Shopping (film)

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Movie
Original title Shopping
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 2006
length 95 minutes
Age rating FSK 0
JMK 0
Rod
Director Ralf Westhoff
script Ralf Westhoff
production Ralf Westhoff
Florian Deyle
Martin Richter
music Michael Heilrath
camera Helmfried Kober
cut Uli Schön
occupation

Shoppen is a German feature film by director Ralf Westhoff , which was released in 2007. The ensemble film shows 18 women and men and their attempts to find new relationships during a speed dating .

content

The Munich- based ensemble film presents nine women and nine men who are looking for a partner. First, they are introduced and characterized individually in their work, living or leisure environment using brief punchlines. The longest part of the film takes place in a larger whitewashed room, in which the women on one side and the men on the other sit across from each other and talk to each other in pairs. The speed dating manager whistles every five minutes to switch. With different questions, the participants try to find out as much as possible about the other and to sell themselves as attractive as possible. On a questionnaire they tick who they would like to meet again later. The last part of the film is made up of these meetings, which take place in different places and have equally different ends.

background

Emergence

The director Ralf Westhoff got to know the producer duo Florian Deyle and Martin Richter in 2003 at the presentation of the Starter Film Prize of the City of Munich, where Westhoff received an award for his short film Der Plan des Herr Thomaschek . Two years later, the three met again as winners at the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Prize : Westhoff received an award for his short film Der Bananenkaktus , and the two producers received an award for their production The Surprise . In a lengthy conversation during the award ceremony, Westhoff first discussed the subject of his first feature film, which is currently being prepared, shopping with the two producers . A few months later he presented them with his finished script.

production

The financing of the film began in early 2006. Funding for the implementation of shopping came mainly from the FilmFernsehFonds Bayern , while Bayerischer Rundfunk participated in the project as a co-producer . Deyle and Richter, as managing directors of Drife Productions, decided in turn to forego their fee in order to reduce costs. Westhoff put the cast of the film together primarily from young actors from the Munich theater scene; including actors with whom he had already worked in advance. Over the course of months, he attended various theater productions and invited various of his favorites to auditions - a process that was only concluded shortly before filming began. According to Westhoff, he did not receive any rejections from his preferred candidates, who, like the staff, were sometimes even willing to work despite the provision of fees. The permanent theater engagement of most of the 18 leading actors should, however, lead to frequent changes to the shooting schedule due to various rehearsal and performance plans in preproduction and later during shooting. In retrospect, Deyle described the logistics of the shooting schedule as "certainly the greatest challenge when shopping ", also because the team tried to "not scare off theater dispatchers and actors as much as possible".

The shooting took place in just 20 days in June 2006 - in the middle of the 2006 World Cup in Germany. While the majority of all film productions interrupted the shooting or postponed it until after the championship, the crew decided, despite difficult filming permits and recurring fan chants and horn concerts , to coordinate their shooting schedule with the World Cup. The decision during the shooting phase should turn out to be an advantage for production: On the one hand, she was quite flexible with her small team; secondly, it would, according to Westhoff with their "mini-budget after the World Cup does not guarantee team members and no more equipment get - because everything would have been fully booked." Without obstacles the rotation but did not go: Since the shooting, among others near the Munich Fanmeile took place, there was a constant risk that fans could be seen or heard in the background during the outdoor recordings. The work on a tram scene was ultimately carried out in the dark after Switzerland's quarter-final game against Ukraine dragged on to the penalty shoot-out and the delay caused the team to wait until the shop window lights went out.

Deyle and Richter had already discussed the framework in which the finished film should be presented in the pre-production phase. An early agreement was reached on the Hof International Film Festival , which takes place every year in October. Despite the short time that lay between the shooting in June and the still unfinished film, which was currently in post-production , the two producers decided to send a partly uncut and unmixed raw version of Shoppen to Hofer Festival director Heinz Baditz to show. After a specially arranged cinema screening, the latter finally agreed to the festival premiere. After Baditz's approval, the two producers drew up a plan for post-production for the remaining time, in which the editing , sound design , lighting, title design and exposure on 35 mm film were carried out.

publication

Shopping finally celebrated its world premiere on October 25, 2006 at the Hof International Film Festival. The film copy was finished “at the last minute” and was personally driven to Hof by the production department on the day of the premiere. The film was acclaimed at the festival. It was released in theaters on May 3, 2007. Around 334,000 cinema-goers saw the film in Germany.

Reviews

“Fortunately, there are few figure building blocks that have been prepared dramatically. Instead, there are these little glances and gestures, from which you as a viewer then automatically assemble the whole figure. "

- Dirk Knipphals : The daily newspaper

“With his first feature-length film, Ralf Westhoff managed to break all the classic precepts of film dramaturgy. [...] And he still managed [...] to conjure up an outstanding film from it that is fun. […] The dialogues that Ralf Westhoff also wrote were great, in such a way that everyone can find themselves in at least one person. And also in such a way that they seem improvised at the same time and yet get to the point. "

- Peter Zander : The world

Awards

At the 2007 Bavarian Film Awards ceremony , Ralf Westhoff was recognized as the best young director and for the best screenplay. At the German Film Prize 2008 , Shoppen was nominated in the categories of Best Fiction Film and Best Screenplay .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Release certificate for shopping . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , February 2007 (PDF; test number: 109 070 K).
  2. Age rating for shopping . Youth Media Commission .
  3. a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Shopping. (PDF; 5.4 MB) In: Press release. Polyfilm Verleih , 2007, accessed January 28, 2017 .
  4. Film hit list: Annual list (German) 2007. Filmförderungsanstalt, archived from the original on August 1, 2012 ; Retrieved January 24, 2010 .
  5. Dirk Knipphals: The same kicking. Speed ​​dating. Die Tageszeitung, May 3, 2007, accessed on January 28, 2017 .
  6. Peter Zander: Generation Single. Die Welt, May 3, 2007, accessed January 28, 2017 .