Zur Sache Schätzchen

Since I last saw this movie (on TV), some years have gone by. While other people in other places tried to set up a student´s revolution, May Spils and Werner Enke decided to make a little movie in the summer-lit Munich. There, a sympathetic good-for-nothing is hanging about and constantly producing one-line jokes. Of course, a girl passes by as well... Not much of a story, but this film seems to have been made at the right time to catch some weightless moments in the sixties. The characters move about aimlessly, but with the certainty that life is precisely here and now. A not-at-all typical german movie, I like this one very much, especially for its complete lack of ambition and the ease it radiates, which now has a touch of nostalgia. Sometimes, fortunately, film can catch and preserve the taste of a moment. In German, "zur Sache, Schätzchen" has become a saying.

To contradict an earlier user comment, this movie is to me pretty much the opposite of "tedious avant-garde". I mean it's avant-garde in the good sense -- innovative but without foot-stepping some dogma that has been decreed by the Cahiers du cinéma -- and it certainly isn't tedious. Spils and Enke (the director and the male hero of the movie, who made this movie as a real-life couple) have done an exceptional, almost documentarian, job of capturing the mood of the times by condensing it into several outstanding characters.

If you have become used to the established Hollywood version of "The Sixties", where it's the Fifties in one scene, and then, bang!, the Sixties, cue "Turn! Turn! Turn!" from The Byrds and roll out the flowery shirts and nappy hairdos, then you're in for a surprise. It's the revolution, all right, but our heroes wear long-sleeved buttoned shirts, properly combed hair, the Vietnam war seems to be a hundred years in the offing, and the banjo-whistely soundtrack would have made Jimi Hendrix run for his tour bus.

Munich-Schwabing, where most of this movie was shot, had been Germany's political hotbed for some years, and in 1967 "the action" had just moved on to other cities. You can smell a whiff of the eternal Bavarian revolutionary credo in the air: "A bissl was geht allerwei!" -- which may be instantly congenial but is, unfortunately, completely untranslatable.

By the way, my favorite scenes are when the different characters enter the elevator and meet its inhabitant, an obscure studenty character who apparently lives there, and spends his time reading, writing, drinking coffee and smoking. Slightly embarrassed and nervous glances are exchanged, no explanation is ever given.

I had heard so much about this production that I decided to purchase it at a local charity auction. Now, after over five months, I finally got to watch it. Alas, I have to conclude: Bullshit! Don't expect the slightest trace of any sort of coherent dramaturgy, let alone interesting characters. All you get to see is a bunch of pseudo-provoking, self-congratulatory youngsters stumbling through this tedious flick while posing as unbelievable, wannabe-frivolous good-for-nothings. In case you're attracted to "Gib Gas, ich will Spass" featuring German pop star Nena, go ahead and give it a try. Otherwise, hit your favorite bar and meet your friends over a beer.