TONI ERDMANN, the lauded German corporate daughter/prankster dad comedy (?) film by Maren Ade

Well, in the sense that human individuals' cultural moment is over, yeah.

How much do we learn about Dad's biographical backstory? (My memory's for shit.)

Saw the trailer, seeing this next week. My initial reaction is to crtl+f = Curb Your Enthusiasm. Totally getting those vibes out of it - which might explain a review or two I've seen of this.

I wish I loved all of this as much as I loved the Whitney moment.

Saw it again. Hüller's expressions and performance suggests she's not cut out for this line of work but will try to give a decent enough impersonation anyway. I'll admit that asking "why" (i.e. "Why does Ines allow Winfried to get away with this shit?") will get you nowhere, as many in my audience did; accept it as a fable.

Yeah otm, I think I'm gonna watch it again, definitely ruined the party scene for myself by asking 'why'.

Ines accepts it because all her colleagues accept it? When she brings her father to the ambassadors party, the ambassador is much more interested in his lousy jokes than he is in Ines. When he returns as Toni Erdmann, again people seem to accept this weirdo almost more than they accept each other. And the 'why' of this acceptance among the whole expatriate business community is the core of the film, imo.

So a lot of this was classic Curb Your Enthusiasm type stuff as far as the humour goes. I wonder if Ade has been asked about whether she likes the show. TE is so well-written (takes risks, doesn't overstay the running time) and performed and it is funny (yeah a lot of variance here from viewer to viewer) despite the contrived nature of the scenes. The 'why' this or that happens doesn't have to do w/anything. What's underdiscussed perhaps is the drama, and here there are enough powerful scenes - the father-daughter conflict-as-game works.

There is also some gentle ribbing of that kind of corporate life. I like that it doesn't all lead to questions on life/what are we doing - its skirted around, no more. The ending - where she gets a job with Mckinsey (LOL) - suggests that nothing has changed but the very last frame suggests that it won't always be like this. Really well done.

Manterruption: The Movie.

Did you really feel the corporate life stuff was "gentle ribbing?" My way into the movie was I understood explicitly as a rather savage but understated satire of modern corporate machinations/global capitalist workforce. ("Are you a human?" "You can have a nice life in Romania, really...") Buñuel via Iannucci maybe? Great, great movie - maybe the most potent/relevant to the 2016/17 political era.

Saw this in a packed house the other night, had a great time. Really appreciated how much it colored outside the lines, genre-wise, while leaving hints of the characters having complete lives outside the immediate story being told. Kept thinking how much would have been steamrollered out in a Hollywood comedy billed with the same basic premise, or even something like Big Fish (which I do like a lot, but is comparatively a really tidy and over-explained fable). In particular I liked how the two leads kept surprising me with more dimensions than I'd expected from the setup; life is messy and they don't undergo some total transformative change but they do go through *something*.

The big big comedy setpieces deliver 100% too, and pull off that great thing where what seems to be the main joke turns out to just be the thing that the next development shocks you by topping - as in the zipper-dress-doorbell-party-costume sequence, which brought down the house.

tbh my only problem was that some of the laughs passed me by. As a drama it did really hit me, the sadness was more overwhelming than any of the awkwardness.

It really really nailed certain kinds of sad moments in all their ordinariness - early on, after his first visit when he's packing up to leave in her sad and lifeless apartment - felt very real to me.

I saw this last night. I'm not sure what to make of it as a whole, but I did laugh a lot, and it was full of beautiful individual moments. One shot that stuck with me is Ines's view of the activity in the courtyard below, as she's looking out from the conference room following her presentation.

xp Likewise, Ade really understands the existential sadness of an unmade sofa bed. The nightclub scenes where Ines just looks catatonically depressed were just brutal.

and how awesome was it to hear 'Plainsong' over the credits!?

reminded me of Marie Antoinette

Did you really feel the corporate life stuff was "gentle ribbing?" My way into the movie was I understood explicitly as a rather savage but understated satire of modern corporate machinations/global capitalist workforce. ("Are you a human?" "You can have a nice life in Romania, really...") Buñuel via Iannucci maybe? Great, great movie - maybe the most potent/relevant to the 2016/17 political era.

― Badmotorfinger Debate Club (MFB), Monday, 6 February 2017 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Well that stuff wasn't too on the nose compared to a few other corporate critiques, say - in TE there weren't huge arguments. It settled for a few rude asides. The Are you Human? was followed by an apology a bit later. Due to the running time issues and feelings felt gently worked over.

