Single bells

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Movie
Original title Single bells
Country of production Austria
original language German
Publishing year 1997
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Xaver Schwarzenberger
script Ulrike Schwarzenberger
production Christian Wolf
music Anna Lauvergnac
camera Xaver Schwarzenberger
cut Michou Hutter
occupation

Single Bells is a German-Austrian feature film of director Xaver Schwarzenberger from 1997. The satirical Christmas comedy based on a script of his former wife Ulrike Schwarzenberger and tells of the Austrian family Moor, which is the common Christmas in Vienna einfindet region, while, however, steers from one catastrophe to the next when, in addition to the two unequal mothers of the married couple Jo and Luiserl, Luiserl's sister Kati also announces that she is looking for refuge with the family after a tangible argument with friend Jonas.

Single Bells was realized by Teamfilm Produktion in coproduction with ORF and Telepool . The shooting took place from February to March 1997 in Vienna , Freistadt and Mariazell . The main roles were Martina Gedeck , Gregor Bloéb , Erwin Steinhauer , Mona Seefried , Inge Konradihaus and Joan of Koczian front of the camera. When it first aired in December 1997, the comedy received positive reviews from critics. With its annual repetition, the film has since achieved cult status. In 2000 a sequel appeared with O Palmenbaum .

action

The 35-year-old, professionally successful Katarina "Kati" Treichl is visited by a former employee with her infant son in her Viennese advertising agency on the eve of Christmas Eve. After this meeting, Kati also wants to have a child and, with her boyfriend, the pediatrician Jonas Meixner, finally start a family and get married. Jonas has enough professional contact with children and he refuses to propose to Kati. The discussion escalates and Jonas leaves the apartment angrily. When he returns, he finds a letter in which Kati breaks up with him. The planned holiday in Mauritius , which should start on Christmas Eve to avoid Christmas, seems to be canceled.

Kati is devastated and speaks on the phone with her sister Luise, who she spontaneously invites to herself and her family for Christmas. So Kati is going to the country to celebrate an idyllic Christmas there. The idyll only appears to exist. Even at dinner on December 23, there was tension between Luise and "Grandma", her mother-in-law Mitzerl. When Lilibet, the mother of Kati and Luise, appears unannounced and invites herself to the holidays, everything falls apart.

On the morning of Christmas Eve, the catastrophe for “ pancakes with spinach” begins . The situation escalates further after Luise found out that Grandma is taking over the Christmas preparations. The Christmas present brought by Lilibet for Luise's daughter Sissi, a rat, is supposedly eaten by the hangover, whereupon Lilibet and Sissi leave the house and go to the pastry shop. Grandma and Luise come to terms with Jo's mediation. However, there are other problems: Luise's son Gregor, who is a vegetarian, refuses to buy the carp that are supposed to serve as a substitute for Grandma's goose. Finally Lilibet and Sissi come home with the found rat. However, Sissi is bad at the eggnog and she is not really interested in the presents. When Grandma tries to drive away the rat that Luise has put in the manger, the tree catches fire. Kati flees to the airport and wants to travel to Mauritius, but misses the plane. At the airport she meets Jonas, who announces to her horror that he wants to visit his parents for the Christmas party with her.

background

Was produced Single Bells from the team of international film production in co-production with the ordering Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF) and the Tele pool for ORF and Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR). The cooperation between the married couple Ulrike and Xaver Schwarzenberger came about as part of an exclusive contract with ORF, which resulted in a number of Austrian television films that the couple was responsible for making. While Ulrike Schwarzenberger was instrumental in developing the script for Single Bells , her husband Xaver took over both the direction and the camera. Christian Wolf could be engaged as production manager. Katharina Bogensberger and Hermann Wolf were in charge of production.

Most of the film's exterior shots were made in Mariazell .

The shooting of Single Bells took place between February 3 and March 4, 1997 in the Vienna area as well as in Freistadt in Upper Austria and Mariazell in Styria . For Martina Gedeck , who described the film as "an immense [...] because it is so timeless [...] stroke of genius", the recordings marked one of her first shoots in Austria. Due to the weather conditions, the crew was forced to change the location several times. A large part of the outdoor shots was therefore primarily made in Mariazell, where the snow required for the shooting did not fall until the production team had arrived.

