Toni Erdmann (2016)

Let's re-launch Kino-Klatsch with perhaps my favourite film, Toni Erdmann (2017), starring Sandra Hueller (Anatomy of a Fall, Zone of Interest).

-I remember it to be a truly weird-wonderful film - fantastically so, which had me crying in laughter more than once: "the slowest 3-hour German film you will ever love," I remember telling people. It has a unique way of creating real familiarity with the characters, so that when everything goes absolute absurd/crazy, it somehow still seems believable.
When released, the film was a welcome snapshot of the insane world that had just voted for Brexit and Trump. Let's see how it resonates today.

Here is the write up from VIFF:

This hilarious and acerbic comedy follows a retiree as he stages a series of outrageous pranks to disrupt his executive daughter's latest business deal.

Shark-like corporate go-getter Ines (a brilliant and brave Sandra Hüller, later of Anatomy of a Fall) has a testy relationship with her prank-playing father, retired music teacher Winfried (Peter Simonischek), in part because he does things like dress up in a costume and false teeth to play someone called Toni Erdmann, and in part because he keeps asking impossible questions like, “Are you happy?” Ines accepts a position in Bucharest, and soon gets an unwanted surprise: an impulsive visit from the father she’d rather avoid…
When Maren Ade’s debut The Forest for the Trees played VIFF in 2004, everyone who saw it knew she was destined for big things. Well, the very funny and yet deeply poignant Toni Erdmann is that big thing: a sui generis slice of bravura filmmaking, with a depth and a range of feeling — from the hilarious to the profoundly moving — that are extraordinarily rare. It is no secret that many critics and festival programmers thought the film deserved the Palme d’Or at Cannes — it is, in a word, a masterpiece.

> A thrilling act of defiance against the toxicity of doing what is expected, on film, at work and out in the world. Toni Erdmann, proceeding in a perfectly straightforward manner, from one awkward, heartfelt, hilarious scene to the next, wraps itself around some of the thorniest complexities of contemporary reality. There are things you will look at differently after seeing Toni Erdmann. A short list might include petits fours, cheese graters, team-building exercises and a certain song immortalized by Whitney Houston. Also German comedies, Bulgarian costumes, Romanian hotels, fatherhood and the anxious, absurd state of the human race in the 21st century.
> AO Scott, New York Times

> An immensely rich, deeply felt exploration of human relationships that draws you in and holds you fast for nearly three hours.
> Tirdad Derakhshani, Philadelpha Inquirer

> One of the most stirring cinematic experiences to come around in a long time.
> Giovanni Marchini Camia, The Film Stage

Below is the weblink where you can buy your tickets.

Before/after the screening, I will introduce myself and explain what we are doing: At VIFF, we should be able to have drinks and talk afterwards in their lobby-cafe. If not, we will find a Kneipe nearby.

VIFF website/tickets:
https://viff.org/whats-on/toni-erdmann/

The trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0uwi5EPnpA&themeRefresh=1

And here is good review from The Atlantic:
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/01/toni-erdmann-maren-ade-review/513065/

The trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCiadD0qoDA