Before TE Huller was in Requiem, which is great and also shares an excellent clubbing scene.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Requiem_%282006_film%29

Hüller was also in Amour Fou, which is the best film ever. Almost.

shit, that's right!

well ok then (via the avclub)

Jack Nicholson hasn’t been in a new movie since 2010, but apparently he’s found the project that will bring him out of semi-retirement: According to Variety, he’s going to play the lead in a remake of Germany’s critically-acclaimed and Oscar-nominated Toni Erdmann. Nicholson will star as the false-teeth-loving father (played by Peter Simonischek in the original) who begins to infiltrate his consultant daughter’s life as the irreverent and bewigged Toni.

Though it seems likely that there will be some significant changes to the film—which in its current form is three hours long and contains full frontal nudity—the good news is that Nicholson is passionate about Maren Ade’s original film. Variety reports that he brought the concept to Paramount, given that he was such a “huge fan.” Ade will also have something of a role: She’ll serve as an executive producer. Adam McKay, Will Ferrell, Jessica Elbaum are producing through their company Gloria Sanchez Productions, which aims to promote female voices.

Update: Variety now adds that Kristen Wiig has been cast as the no-nonsense daughter of Nicholson’s character.

uh

"the false-teeth-loving father" must have been the appositive that Jack used in his pitch to Griffin Mill.

"the no-nonsense daughter"

If Adam McKay directs I think this could be interesting...

nooooooooooooooooooo

Go back to retirement, Jack. Please.

Next up: Bryan Cranston in "I, Daniel Blake". Retitled "Daniel Blake" for the US markwt.

Wow this will be horrible. Thankfully it will flop and be forgotten immediately.

otoh Jack still has good taste in ci-ne-mah

liam gallagher IS casey affleck in 'manchester'

anyway, this film was unlike anything ever seen, and completely amazing

i loved how they slipped in and out of different languages mid-conversation- most of the movie takes place in Romania but we barely see any of it, besides the egg-painting/karaoke scene, the only real culture we see... all these sterile hotels, bars, ballrooms, conference rooms, modern apartments... disappointed middle aged women and their mentally adolescent male coworkers... the scene where Ines is with that wormy guy and she makes him jerk off onto a pastry, looking totally dead inside the whole time... and yeah, fwiw I thought of Nicholson watching this, but maybe because I saw the Shining the other day... good movie... didn't bowl me over, certainly didn't fly by, sorry it ain't no Curb... good nonetheless

hope nicholsons heart attack happens before this remake can

plz be nice

and don't come on the petitfour

my aim is true unlike that guy

sorry it ain't no Curb... good nonetheless

― flappy bird, Saturday, February 11, 2017 5:43 AM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yo I heard there are some film critic vacancies

http://www.vulture.com/2017/02/bill-murray-lost-toni-erdmann-remake-lead-to-jack-nicholson.html

My favourite film of 2016 and not a single minute is wasted in the nearly 3 hour running time. I love Ines' disintegration of her identity in the face of the corporate stronghold on her life. The nude party scene is key because she just wants to let go, but does not know how to navigate this. The scene reads as both an act of liberation and a "fuck it" moment. Love it.

eh i do like its uniqueness but i found this a lil wearying & not particularly funny; it is v well-done & i like a lot of the choices it makes as it progresses; it is also easy to imagine it remade, likely in lowest common denominator fashion but jack prob isnt unretiring just to cash in so idk maybe itd be decent

eh i do like its uniqueness but i found this a lil wearying & not particularly funny;

Agree, although Maren Ade has said she doesn't think it's a comedy. I just found the whole set up not convincing, even in an absurdist sense. I wouldn't disagree with anyone who loved it, it just wasn't really for me.

loved many things but perhaps most the fact that when the big emotional hug moment happens not only can you not see Dad's face but he's dressed up as a ball of hair! also excellent; the boss *coming back* to the party after he'd had some Dutch courage.

and yeah Plainsong omg.

Plainsong was the cherry on top

Finally played somewhere near me and is probably my favourite film in many years. Hilariously funny when it needs to be and the story of a father who can't quite find a way to engage with his emotionally distant daughter hits home hard.

