TIFF16 Film #1

Reason for Pick – Eli’s Hayes’ review out of Cannes

Toni Erdmann is a complex dance that paints the outline of the relationship between a lonely father and his career occupied daughter, who's living abroad.

I went in with the impression that this was going to be two hours and forty minutes of non-stop laughter. It isn’t. While there are frequent laugh-out-loud moments, and two scenes that sends the audience into fits, the remainder ranges from poignant to painful to awkward. Writer / Director Maren Ade isn’t afraid to linger on a shot, often cutting a few seconds after the natural beat, which gives a feeling of reality over scripted drama. She also isn’t afraid to use…

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Well, Christian Petzold broke the ice, but it looks like Maren Ade's going to bring it home: the "Berlin School" has broken beyond the rarefied festival circuit to produce bona fide hits. What's particularly shocking about this turn of events is that, unlike other segments of the austere art-film universe, the Berlin School appears to have crossed over into the mainstream almost by accident. Apart from slightly more direct plotting, there's nothing about Petzold's Phoenix that made it inherently more accessible than his earlier films. And now, Ade gives us Toni Erdmann, a generational comedy that, at its core, is about the inappropriate character and unavoidable embarrassment that accompanies "humor" between the generations.

Ade has long been the stealth…

Alur film ini rileks banget. Tidak ada grafik yang menonjol, mungkin cuma lontaran joke dari Winfried atau Toni sang ayah, tapi menurutku tidak membosankan.

Latar belakang hubungan Ines dan papanya, Toni, kurang dijelaskan kecuali kalau Ines terlalu sibuk pada pekerjaannya sebagai diplomat bisnis, dan papanya diurus anak pengganti—yang dibayar. Barangkali karena sedih anjingnya mati, Toni ujug-ujug nyusul anaknya ke Romania. Di sana Ines sedang repot pengalihdayaan perusahaan tambang, mungkin mirip Freeport gitu.

Dengan penampilan apa adanya, bahkan lusuh, Ines tidak malu mengajak papanya untuk lobi-lobi pada petinggi perusahaan. Toni beberapa mencoba melawak untuk mencairkan suasana, terlebih anaknya yang terkesan serius sebab mumet memikirkan pengalihdayaan perusahaan. Toni sesekali mengaku sebagai Dubes Jerman, mengaku sebagai rekan pengusaha top, pokoknya dia bertindak banyol…

Best thing: The female protagonist is forced into singing The Greatest Love of All by Whitney Houston by her weirdo dad who seems to be trying to sabotage her career. She completes the song and marches out. If the next scene with the dad was him on his knees asking for forgiveness I'd have felt better about it.

Worst thing: Any scene where the dad is trying to be funny, which is the majority of the film. I found him absolutely insufferable.

I don't really have much to say about this one. The film "Toni Erdmann" does nothing to refute that the stereotype that Germans aren't funny.

Perhaps we were supposed to erupt in embarrassed giggling at the nudity in…