For the background music, Schwarzenberger chose not only well-known German Christmas carols such as " Ihr Kinderlein, kommet ", " O Tannenbaum ", " O dujoyliche ", excerpts from the English winter song " Jingle Bells " as the recurring leitmotif of the production. His long-time companion, the Italian jazz singer and film composer Anna Lauvergnac , sang the previously unreleased title “When Christmas Time is Here” for Single Bells .

Reviews

“Cult suspicion like Dinner for One and wonderfully evil! This film should come back on the table every year, "said Der Spiegel in its review from 1998. TAZ described the film as" the only really good German Christmas comedy for years ". Similarly, Rainer Tittelbach from Tittelbach.tv also declared Single Bells a “TV classic for Christmas time”. Author Ulli Schwarzenberger “poked into the growth of false sentimentality with just as much love as he did with relish, without surrendering her characters to ridicule […] Everyday life determines the dramaturgy and the actors become the heart of Single Bells .” TV Spielfilm also rated the comedy positive and judged: "Xaver Schwarzenberger and wife Ulli fill their satire with unforgettable characters."

success

For Martina Gedeck , the recordings marked her first filming in Austria.

The film was first broadcast on December 20, 1997 on ORF Eins . Around 1,132,000 viewers tuned in during prime time . This resulted in a 44 percent market share and 17 percent reach. In Germany, Single Bells was first broadcast on December 22, 1998 in the first . Since then, it has been one of the German-language productions that are broadcast on television several times over the Christmas season . In the meantime, Single Bells has achieved cult status , as Austria dubbed it in 2008: “If you have never seen these two satires, it is your own fault, because no Austrian Christmas film is ever in terms of humor and humor in Single Bells and its worthy sequel O Palmenbaum come up. The Schwarzenberger comedies are really suspicious of cult and wonderfully evil. "

Focus.de took Single Bells in 2015 in its rankings of the most beautiful modern Christmas movies and judge: " Single Bells playing in the picturesque snowy Austria. But that's all about idyll. For these furious comedy is one of the most entertaining anti-Christmas movies of all time. "In the same year placed the Today the film together with his sequel O palm tree in its list of top Christmas movies and found that both feature films" for friends of local productions at the Christmas holidays should not be missing ":" The Christmas comedy from 1998 not only brings together top-class Austrian actors, but above all funny stories from the stressful everyday life before the big family celebration. "

When asked about the cult character of the film, lead actor Erwin Steinhauer commented in the TV-Media magazine in 2016 : “Yes, I wouldn't have thought that. I can only remember people speaking to me the day after the premiere: 'How do you know how things are here?' So I thought to myself: Aha, that struck a nerve after all. ”Gedeck described the 2018 production as one of their more famous, comedic materials and“ the ultimate Christmas film ”.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. a b c d e f g h i j Luigi Heinrich: No repetition on ORF is more popular . In: Small newspaper . Retrieved December 22, 2017.
  2. a b orf.at - creative duo Ulli and Xaver Schwarzenberger ( Memento of the original from April 20, 2015 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved April 20, 2015. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / kundendienst.orf.at
  3. ^ "Single Bells" ring again on ORF: Dakapo for Schwarzenberger cult satire on December 22nd . In: Der Spiegel . ots . Retrieved December 21, 2015.
  4. a b Comedy about Christmas Eve - A Little Child of Love . The daily newspaper . December 15, 2009. Retrieved December 21, 2015.
  5. ^ Rainer Tittelbach: TV satire: Martina Gedeck, Erwin Steinhauer & the normal Festtagswahnsinn . Tittelbach.tv . December 28, 1998. Retrieved December 22, 2015.
  6. Single Bells, Komödie, A / D 1997, (90 min.) . TV feature film . Retrieved December 22, 2015.
  7. Single Bells. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  8. Ultra fun: "Single Bells" and "O Palmenbaum" are TV cult . Austria . December 11, 2008. Accessed December 21, 2015.
  9. The most beautiful Christmas films: snow, glitter - and a little blood . Focus.de. December 17, 2015. Accessed December 21, 2015.
  10. These are the most beautiful Christmas films . Today . December 5, 2015. Archived from the original on December 21, 2015. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved December 21, 2015. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / tv.heute.at
  11. David Schoof: Polt rumbles: "The ORF has no courage" . TV media . November 12, 2016. Retrieved October 29, 2018.
  12. ↑ Place setting: "Comedy always attracts me" . Westphalia sheet . Retrieved October 29, 2018.
  13. Interview with Martina Gedeck . Potsdam latest news . Retrieved December 11, 2019.