Put me in the "I appreciate it, but I dunno if I actually like it" category, at least for now. One of the most frustrating viewing experiences I've had in a while, not because I was bored or unamused (I wasn't), but just because I never really felt like I could get a handle on it.

And while I get that there's a lot to digest here, I'm surprise no one itt mentioned the sex (?) scene.

Same, though I admit my contribution to the discussion would be "I can see why they cast that guy."

This is the most amazing book, btw, almost all of the costumes are mind blowing. http://www.charlesfreger.com/portfolio/wilder-mann/

http://www.charlesfreger.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/charles_freger_wilder_mann_2010-2011_0042_babugeri.jpg

Put me in the "I appreciate it, but I dunno if I actually like it" category, at least for now. One of the most frustrating viewing experiences I've had in a while, not because I was bored or unamused (I wasn't), but just because I never really felt like I could get a handle on it.

And while I get that there's a lot to digest here, I'm surprise no one itt mentioned the sex (?) scene.

My response on first viewing. I was tantalized enough to give it a second viewing – and that's when I came away thinking it was a great film.

Two days later, its already growing on me.

https://thefilmstage.com/news/lena-dunham-and-jenni-konner-to-go-from-girls-to-american-remake-of-toni-erdmann/

Girls creators Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner are in talks to scribe the film, which follows, in broad strokes, about a father trying to reconnect with his daughter. We reported recently that Jack Nicholson is set to play the father, with Kristen Wiig as the daughter. Additionally, producers include Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, which definitely suggests the piece will take on a different tone than the original.

ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh

lol lol lol lol lol

Just once would I like to be in talks to scribe something

ahahahaha

this is literally the perfect storm of an artistic travesty

I'd be in a talk and it'd be like

"Will you scribe this"

"Depends, who's helming it"

lol

Bleurgh.

Meantimes, I recommended this to my parents and they loved it. Knew they would.

Fuck

i wish i had seen this in theaters; i imagine the nude party brings down the house every time.
languorous, never indulgent; i think i liked it a lot? sure knows how to set up a punchline.
i will be avoiding an american remake like i have avoided no other american remake since oldboy

Jack Nicholson though... I'll probably see it for him.

Dunham out, Cholodenko in

http://www.indiewire.com/2018/05/toni-erdmann-remake-lena-dunham-lisa-cholodenko-1201967911/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

Thank Fucking God

Saw a note on another forum that Nicholson has left the remake as well.

I was skeptical of this happening

Apparently there has already been a Netflix knockoff with the recent Like Father, starring Kristen Bell and Kelsey Grammer.

To me, a remake seems futile. Hollywood would inevitably smooth out or eliminate everything that made Toni so special, while keeping the story's unremarkable premise.

agreed but to see Lena Dunham and Jack Nicholson doing it would've been incredible imo

They ought to collaborate on an original project.

please no, wasn't Hackman making his last film w/ ray Romano enough for you?

Honestly don't care about the remake, Nicholson & Dunham or not, but if Ade got some funds out of it for her next project then it's all good.

Watched this tonight for the first time since seeing it on the big screen thanks to it appearing on a 'top X comedies' list I read online. Happy to say it has not only held up for me in the intervening years, it's funnier than I ever remember it being.

one of my favorite movies of the past 10 years

yes, I only saw it once when it came out, but it really stuck with me, and I'm looking forward to seeing it again - but only with the right people

I think about this film at least once a week. I can't believe what it gets away with.

I remember liking it fine when it came out if not being quite as into it as everyone else, but I imagine upon a second viewing I could change my mind.

She also made The Forest for the Trees and Everyone Else, both amazing films

and each progressively better than the last. hoping for another one from her

I've seen this film and Everyone Else, and I may need to see them again at some point; I just read the plot summaries that were occasionally familiar but seemed emotionally remote from what I remembered of the actual experience of watching them.

I need to rewatch it, but I can say for sure I haven't laughed harder at anything in years than at the culminating scene at the end of the party.

Which is immediately followed by its most heart-tugging scene. The timing of the film's beats is perfect even though its rhythms are odd.

and then Plainsong

too good

"The Greatest Love of All" scene truly among the all-timers

So damned relieved the American version never got made

I feel like a lot of recent Euro comedies have been mean-spirited in a nihilstic, mansplainy kind of way, but this isn't like that at all, and I loved that.

yes, imagine Ruben Östlund directing this thing.

The petit fours scene alone ...