Tutti lo vogliono

Based on the work of Ralf König -- the king (no pun intended) of the Teutonic queer comic strip -- Wortmann has made a film about the vicissitudes of coming out. Hand in hand, these two men from the country of "poets and thinkers" dare utter the words: "we are German, we are funny, and we are not ashamed!" In case you missed Wortmann's "Kleine Haie" (1992) -- a road film about three young men coming to grips with their thespianism -- here's proof that comedy is not merely a genre inflicted unilaterally by Hollywood on the rest of the world. Although this film does make concessions in order to be more palatable to its hetero viewership, it is clearly head-and-shoulders above recent Hollywood forays into the queer-exploitation venue such as the abysmal "In&Out" featuring Kevin Kline. After Fassbinder and Wenders it now looks like Germany has a commercially viable director with something worthwhile to say!

I saw this film in Germany when it came out as I was living there at the time. It was one of the funniest films I ever saw. Some years later I got a subtitled copy back in England and was shocked at how unfunny it was when translated. Which goes to show that humour often only works in the language it was created in.

That said, it is still a very unstylised view of culture clashes and a study of how far people are prepared to go when they aren't getting any sex. No one gets what they want by the end: the gay man doesn't get his straight friend; the straight man doesn't get his free-love lifestyle; the straight woman doesn't get her angry singledom.

I guess the moral is that you can take the human out of their sexuality, but you can't take the sexuality out of the human. Trite, but it reflects the title of the film, referring to a proverbial fish out of water.

This is yet another of those cases where Anglosaxon audiences might be tempted to think that it reenforces their prejudice that German humour is a no-show.

The problem can be described in one word: subtitles. I (a native German speaker) watched the UK release which is the original German version with English subtitles. The dialogue of this film is very funny and sharp; it is quite different from contemporary funny English dialogue which usually goes for funny one-liners, it has more in common with the humour you find in Oscar Wilde, for example in The Importance of Being Earnest. In other words, the characters are constantly trying to (literally) outwit each other whilst keeping the conversation afloat. This kind of dialogue is quite fashionable in certain parts of German culture, but at least in Britain it has become fairly rare. Consequently, the translators had a difficult job on their hands.

Occasionally my eyes wandered towards the subtitles to see what the translators did with the latest banter - and I was appalled with what I found. Yes, the translation was factually accurate, i.e. the content of what was said was accurately translated, but all the wit, the sharpness, the humour had gone. As already mentioned, this was a difficult translation job, but the translators did not try hard enough.

I saw this movie a few months ago with my German class, and we were rolling on the floors. At first American audiences might be a little "on edge" when they hear about what the guy does, where he stays, and that he has no idea about the people he is staying with in the beginning. But after getting into it, you see that what he goes through is just so funny, and you can't believe that he didn't see it coming. Plus, the Bull Power is all the more reason to go see, or rent, the movie. I mean I can't believe that they didn't come up with this type of stuff in the U.S. I know a lot of people who would go out and buy it right now if they had the chance. My friends and I now have a fun time talking/joking with our teacher about the movie, and we randomly bring Red Bull energy drinks to class, just to make him laugh. It's a great movie, and everyone should see it. I loved it.

This film is about a man's life turning upside down after spending the night in a gay man's house.

This film is so funny! The acting is great, the two lead characters, Axel and Norbert are outstanding. Axel is a man who cannot say no to temptation. Norbert, is a secret admirer of Axel. He is cute and hilarious. Axel's wife, Doro, accidentally discovers her husband befriending Norbert. One coincidence after another, she becomes convinced of her husband's homosexuality.

The plot is also very good. Though I can only catch German isolated phrases here and there, I still find the film entertaining. I laughed out loud many times. The sets are also decorated nicely, each of the apartments are set up so that they really feel like a home sweet home. Apart from being entertaining, it also promotes tolerance and diversity.