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Schtonk! (1992)

Director: Helmut Dietl

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From Time Out Film Guide

This could have been funny - after all, the 1983 scandal of the forged Hitler diaries should be fertile ground for satire - but Dietl and producer Ulrich Limmer's script is so leadenly obvious that the film is almost wholly bereft of laughs. Focused on the swindling partnership of 'Professor' Fritz Knobel (Ochsenknecht) - a past master of forgery in the art and antiques field - and scoop-hungry hack Hermann Willié (George), the story seems intended to highlight the hypocrisy, corruption, and enduring Nazi sympathies rampant in certain sectors of modern German society. Fair enough; but hysterical scenes of nostalgia for the Führer, witless innuendoes, and repeated readings of ludicrously banal diary entries about flatulence don't exactly make for a light touch. Indeed, the whole movie is woefully heavy-handed, with grotesquely OTT performances, most of it looks ugly, and it never gets beyond that one-joke premise about hypocrisy, corruption, etc.

Author: GA 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide

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Cast & crew

Director: Helmut Dietl

Producer: Gunter Rohrbach, Helmut Dietl

Cast: Götz George, Uwe Ochsenknecht, Rolf Hoppe, Christiane Hörbiger, Dagmar Manzel, Veronica Ferres full cast

Genre(s): Comedy

Duration: 111 mins


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