Die Friseuse

If you are looking for a charming movie for grownups, DIE FRISEUSE (The Hairdresser) is well watching. Netflix has it and I don't know who else but it is worth looking for it. It touches just about every aspect of human life and whoever says Germans do not have a sense of humor hasn't seen this movie. Doris Dörrie took Laila Stieler's script, cast Gabriela Maria Schmeide as Kathi and created a wonderful film worth seeing more than once. These filmmakers were not afraid to deal with love, sexuality, bigotry, discrimination and racism in a real and compelling way. I was rooting for Kathi to succeed and the more she fell or was pushed down the more I rooted for her as she got up to go at it again. Might be too deep for the shallowness of some audiences but for me it was also a slap in the face to Hollywood conventions as if Doris Dorrie was trying to tell them, "This is how you make a movie". I love films that have a universal theme of humanity and that are told through a realistic dead pan sort of humor. This movie is set in Germany but it deals with the same issues most face every day, whether you're in Rome, East Los Angeles, Taipei, or London. It might help if you know a little bit of the culture and history of Germany before and after the Berlin wall fell to catch some of the subtle nuances sprinkler throughout but it is not necessary to enjoy this gem.

The hairdresser, Kathi, is talking to a dowdy customer in the opening scene. She tries to persuade the woman to let her cut and color her hair in a rejuvenating style. Kathi is so warm and appealing that the customer opens up to her and they get into deep conversation. This scene enchanted me, Kathi has a great personality, and the actress portrays a truly human character, much more real that the stereotypes that commonly seen on the screen. There are interesting insights (for US viewers)into the welfare system in Germany. I enjoyed the humor, although not able to speak German. I don't like reading subtitles usually but this story really got to me. I needed to find out what happened next, would Kathi get her Beauty Shop running in the end, and what about the Vietnamese? Inspiring, feminist and entertaining.

I don't understand why some of the reviewers go on about this movie not being funny - this clearly goes to show that they don't get it as it is NOT meant to be funny!! People who don't understand German will not understand this movie as the subtitles do not do it justice at all - non German native speakers should therefore refrain from writing reviews! This is a very good movie about the human condition; it shows how drab and difficult life is, esp. when you live in East Berlin and don't look like Claudia Schiffer (which is most of us!) Of course, if you're into Hollywood movies, you will be disappointed. In that case, I recommend you don't watch this movie.

I went into this movie completely open minded in the mood for a comedy. If you find unbelievable things like a fat woman needing a rope to get out of bed funny this movie may be for you. Although I suppose that could have been for her MS too not at all clear /neither is funny.

Also early on it became obvious that they were using doubles for the nude scenes and ridiculous stuffing under the main actress's dress for the face scenes (seeing an implausible lumpy looking fat person in every other frame was supposed to be hilarious?)

Anyway about half way through I realized it was a complete dud about the time the multicultural feel good stuff started to spin. The old man at the nursing home masturbating didn't help things along either---how riotously humorous eh?

This thing is as boring and colorless as the winter sky in Northern Europe--at least as depicted in this movie. Germany is one my favorite countries this movie makes Berlin look like some sort of future dystopia.

The scenery was so drab and dreary I can't even give it my usual extra star for a foreign venue.

Even if you look at this thing as a character study movie rather than a comedy what character do we have? A woman who thinks a positive attitude changes every bad thing that can happen? It flops. Dull and boring like the character's life. The staged fake feel good PC multicultural stuff is like adding a root canal to this thing.

Achtung! Avoid!!!!

An ex-East Berliner struggles with obesity and discrimination in capitalist unified Berlin. That's the basic idea. It is more of a time-capsule film than a plot-driven film. A semblance of tension is maintained by repeated applications of the what- could-possibly-go-wrong-next motif.

Is it funny? I think only a German might find it funny. I can well understand non- Germans finding it merely superficial and tedious. The film would have benefited from editing (several scenes are superfluous and could have been dropped--for example, the mysterious postal delivery). The lead, Gabriela Maria Schmeide, gives a fine and gutsy performance.

The theme of ex-East Germans suddenly confronted with unified Germany was done better in Good Bye Lenin.

For Germanic humor, I recommend Die Herbstzeitlosen aka Late Bloomers (which is actually Swiss, not German).