Horst in Translation ([email protected])
"Und Äktschn!" is a German/Austrian co-production from 2014, so two more years until this one has its 5th anniversary. It is the most recent directorial effort by Frederick Baker and he also came up with the script, together with lead actor Gerhard Polt. Polt is still one of the most known Austrians today here in Germany when it comes to actors as well as filmmakers as his work at the very end of the 20th century made him a big of a star here and this refers to him in front of as well as behind the camera. And while he does both anyway then why not make a film about this subject exactly as Polt plays a man in here who decides that he wants to give the world his take on Hitler. A subject that has been done so so many times and this is also what the film is making fun of a bit. If you know Polt, then you know as well that this movie is predominantly, actually almost entirely comedy from start to finish during its 100 minutes.There are some familiar names in here for German film buffs (besides Polt), such as Brückner, Kren, Paryla and of course Polt's longtime collaborator Gisela Schneeberger, maybe even others that mostly Austrians will recognize. But admittedly, the movie is at its best (and this means actually "at its only decent") when Polt himself is on the screen and does not have to share it with too many other people. He is still somewhat of a force of nature with great charisma, screen presence and line delivery, even in his 70s. But like I said, anything besides him is nothing special or memorable at all. The film becomes increasingly blurry the longer it goes, not necessarily because of the (admittedly not helping) story line, but because of the fact that there are maybe too many characters in it and because you feel it is just for the attempt to make it as funny as possible, but without having anything of value to say anymore eventually. 20 minutes less really could have helped this one. As a whole, I gotta give it a thumbs-down. Polt alone and an occasionally funny scene (like the arrest towards the end) are not enough to make it work.
