Nur über meine Leiche

The camera Fred Wischnewski (Christoph M. Ohrt) of a matchmaker agency owned by his estranged wife Charlotte (Ulrike Folkerts) is a womanizer, having affairs with many clients. After an argument with Fred, Charlotte asks him to drive to the house of her faithful client Rita Hauser (Katja Riemann), who decided to not renewal her contract with the agency after overhearing a terrible comment of Fred about her, and convince Rita to stay working with the agency. However, Charlotte, who is also a safari hunter, has hired a hitman (Udo Kierr) to kill Fred on the road. Fred is shot dead but convinces Death (David Michael Williamson) to give him a second chance to receive his life back. Death proposes that he resolves the problem with three brokenhearted women in three days. His mother, who died five years ago, would return to tell him who the women are. Fred returns in Rita's basement and she also decides to help him. But the tasks are not easy and Charlotte will be a great problem to him.

"Nur über meine Leiche", a.k.a. "Over My Dead Boy", is a very funny and nonsense German comedy awarded in minor festivals. The original screenplay is hilarious, with a witty humor and many interesting characters. The poor Gerda (Claudia Schlenger), always accidentally hit by objects. The talkative Frosch (Felix Eitner) with his useless great sense of observation. The gorgeous and mute Lisa (Julia Brendler). But the two paramedics (Klaus Stiglmeier and Joseph Hannesschläger) and Fred's mother steals the movie. Unfortunately this film was only released on VHS in Brazil). My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Até Que a Morte Não Nos Separe" ("Till Death Does Not Do Us Apart")

Germans are absolutely not funny. I know for I come from Germany. Germans cannot make movies fit for cinema - at least nobody did after Herzog and Fassbinder - because they cannot think "big" enough. Directors who can - Petersen or Emmerich - have emigrated to Hollywood already.

So what could you expect of a German fantasy comedy movie ? See, that's exactly what I expected... and I was surprised how good this film was. Fun, fantasy, a nearly surrealistic story and - not one of the virtues of German productions - good acting by main characters Ohrt and Riemann, the latter I believe to be one of the few Germans to rightfully deserve the title "actress". Just watch her in "Die Apothekerin" where she plays a black widow killing her lovers and husbands and still remains kind of funny and pleasantly.

One of the most entertaining German comedies ... ever !

After reading some of the reviews about German movies, I wasn't especially thrilled to find out that my girlfriend had chosen a German comedy for our video night. All the more pleasantly surprised I was after having watched "Over my dead body".

Unexpected twists, great use of visual effects (especially considering it was a low budget debut), great actors, remarkable storytelling and the mother reincarnated as a turkey, hilarious!

Was this really a German flick?

I can only recommend this movie to anyone who thinks Central European films are all intellect and no fun. This one gets an eight out of ten rating.

Being honest - one of the worst films ever produced in Germany. The plot is set up around a couple of pretty strange and unrealistic characters, portrayed by exceptionally weak actors. Hard to believe that Götz Otto (Stamper in 007-Tomorrow never dies) has taken a part in it and Katja Riemann's talent was absolutely wasted in this piece of celluloid-junk. With a lot of goodwill one might put it down as a modern sort of fairy tale asking mankind to be good to each other with certain exceptions (The wife, in this particular case) which weakens up the moral. One thing might be said in favour of the movie. It provided a few welcome laughs with David Michael Williamson as Death and the turkey appearing as the mother. But now let us draw the veil of forgetting over this dark hour of German filmmaking and hope for a brighter future.

The only thing this movie has in common with the standard German comedy is the fact that Katja Riemann is in it. Apart from this, it is really a unique trait - with very macabre and sometimes outright silly humor. Director Rainer Matsutani is better known for the one episode he did for the original Lexx series (the movie series, not the TV series that followed) and his taste for the fantastic and bizarre clearly shows in this black comedy, too. Fred is such a disgusting character that one is almost tempted to genuinely like him, as is his horrible wife Charlotte. If you're looking for an unusual German production, give this one a try (unless you're afraid of turkeys, of course...)