Unterwerfung

The film is based on one of the most successful stage performances in 2016/17. More than 70.000 enthousiatic spectators in Germany. Main actor Edgar Selge plays the french professor both solo on stage and in the exquisitely filmed scenes with an outstanding cast at his side. Great approach to one of the most controversially discussed novels of the last years.

I have read the book from Houellebecq and watched the movie this evening. It seems that this movie was not made for intellectual or art reasons but rather as an addendum for political discussions in german tv. I should add that these movies are financed by tax in advance, so they need not to have any commercial success and real art could be made (like the book) if only the makers were capable of that. There are two plays in this movie, the real "Francois" as in the book and a theater monologue where the same actor is storytelling parts of the book. The monologue portrais Francois as an idiot with no room for any interpretation (which is totally different from the book). He even looks like a clochard. Moreover it is a slapstic number with laughter from tape and gross overacting and talking to the audience, so any illusion of fiction is destroyed, if you watch this, you just hope that they soon switch to the second play. But this second play is just boring and uninspired. Even there the protagonist remains one dimensional.

Quite an achievement (story, form, acting) - shown in prime time on ARD, seen by many.

Theatre, comedy club and movie combined? Does that work? Does it make sense? Well one would argue that it can work. The comedic part has quite a lot of ... innuendos. Although they are not even really hidden, he plain talks about sexual situations. In Germany this was rated 12, which may feel weird to some people (especially American censors I reckon), but you have been warned now (if that is something you need to be warned about).

Overall it is decent, but it is not a great movie (imho). Depending on your affection for the story or attachment to the actor you may feel differently. Maybe even the provocations are what you like. Something obviously that bring notoriety ... and hate from some. It is critical and I applaud it for that (or at least I think it is) ... either way, a difficult movie mixture to watch