet store. Saphir's mother, however, is annoyed by the neighbor's excessive commitment. When Nina Neumann from the youth welfare office appears unannounced, she suspects Susanne to be the mastermind and forbids her to have any further contact with her daughter. But not enough that Susanne is falsely suspected by her neighbor, her scaffolding of lies threatens to collapse with her work colleagues and she even gets into an argument with her best friend Maria. In addition, she has to find out that her son dropped out of college for a long time. Gradually it becomes clear to Susanne that things cannot go on like this.
After her work colleagues found out that Susanne's husband broke up with her months ago, she also managed to approach her neighbor. She benefits from the fact that after the dog, sapphire has suddenly also disappeared. Kim and Susanne look in vain for the child together. Because Kim doesn't want to stay alone the night, she spends it with Susanne in their apartment. A conversation between the unequal women defuses the situation between them and shows that both are struggling with problems. While Susanne has a lot of unused free time, Kim doesn't know where her head is. She constantly has to report to the youth welfare office because Saphir's father recently wanted to have custody of his child and so she does not know how to reconcile training and the duty of care.
After Saphir disappeared the next morning, Susanne Kim gave the idea to call the animal shelter again. A family actually reported there and found "Frau Hirschberger". Kim also learns that Saphir had also made inquiries at the animal shelter the day before and is given the address of the family with whom the dog must now be. In fact, Kim finds her daughter there, who has been secretly sleeping in a shed and is happy to see her mother. Since the family owns a single-family house with a large garden, Kim leaves her daughter to decide what to do with "Mrs. Hirschberger". In the interests of the animal, Saphir decides to leave her dog with the family.
With Kim's consent, Susanne now takes care of Saphir almost every day and even gives her some tutoring in spelling. Kim, Saphir, their three work colleagues, the caretaker of the tenement house and "Frau Hirschberger" s new family accepted her invitation to her beloved water ballet. That's eight people. Last but not least, Maria appears, to whom Susanne had practically apologized with a message on her cell phone, and shoves the lifeguard into the water to announce that they are now ten.
production
Production notes
My Neighbors with the Big Dog was filmed from September 25th to October 25th 2018 under the working title Susanne taucht in Berlin and the surrounding area. Claussen + Putz Filmproduktion GmbH was responsible for the film. The editor was Katja Kirchen and Stefan Kruppa.
Soundtrack
- Suzanne - Aretha Franklin
- Wannabe - Spice Girls
- Rock Your Baby - George McCrae
- Baby Come Back - Player
- Coucou / There Is Still Pain Left - Sophie Hunger
- Under Pressure - Queen & David Bowie
reception
Publication, audience rating
The premiere of the film in the program of the ARD Das Erste for prime time took place on 18 October 2019 was able to record 3.9 million viewers. The market share was 13.6 percent. The English title of the film is My Neighbors With the Fat Dog .
criticism
Rainer Tittelbach from tittelbach.tv gave the television film five out of six possible stars and said he “tells a story that could happen every day somewhere in […] Berlin. A woman in her mid-50s cannot cope with suddenly being single. When new neighbors mess up their usual everyday lives, prejudices arise on both sides. In reality, you would continue to cultivate your resentments. In a film you can give the situation a different spin ”[…] and“ subject characters to a learning process. ”Kathi Lier's script cuts topics such as“ Problems with unwanted loneliness, the loneliness of the big city, the loneliness when your own life situation overcomes you "Head" grows "quietly, sensitively and in clever, discreetly packaged metaphors". The film "shows how prejudices are aroused in the two dissimilar women, how they develop into conflicts and how misunderstandings or low self-esteem stand in the way of a solution." [...] "As credible as in 'My neighbors with the big dog 'Reconciliations and (in-between) family reunions only rarely come about in television films. ”The cast is particularly noteworthy -“ especially the unique Steffi Kühnert. With her alert eyes and reduced play ”she said more“ than words could express ”. Likewise, Zoe Valks is "in her first major role, in whose physiognomy and body language rigidity and fragility are in balance", is "a cast that fits the role, but is not too pleasing. Theodora Tetzlaff ”is“ another stroke of luck, and about Katharina Marie Schubert, Johanna Gastdorf and Max Hegewald in supporting supporting roles ”one“ doesn't have to say a lot ”.
