“Germany 09” consists of 13 short films about the state of things in Germany. It also gives a depressing overview over the state of film making in Germany. The red thread that connects all episodes with the exception of two or three of them, is lack of subtlety, bad acting, lack of humor, lack of observation and a general provincialism that is embarrassing for the viewer.The episode by Dani Levy, which Spiegel online considers one of the three better episodes, is actually one of the worst and sets the tone for the rest of the film. Levy plays himself in ballyhoo story about some medicine that helps to make Germany a better place or at least a cooler experience for patients by showing them a different reality. Woody Allen might have turned the idea into a funny story, but Levy who fails as an actor as much as he does as director, created a lame comedy with obvious jokes. How unfunny. How German.
Most other episodes are not even worth criticizing. They are of shocking stupidity. One exception is Tyckwer’s contribution, the story of a yuppie who travels from one meeting to next in a globalized world and who creates some kind of Heimat for himself by using the same brands everywhere. Tyckwer’s shots often remind of stock photos, which is a good artistic choice. At least he delivered something that is not downright embarrassing like the rest of the movie.
Also quite good and actually very funny is Romuald Karmakar’s interview with a brothel owner in Berlin. It sucks that towards the end of the episode he includes his own lengthy questions in the film (full of political co-notations and wrecking the experience of listening to the guy who is quite a character).
Most stories take place in Berlin or are at least filmed there. Quite strange for a film with that title. After all Berlin is a bit of a singularity in Germany. It almost feels like the film teams were lazy and decided to film near by. All in all one actually feels that most episodes were the result of laziness. A laziness to observe, a laziness to think, a laziness to translate political attitudes in narratives.
The good thing: This film makes one so angry that only extremely robust people run a risk of falling asleep during those 2 1/2 hours that come close to torture (Murat, please excuse the comparison)
Update: Benjamin Mattausch, blogging for “der Freitag” actually liked the film