Zuckerbaby

The German 1984 comedy "Zuckerbaby" ("Sugarbaby") is the debut film of American director and German resident Percy Adlon who became famous with his following productions like like "Out of Rosenheim" (1987) and "Rosalie goes shopping" (1988), all of them featuring actress Marianne Saegebrecht. In this very sad, bleak but also very touching Bavarian comedy Saegebrecht plays a lonely, over-weight woman in the big city of Munich in her late thirties who works as an udertaker. Her life consist of her sad work, watching TV and eating loads of sweets and cakes. One day, she's falling in love with the voice of a subway driver (played by popular comedian Eisi Gulp), announcing the train stations. She stalking him until he falls in love with her, but their intense romance is only short-lived.

Together with Doris Doerrie's "Maenner" ("Men"), released the same year, "Zuckerbaby" was a blueprint for the very popular German movie genre of the "Beziehungskomoedien" (relationship comedies) in the eighties and nineties. It is shot in a typical colorful 1980's neon style, reflecting the bright lights and loneliness of modern life in the big cities. There are not much dialogues, and the real conversations only start with the beginning of the romance in the middle of the film. There is also a creepy, sad atmosphere of death, loneliness and the longing for love, but the movie works perfect as a human drama as well as a campy love comedy.

The actors are doing a great job, and the minimal harmonica tunes in the background are adding a great atmosphere to the picture. By the way, "Zuckerbaby" was a famous German Rock'n'Roll song from the fifties by Peter Kraus which is constantly played during the movie. If you want to watch one of the best German films of the eighties, "Zuckerbaby" is a good example to recommend.

A lonely and obese assistant mortician becomes infatuated with a handsome young subway driver and goes to great lengths to meet him in this oddly exuberant German import. It sounds like someone's idea of a bad joke, and likely would have become just that if ever remade for a dumbed-down American market. But the single-minded determination of the heroine's pursuit (and the apparent ease with which she wins her dream lover) keeps the film light and sunny, despite an unexpected tragic ending. Director Percy Adlon's fantastic, hallucinogenic color scheme is an acquired taste, however. It's either a pretentious art house mannerism, or a stroke of necessary style adding the perfect touch of unreality to an already far-fetched romance.

It's rather odd to start watching this film after reading the description of the main character as an "obese" woman, whose weight is supposed to define her. I mean, look at the film's poster. I suppose in 1985 it would have been unusual to see someone her size, but there are now people walking around who are twice her size, some of them even claiming to be "models", so it takes some steam out of the film's believability. In any case I was uncomfortable with the stalking aspect of the film...if the genders were reversed, this film would be suspense, not light comedy, so it's somehow funny if a woman stalks a man. Double standards? In any case, the film overall moves way too slowly to be interesting or engaging, scenes go on and on for far longer than they should. Boring.

Most of you will know Percy Adlon only for "Out of Rosenheim`, a film that is weird enough for the American taste. This movie is just as weird but there are fewer people involved. The story is quite simple to tell: A woman falls in love with the voice of an underground announcer and begins an affair with him.

The weird thing is how the story is directed. The colours and moods suggest that there is something mysterious and frightening going on behind the scenes but there isn't. The dialogue and the characters, especially Marianne Sägebrecht's are to take more seriously as the direction which seems to me somewhat playful, not in any way relevant for the development of the plot.

At least, this connection of story and direction brings some fascination. Directed by anyone else then Percy Adlon, "Zuckerbaby` would be not more than another of these unconventional love stories that have been modern since the seventies ("Harold and Maude`, "Spider and Rose`).

...still, there's something about this movie that is extremely appealing. The strange, offbeat colors underscore the fantasy nature of the story. For the first twenty minutes or so, I just watched with wide-eyed disbelief, expecting something atrocious to happen; then as the story developed I found myself drawn into an unexpectedly tender and touching, yet still fantastic, affair. When the film was over, I found myself reflecting on the characters' motivations and personalities. Trivial films don't have that effect.

Not trivial, then--but not wonderful, either, in any conventional way. Too specialized? I don't know. I plan to watch it again. It's worth that.

I gave it a vote of "seven."