Horst in Translation ([email protected])
"Zettl" is a German 110-minute movie from 2012, so this one has its 5th anniversary this year. It is the very last work of his life and career by director Helmut Dietl and he is also the one who adapted the original work by Benjamin von Stuckrad-Barre, a relatively well-known writer who was the next big thing here in Germany for a while.And when Dietl calls, they all show up which is why you will see a gigantic amount of big name actors from Germany in these slightly under 2 hours. Even Harald Schmidt reprises his Late Show character from a long time earlier. But the fact that only one cast member is listed with awards reception here and that one also got 90% of it for another film is very telling in terms of the quality here. Dietl may have been way past his peak already at that point sadly. He is known as a filmmaker who had a tendency to depict the richer part of the German society in many of his films, what you may want to call the high society and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. And it is undeniable that Dietl has a talent when it comes to combining character studies with comedy. The big problem in this film, however, is that he really shamelessly goes over the top throughout the entire film from start to finish. Add to that the several really unrealistic plot twists and the characters that just stopped feeling authentic at some point. It's not a bad foundation overall I would say, but what they made of it is simply a gigantic mess. There was really only one moment that somewhat touched me, namely seeing George's character dead towards the end, but this had to do just with the actor's real dead not too long ago and not with the movie. Apart from that, it did become once again pretty obvious to me that Bully Herbig is not lead actor material in anything that isn't 100% fun and comedy like his new Bullyparade movie for example. The film as a whole is also way too absurd to make any interesting critical statement about society. Dietl was just letting loose and the outcome is very disappointing. Not a good way to say goodbye. I give the film a thumbs-down. Not recommended.