The critics of the television magazine TV Spielfilm wrote with praise: “The plot is well-known, and in the end the drama has forgotten that it once started as a comedy. Thanks to beautiful picture ideas, amusing dialogues and a consistently great ensemble, the film develops considerable charm. Johanna Gastdorf sets comedic highlights as Susanne's cheeky friend Maria. ”Conclusion:“ Despite weaknesses, funny and very lovable. ”The film received the best possible rating, the thumbs up.
Oliver Armknecht from film-rezensions.de said: “'My neighbors with the big dog' takes the popular scenario that a bitter old person can find his way back to life thanks to young impulses. The German TV production tells the story primarily from the perspective of the older protagonist, which sets the film apart from similar colleagues. Big surprises are still in short supply, the strengths lie in the humor and the characters. "
The film service praised that it was a "sensitive tragic comedy with subtle imagery and excellent actresses who tell their story with the claim to being realistic". The “topic of urban isolation” is “taken up just as sensitively as the overwhelming moments as a single parent. - From 14. "
Sarah Kohlberger reviewed the film for the television magazine Prisma . She found that Rasper was “facing” the “two completely opposing characters” of Susanne and Kim and allowing their “separate worlds to collide - including prejudices and misunderstandings”. “A sensitive film about loneliness, family, neighbors and the power of a child to turn a person's life upside down” emerged from “the sensitive story penned by screenwriter Kathi Liers”. “The whole thing is peppered with numerous conflicts and tragic moments as well as a lot of humor”. The "narration" is "not destroyed by unnecessary secondary threads, but concentrates on the essentials: the relationship between the two abandoned mothers and Saphir". The “bitch” plays “only a small role”, but acts “as an important key figure”. “Wonderfully cast” convinced “the film with its wit and amazing depth”.
Tilmann P. Gangloff praised on the Kino.de website , “a wonderfully played Friday comedy with Steffi Kühnert as the abandoned wife who befriends a cheeky little girl”. The critic continued: “For inexplicable reasons, the Degeto often gives demanding Friday films unnecessarily striking titles. In this respect, 'My neighbors with the big dog' is pleasantly positive in every respect. ”Ingo Rasper has“ already made some films that are worth seeing for the Degeto ”. “The performances of the main actors” are “always worth seeing in his work anyway”. The fact that “an extraordinary actress like Steffi Kühnert holds this level” is “no surprise, but the performance of Zoë Valks, who is so far completely unknown on television, is. "Young Theodora Tetzlaff, who does her job extraordinarily well", is also managed very excellently. Gangloff also praised the fact that the script and direction had created “the conditions for a wonderful final sequence”. The “soft music by Martina Eisenreich” is “the perfect background for this extremely successful tragic comedy, which impresses not least because of the careful visual design (Eric Feranti)”.
Web links
- My neighbor with the big dog in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- My neighbors with the big dog at crew united
- My neighbors with the fat dog at Fernsehserien.de
- For my neighbors with the fat dog, see daserste.de
- My neighbors with the fat dog Fig. The first movie poster
-
My neighbors with the fat dog full film in the ARD media library
(available up to and including August 28, 2020, 4:00 p.m.)
Individual evidence
- ↑ My neighbors with the fat dog retrieved from crew-united.de.
- ^ A b Rainer Tittelbach : TV film "My neighbors with the big dog". Steffi Kühnert, Valks, Liers, Rasper. About the supposedly small things in life at tittelbach.tv , September 22, 2019. Accessed July 16, 2020.
- ↑ My neighbors with the fat dog at filmportal.de
- ↑ My neighbors with the fat dog at tvspielfilm.de (including 21 film images). Retrieved July 16, 2020.
- ↑ Oliver Armknecht: My Neighbors with the Big Dog Film review on the page film-rezensions.de, October 17, 2019. Retrieved July 16, 2020.
- ↑ My neighbors with the fat dog. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed July 16, 2020 .
- ↑ Sarah Kohlberger: "My neighbors with the big dog": together lonely see page prisma.de. Retrieved July 16, 2020.
- ↑ tpg : My neighbors with the fat dog see page kino.de. Retrieved July 16, 2020.